Easter Week - Western Church

Western Church

In the Latin Rite of Catholicism, Anglican and other Western churches, Easter Week is the week beginning with the Christian feast of Easter and ending a week later on Easter Saturday. The term is sometimes inaccurately used to mean the week before Easter, which is properly known as Holy Week, and particularly confusing in this context is the secular usage of the term Easter Saturday to refer to the day known liturgically as Holy Saturday or Easter Eve (the day before Easter), rather than the Saturday following Easter.

While the first day of Easter Week is called Easter Day or Easter Sunday, the other days in the week may be designated according to any of the following patterns: (1) Monday of Easter Week (e.g. in the Church of England's Common Worship calendar), (2) Monday in Easter Week (e.g. in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer calendar), or (3) Easter Monday. In former years, Easter, as the most important celebration in Christianity, was observed for a week, and it still is celebrated in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church and Anglicanism with an octave. The Te Deum is sung at the conclusion of Matins/Office of Readings and the Gloria in excelsis Deo is sung at Mass each day of the Octave. The paschal sequence, Victimae Paschali Laudes, may be sung before the Gospel reading on each of these days as well and the gospel readings for each of these days is a scriptural account of the resurrection of Christ (Monday--Matthew 28:8-15; Tuesday--John 20:11-18; Wednesday--Luke 24:13-35; Thursday--Luke 24:35-48; Friday--John 21:1-14; Saturday--Mark 16:9-15).

Owing to modern working patterns, many Easter celebrations now occur only on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (the latter known in some places, especially those under Polish and Bohemian influence, as "Dyngus Day"). Easter Tuesday is a public holiday in Tasmania. Easter Monday is also a national holiday in the Scandinavian countries which have Lutheran state churches.