Pentecost

The Christian Festival of Pentecost is based on the incident recounted in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit cam upon the Christian disciples gathered in the upper room at Jerusalem seven weeks after Easter. The appearance was made known by a sound "like the rush of a mighty wind" and by a light in the form of tongues "as of fire, distributed and resting on each of them" (Acts 2:1-3).

The Jewish Pentecost which the disciples were celebrating at the time was the Feast of Weeks, a thanksgiving for the first fruits of the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22). Later Christians in their worship for this week also remembered, by reading Number 11:24-30, the incident of the Spirit resting upon the seventy elder of Israel when they were in the wilderness with Moses.

Symbols appropriate to Pentecost are those indicating the appearance of God and the Holy Spirit. Chief among these is the dove. Red is the liturgical color used for the Day of Pentecost and it symbolizes the flames of fire seen at the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in Jerusalem.