With Easter celebrations behind us, the Catholic Church is marking the start of the Easter season, which runs 50 days until Pentecost.

“Let us proclaim ‘He is Risen’ throughout this Octave and for the entire Easter season of 50 days until Pentecost,” Tyler Bishop Joseph Strickland said in an April 10 tweet, marking the start of the longest season in the liturgical calendar. “Easter is not just a day but Jesus’s Resurrection ushers in a New Day for all humanity for all time. Let us strive to live in the Light of His Resurrection always!” 

The Easter season begins with a week of festivities during the Easter Octave, an eight-day period that runs through Divine Mercy Sunday, according to the National Catholic Register. 

The Lenten fast, which lasts for 40 days (excluding Sundays), pales in comparison to the 50-day Easter season, a testament to its enduring nature. Although Jesus declared that fasting would eventually fade away, the Great Feast of the Lamb, signifying eternity, would remain. After Jesus' resurrection, he spent 40 days on earth before ascending, and another 10 days passed before the Day of Pentecost arrived, according to the Anglican Compass. 

The Pentecost marks the day that the Holy Spirit is said to have descended upon the apostles as they were gathered around Mary, the mother of God. Pentecost will fall on May 28 this year, which is the seventh Sunday after Easter.

"As Jesus was raised from the dead, we walk with confidence, in what St. Paul called ‘newness of life,’ following in Jesus’ footsteps, our lives now an adventure destined for heaven and the love that never ends," José Gomez, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, wrote in an article for the Angelus newsletter. "These next 50 days, from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, are meant to be lived as one long feast, a ‘great Sunday,’ as the Church Father St. Athanasius put it.”