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The Easter Season begins on Easter Sunday and extends to Pentecost Sunday, a fifty-day celebration of the risen Christ. On Easter Sunday the church tells the story of the empty tomb and the charge by the messenger to “go and tell.” For the next several weeks Christians tell and retell stories of Jesus’ first followers who encountered him against all hope. Amidst their doubt, fear, and longing, suddenly he was present--risen from the dead, and encountering them in a locked room, by the lakeshore, on the road to Emmaus.
The church combines these resurrection stories with stories from Acts of the Apostles: the efforts of the first Christian communities to spread the gospel through the world.
The early church celebrated these weeks after Easter and gave them the name Mystagogia. They instructed newly baptized Christians during this time, and encouraged them to explore, in their new community, the joyful mystery of the encounter of the risen Christ with their lives.
Today the church wears celebratory colors during Eastertide; in western cultures this has often been white and gold. As we celebrate, we learn again to recognize the risen Jesus where he is to be found: in our midst, in our stories, in the breaking of the bread--and as we faithfully bear witness to the reality of Christ’s presence to the world.
Gift ideas from The Pilgrim Press Books for the season of Easter
United Church of Christ resources and The Pilgrim Press team up to provide wonderful gift ideas for the season. | 
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