The solemnity of Easter, like that of Christmas, enjoys an octave and hence has its celebration extended over a full eight days. The Easter Season, though, stretches through Ascension to Whitsunday and constitutes fifty days of continuous festivity. The Paschal Candle burns throughout Eastertide and commemorates the time when the risen Lord manifested Himself to His disciples, culminating in His Ascension into heaven and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles at Pentecost.

Flowers return to the Altar, the organ peals, and the finest gold vestments and antependia shimmer in the Sacred Liturgy of the Easter Season. Alleluia resounds.

With Easter, we shift to Penitential Rite A (just before the Kyrie) until Corpus Christi, when we return to Penitential Rite B for the rest of the year.

Until Pentecost and except on Rogation Sunday, the principal Sunday Mass after Easter Day begins with the asperges as the People are sprinkled with Holy Water to the singing of the Vidi aquam.

The Paschal Candle should be lit before any other candle and extinguished last at all Masses, even weekday Masses, until Pentecost.

The ringing of the bells is in the festive mode through the Easter Octave and returns to normal after the Second Sunday of Easter.

From Easter until the evening of Pentecost, the Regina Coeli is recited at noon instead of the Angelus.

See Ritual Notes for the following feasts and solemnities: