Whitsun (alsoWhitsunday orWhit Sunday) is the name used in Britain,[1] and other countries amongAnglicans andMethodists,[2] for the Christian holy day ofPentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday afterEaster and commemorates the descent of theHoly Spirit uponJesus' disciples (as described inActs 2).Whitsuntide, the week following Whitsunday, was one of three holiday weeks for the medievalvillein;[3] on mostmanors he was free from service on the lord'sdemesne this week, which marked a pause in the agricultural year.[4]Whit Monday, the day after Whitsun, remained a holiday in Britain until 1971[5] when, with effect from 1972, the ruling Conservative Government decided to permanently replace it, following a five-year trial period, with aSpring Bank Holiday on the last Monday in May.Whit had been the occasion for many varied forms of celebration, and was of significant cultural importance. It was a custom for children to receive a new set of clothes, even among the poorest families, a tradition which continued well into the 20th century.[6][7]
In theNorth West of England, church and chapel parades calledwhit walks still take place at this time (sometimes onWhit Friday, the Friday after Whitsun).[8] Typically, the parades include brass bands and choirs; girls attending are dressed in white. Traditionally, Whit fairs (sometimes calledWhitsun ales[9]) took place. Other customs, such asMorris dancing, were associated with Whitsun, although in most cases they have been transferred to the Spring bank holiday.Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, has its own Whitsun tradition of singing a unique song around the village before and on Whit Sunday itself.[10]
The name is a contraction of "White Sunday", attested in "the Holy Ghost, whom thou didst send on Whit-sunday"[11] in theOld Englishhomilies, and parallel to the mention ofhwitmonedei in the early 13th-centuryAncrene Riwle.[12]Walter William Skeat noted that theAnglo-Saxon word also appears in Icelandichvitasunnu-dagr, but that in English the feast was calledPentecoste until after theNorman Conquest, whenwhite (hwitte) began to be confused withwit or understanding.[13] According to one interpretation, the name derives from the white garments worn bycatechumens, those expecting to bebaptised on that Sunday.[14] Moreover,in England white vestments, rather than the more usual red, were traditional for the day and itsoctave.[citation needed] A different tradition is that of the young women of the parish all coming to church or chapel in new white dresses on that day. However, Augustinian canonJohn Mirk (c. 1382–1414), ofLilleshall Abbey, Shropshire, had another interpretation:
Goode men and woymen, as ȝe knowen wele all, þys day ys called Whitsonday, for bycause þat þe Holy Gost as þys day broȝt wyt and wysdome ynto all Cristes dyscyples. ['Good men and women, as you all well know, this day is called Whitsunday, because the Holy Ghost on this day brought wit and wisdom to all Christ's disciples.'][15]
Thus, he thought the root of the word was "wit" (formerly spelt "wyt" or "wytte") and Pentecost was so-called to signify the outpouring of the wisdom of the Holy Ghost on Christ's disciples.[16]
The following day isWhit Monday, a name coined to supersede the formMonday in Whitsun-week used byJohn Wycliffe and others. The week following Whit Sunday is known as "Whitsuntide" or "Whit week".[17]
As the first holiday of the summer, Whitsun was one of the favourite times in the traditional calendar, and Whit Sunday, or the following week, was a time for celebration. This took the form of fêtes, fairs, pageants and parades, withWhitsun ales andMorris dancing in the south of England andWhit walks,Club Days andwakes in the north.[18] A poster advertising the Whitsun festivities atSunbury, Middlesex in 1778 listed the following attractions:
On Whit Monday, in the morning, will be a punting match...The first boat that comes in to receive a guinea ...In the afternoon a gold-laced hat, worth 30s. to be cudgell'd for... On Whit Tuesday, in the morning, a fine Holland smock and ribbons, to be run for by girls and young women. And in the afternoon six pairs of buckskin gloves to be wrestled for.[18]
InManchester during the 17th century, the nearbyKersal Moor Whit races were the great event of the year. Large numbers of people turned the area into a giant fairground for several days.[19] With the coming of industrialisation, it became convenient to close down whole towns for a week in order to clean and maintain the machinery in the mills and factories. The week of closure, orwakes week, was often held at Whitsuntide. A report in John Harlan and T.T. Wilkinson'sLancashire Folk lore (1882) reads:
It is customary for the cotton mills etc., to close for Whitsuntide week to give the hands a holiday; the men going to the races etc. and the women visiting Manchester on Whit-Saturday, thronging the markets, the Royal Exchange and the Infirmary Esplanade, and other public places: And gazing in at the shop windows, whence this day is usually called 'Gaping Sunday'.[18]
Whit Monday was officially recognised as abank holiday in the UK in 1871 and was observed for 100 years, but it lost this status in 1972 when the fixed Spring Bank Holiday was created.[5]
1785:Samuel Johnson records in hisPrayers and Meditations that "Between Easter and Whitsun-tide [1773 . . . he] attempted to learn the Low Dutch language."James Boswell reproduces the remark in hisLife of Samuel Johnson (1791).
1787:The Whitsun Donative was an anonymous satirical pamphlet inspired bySterne'sTristram Shandy.
1844: Whitsun is central to religious life in Swiss authorJeremias Gotthelf's novelMoney and Spirit.
1875: Charles Dickens's posthumous collectionThe Uncommercial Traveller includes (in Chapter 21) a reflection on "one day in the Whitsun week last past".
1875: InAnthony Trollope's bookThe Way We Live Now many of the aristocrats leave London and travel to their country estates, or those of their acquaintances, for the week of Whitsuntide.
1922: James Joyce's novelUlysses contains four references to Whit Monday.Leopold Bloom is stung by a bee on Whitmonday, 23 May 1904.
1932:Agatha Christie's short story "Ingots of Gold" references Whitsuntide and Whit Monday as clues in solving the crime.
1936: InGladys Mitchell'sMrs Bradley detective novelDead Men's Morris (Michael Joseph, 1936, reprinted 1986) the story of the murders of anOxfordshire solicitor and his rival, a landowner, begins on Christmas Eve, and reaches its climax with aMorris dance performance on Whit-Monday.
1943:Kathleen Raine's poem "Whitsuntide 1942" provides the title for her first poetry collection,Stone and Flower, by referencing 'the world / of stone and flower that compels my thought... what nerve have I, beloved Lord, what sense / to know the holy presence of my God?'
1950: The autobiographical novelA Voice Through a Cloud byDenton Welch concerns the author's near-fatal bike accident and its aftermath, which occurred on a Whitsun holiday.
2010: InWashington: A Life, a 2010 biography byRon Chernow,George Washington is said to have included a drinking allowance in an employment contract with one of his gardeners, allowing "two dollars at Whitsuntide to be drunk four days and four nights" (p. 135).
2011: Several episodes in author Jeff Wheeler'sMuirwood Trilogy revolve around Whitsunday and its significance and impact on Muirwood's inhabitants.
2022: Whitsun is mentioned inGillian McAllister'sWrong Place Wrong Time.
