Why Pentecost Should Be Celebrated for a Week (i.e., the Pentecost Octave)

The abolition of this ancient observance is one of countless indications of just how absent the Holy Spirit was from the liturgical reform

So important was the number 8 in Christian theology that many church structures show an eightfold pattern, like this dome

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AN “OCTAVE” is an eight-day period in which the Church—not content to remember some great mystery only on a single day—extends her joyful celebration for the period of a full week, with a culminating remembrance on the eighth or octave day.

The concept of the eighth day is important in Christian theology. The eighth, being one more beyond the seven-day week that represents the order of creation, symbolizes the eternal life reached after passing through this earthly life. In the Jewish reckoning, in which the Sabbath is the seventh day, Sunday—the day of Our Lord’s resurrection from the dead—can be seen as both the first day (the new creation of light) and the eighth day (the gateway to eternity). Running through a week like this—the week of creation that culminates in God’s rest, and beyond it to the day of the resurrection—symbolizes the fullness of the Church’s rejoicing (it is for all time) and the eternal joy of heaven.

The Church Fathers and the medieval theologians also saw in the mathematical structure of music a natural sign: the octave, or eighth note, is, in a way, both the same note as the lower octave (a C is a C), and yet a different note (a lower C is not a higher C), so that we have the sense of both homecoming and making progress. Our earthly pilgrimage toward heaven is bringing us to the perfection and joy for which we were created in the beginning. Like passing through the notes of a scale to reach the octave, we celebrate the feast day by day to arrive at the place from which we began, in a “virtuous circle.” Life is not meaningless repetition or equally meaningless variety, but ordered steps with directionality.