There are two things I like to talk about when blogging. I like to share my travels, and I like interesting holidays. I’m combining those two topics in today’s post.
Yesterday was Pentecost, and today is Pentecost Monday. Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter. Pentecost comes from the Greek word pentếkosta, which means fiftieth day. It is a Jewish celebration sometimes called the Feast of Weeks. Among other things, this festival celebrates the giving or the Torah. So why am I talking about Pentecost and Pentecost Monday?
Often the holidays I talk about are silly, but Pentecost is a serious time, although a time of celebration for the Jews. After Jesus rose from the dead, his followers met together on the day of Pentecost. This is how Luke records the event in the Book of Acts.
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” Acts 2:1-4 NRSV
If you go on to read more of the account, you find that Peter preached about Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, and three thousand people believed in Jesus and were baptized that day. Here is a fresco depicting the tongues of fire that rested on the disciples.
Pentecost fresco in parish church of the Holy Trinity in Krasic, Croatia
I had often heard of Pentecost in church and when reading this passage from the Book of Acts, but I had never heard of Pentecost Monday until we visited France over thirty-five years ago. That was in the days before the euro and access to foreign ATMs. You had to exchange your money in every new European country you entered. So when we arrived in Lyon, France, from Switzerland, we immediately looked for a bank in order to exchange our Swiss francs for French francs. The bank was closed because it was Pentecost Monday, a public holiday in France. We managed to get by for the day without exchanging our money.
Here are a few faded photos from that trip in the days before digital photography. The first photo is from our visit to Paris. That’s me, the only person facing the camera. The second photo is of me sitting on the edge of a fountain in Lyon. I’m completely surprised that I’m in the photos because I’m usually the one behind the camera.
This next photo is of Lyon taken from a hill above the city. There are very few tall buildings, and there are ancient Roman ruins. Notice that one tall building. That was our hotel. It seemed odd that we were staying in the tallest building in that city. The concierge at the hotel sent us to this tiny little town about forty-five miles away, where my hubby had a seven course meal, and I had a five course meal. We ate for three hours, and the only person in the restaurant who could speak enough English to take our order was the chef. Needless to say, it was an unforgettable evening.
Have you ever had a travel surprise or learned of a new holiday while traveling? Have you ever heard of Pentecost Monday?
I’ll be giving away an e-book copy of the first book in my Dalton Brothers series, FOUR LITTLE BLESSINGS, to one person who leaves a comment.
Merrillee Whren is an award-winning author who writes inspirational romance. She is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award for best inspirational romance manuscript presented by Romance Writers of America. She has also been the recipient of the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of thirty plus years, and has two grown daughters. She has lived in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Florida but now makes her home in the Arizona desert. When she’s not writing, she spends her free time playing tennis or walking while she does the plotting for her novels.
Blessings this Pentecost Monday, Merrillee! Thanks for the beautiful blog about Pentecost. I was born in Berlin on Pentecost Sunday a few decades ago. In Germany today is Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday, a holiday. On our first trip to Germany in 1984, I remember having to exchange money in each country and being stopped at every border. During that 1980s banks closed every day for a two hour lunch break. Germans at the time at their hot main meal at noon. In 1996 I wanted to visit the famous Greek and Middle Eastern antiquities Pergamonmuseum only to discover it was closed on Mondays. Really – do they need a whole day to dust, was my question to my Berlin cousins. As Mark Twain said in 1869 in his travel book Innocents Abroad, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” As a German American and a German teacher, regardless how well prepared I have been in my world travels (9 foreign countries) something always catches me off guard. Best wishes.
Hi Merrilee, thanks for sharing about Pentecost Monday. Today we celebrated the Queen’s Birthday, so we had a long weekend- not quite in the same league as Pentecost Monday!!
Love the photos- and that meal sounds intense!
Blessings:)
I love that quote from Mark Twain Renate, thanks for sharing:)
Thanks Wemble. As an American Lit teacher, one of my students who became a colleague and I visited Mark Twain’s home town of Hannibal, Missouri and took two steamboat cruise on the Mississippi River. In 2002 I visited Heidelberg Castle. Mark Twain was a guest professor in Heidelberg for six months and wrote the essay “The Awful German Language” and the town’s name gave him the inspiration for the title Huckleberry Finn. The castle had an exhibit about Mark Twain’s time there. That is when I read his travel logs Tramp Abroad and Innocents Abroad. I reread Tramp Abroad before my study trip to Switzerland in 2007. His description of Lion Monument in Lucern was spot even more than a century later – “that indescribable something, which makes the Lion of Lucern the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.” Enjoy your holiday.
Renate, travel definitely broadens are view of the world, especially in the area of food. I forgot about stopping at every border to show our passports. In Europe now, it’s like going from state to state here.
Wemble, yes I heard about the celebration of the Queen’s birthday in Australia yesterday on the news. We were actually in London one year during the celebration of the Queen’s birthday. There was a big parade.
I’ve never heard of Pentecost Monday, but maybe it should catch on over here!! I can’t imagine a five course, or seven course, dinner! I’m sure I’d remember that!! I have had a three course breakfast!! Love the pics!!
what a wonderful post today. I do know about Pentecost. Most of our vacations have been fun and uneventful. Of course once we went down to Florida when the kids were young, and were told to check in the toilets before we sit down, because poisonous frogs would go up the toilets. And at the same place we were all sitting around the table eating breakfast looking out the sliding glass doors when this humongous crocodile walks right next to the door. Boy, when they are not in a hurry, they can be very slow. What a sight though. After seeing that the kids didn’t want to go play outside. I don’t blame them. And when we went to leave, there were a couple crocodiles on a neighbors yard just soaking up the sun. Needless to say we have not gone back.
I’ve never heard of Pentecost Monday before that I remember. Thanks for the informative post. You gals always have me learning something new.
Thank you for sharing. I haven’t traveled to experience anything like that.
Sherri, glad to add to your knowledge. It was definitely something new to me, too.
Trudy, we had a whole tray of petite fours. We couldn’t eat them all.
Lori, I would call seeing a crocodile pretty eventful. When we lived in Florida, we would see gators from time to time.
Lelia, you’re welcome. Sometimes you don’t have to go far away from home to find out something new.
I’ve never heard of Pentecost Monday. I just learned in church yesterday that Pentecost means 50. I had never heard that before either.
On our honeymoon on a French speaking island we had to order in my very limited French. I always got something I could translate. My husband prayed and then pointed to something on the menu. His was always better!! There were always cats in the restaurants and they responded to his even more limited French. It was funny.
Diana, that same thing happened with my husband. He would always get the better meal. I wound up ordering pigeon at that French restaurant. It kind of tasted like pheasant.