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Whitsunday   Listen
noun
Whitsunday  n.  
1.
(Eccl.) The seventh Sunday, and the fiftieth day, after Easter; a festival of the church in commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost; Pentecost; so called, it is said, because, in the primitive church, those who had been newly baptized appeared at church between Easter and Pentecost in white garments.
2.
(Scots Law) See the Note under Term, n., 12.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Whitsunday" Quotes from Famous Books



... How perplexing are many of the Church's most familiar terms, and terms the oftenest in the mouth of her children; thus her 'Ember' days; her 'Collects'; [Footnote: Freeman, Principles of Divine Service, vol. i. p. 145.] her 'Breviary'; her 'Whitsunday'; [Footnote: See Skeat, s. v.] the derivation of 'Mass' itself not being lifted above all question. [Footnote: Two at least of the ecclesiastical terms above mentioned are no longer perplexing, and are quite lifted above dispute: ...
— On the Study of Words • Richard C Trench

... course more westerly than any navigator had done before him in so high a latitude; but met with no land till he got within the tropic, where he discovered the islands of Whitsunday, Queen Charlotte, Egmont, Duke of Gloucester, Duke of Cumberland, Maitea, Otaheite, Eimeo, Tapamanou, How, Scilly, Boscawen, Keppel, and Wallis; and returned to ...
— A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, Volume 1 • James Cook

... delivery of the pirates and their ships to such persons as shall be directed by us to receive them we have thereupon given an assurance to him to come here to us and to remain at his pleasure until Whitsunday next, that some good course may be taken for settling him in quietness; and in this meantime we have promised that all hostility and persuit of him and his followers shall rest and cease until the said term, and also that we shall deal and trouble with your Lordship for some reasonable ...
— History Of The Mackenzies • Alexander Mackenzie

... "Item, to Maister Michaell Durehame, doctour in medecyne, (enterit before the last feist of Whitsunday,) for his half ...
— The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) • John Knox

... effected. In pursuance of this order they passed the Deule on the nineteenth day of May, and posted themselves at Tirlemont, being superior in number to the allied army. There they were joined by the horse of the army, commanded by mareschal Marsin, and encamped between Tirlemont and Judoigne. On Whitsunday, early in the morning, the duke of Marlborough advanced with his army in eight columns towards the village of Ramillies, being by this time joined by the Danes; and he learned that the enemy were in march to give him battle. Next day the French generals perceiving the confederates ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... Launcelot, will ye come with me unto the court of King Arthur? Nay, said he, I will not go with you as at this time. Then he departed from them and took his two cousins with him, and so they came unto Camelot by the hour of underne on Whitsunday. By that time the king and the queen were gone to the minster to hear their service. Then the king and the queen were passing glad of Sir Bors and Sir Lionel, and so was all the fellowship. So when the king and all the ...
— Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) • Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed

... On Tuesday before Whitsunday the party set out, escorted by Count Ulric, and several other knights and nobles. After crossing the Danube in a large boat, the queen and her little girl were placed in a carriage, or more probably ...
— The Junior Classics • Various

... it is still more embarrassing to accept. At any rate, I cannot come this week, for we are in the very thickest melee of the repetitions; I was hearing the terrible fifth section when your note arrived. But Miss Wooler says I must go to Gomersall next Friday as she promised for me on Whitsunday; and on Sunday morning I will join you at church, if it be convenient, and stay at Rydings till Monday morning. There's a free and easy proposal! Miss Wooler has driven me to it—she says her character is implicated! I am ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter

... of notes at present in circulation throughout Scotland is estimated at three millions, or at the very utmost three millions and a half. At certain times of the year, such as the great legal terms of Whitsunday and Martinmas, when money is universally paid over and received, there is, of course, a corresponding increase of issue for the moment which demands an extra supply of notes. It is never considered safe ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 350, December 1844 • Various

... water, beans, flour, oranges, eggs, from the balcony-windows during Carnival; saw weddings in churches, with groups of male companions holding tall candles round kneeling brides; saw the distribution to the poor of bread and meat and wine from long tables arranged down the principal street, on Whitsunday,—a memorial vow, made long since, to deprecate the recurrence of an earthquake. But it must be owned that these things, so unspeakably interesting at first, became a little threadbare before the end of the winter; we grew tired of the tawdriness and ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various

... night before Whitsunday, not long since, I dreamed that I stood before a mirror engaged with the new summer clothes which my dear parents had given me for the holiday. The dress consisted, as you know, of shoes of polished leather, with large ...
— Autobiography • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

... VOBIS! that is to say, 'Peace to you!' And on that mount appeared Christ to Saint Thomas the apostle and bade him assay his wounds; and then believed he first, and said, DOMINUS MEUS ET DEUS MEUS! that is to say 'My Lord and my God!' In the same church, beside the altar, were all the apostles on Whitsunday, when the Holy Ghost descended on them in likeness of fire. And there made our Lord his pasque with his disciples. And there slept Saint John the evangelist upon the breast of our Lord Jesu Christ, and saw ...
— The Travels of Sir John Mandeville • Author Unknown

... was nae manager—no that he was a very great misguider—but he hadna the saving gift, and he got twa terms' rent in arrear. He got the first brash at Whitsunday put ower wi' fair word and piping; but when Martinmas came, there was a summons from the grund-officer to come wi' the rent on a day preceese, or else Steenie behoved to flit. Sair wark he had to get the siller; but he was weel-freended, ...
— The Haunters & The Haunted - Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural • Various

... has that, minister; a maist marked preference. It was only the last Tuesday afore Whussanday [Whitsunday] that she gied me a clour [knock] i' the lug that fair dang me ...
— The Lilac Sunbonnet • S.R. Crockett

... Whitsunday, found us quite amazed at our performance. L'Encuerado had succeeded in weaving some mats to cover the cases, and preserve their contents from the damp. About eleven o'clock our host's family assembled in front of the hut; the women and young girls were dressed in red or blue petticoats, with their ...
— Adventures of a Young Naturalist • Lucien Biart

... being Whitsunday, got several wild fowls, and plenty of muscles, limpets, and other shell-fish, which we find very refreshing, having subsisted a long time ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 • Robert Kerr

... priest on the island of Cuba, and at Pentecost (Whitsunday) he arranged to go and preach and say mass in the new town of Sancti Spiritus. In looking for a text, he came across some verses in the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, which made him stop and think whether after all he was right in ...
— Las Casas - 'The Apostle of the Indies' • Alice J. Knight

... wife: this was Mademoiselle d'Albret, daughter of the King of Navarre. The marriage, arranged on condition that the pope should pay 200,000 ducats dowry to the bride, and should make her brother cardinal, was celebrated on the 10th of May; and on the Whitsunday following the Duke of Valentois received the order of St. Michael, an order founded by Louis XI, and esteemed at this period as the highest in the gift of the kings of France. The news of this marriage, ...
— The Borgias - Celebrated Crimes • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... irregular intervals, owing to atmospheric conditions, throughout the winter until Whitsunday 19 May, when 44 were killed and 179 injured. Generally they occurred when the moon was nearly full, but on 6 December there was one when it was in its last quarter and on 18 December another when it was only four days old, and on 7 March 20 were killed and 55 injured ...
— A Short History of the Great War • A.F. Pollard

... 51. Pentecost: Whitsunday, when the descent of the Holy Spirit is celebrated. Emerson says here that this spirit animates all beautiful music and sincere preaching, as it does we do ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... 17th of December. Hilary term begins on the 14th of January, and ends the day before Palm Sunday. But if the Saturday before Palm Sunday should be a festival, the term does not end till the Monday following. Easter term begins on the tenth day after Easter Sunday, and ends on the day before Whitsunday. Trinity term begins on the Wednesday after Whitsunday, and ends the Saturday after the Act, which is always on the first Tuesday ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall

... God's fast at Salisbury, And I trow Easter-day fell on Whitsunday that year, There were five score save an hundred in my company, And at petty Judas we made royal cheer, There had we good ale of Michaelmas brewing; There heaven-high leaping and springing, And thus did I Leap out of Bordeaux unto Canterbury, Almost ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume I. • R. Dodsley

... inquire whether there are any traditions in other places from which we may reason. In the "History of Gloucestershire," printed by Samuel Rudder of Cirencester in 1779, we read that the parishioners of St. Briavels, hard by the Forest of Dean, "have a custom of distributing yearly upon Whitsunday, after divine service, pieces of bread and cheese to the congregation at church, to defray the expenses of which every householder in the parish pays a penny to the churchwardens; and this is said to be for the privilege of cutting and taking the ...
— The Science of Fairy Tales - An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology • Edwin Sidney Hartland

... leather saddle-bag she took out some slices of beef and damper, and leisurely began to eat, her dark brown eyes dreamily scanning the blue sea before her, and then resting on the green, verdured hills of Whitsunday Island, away to the northward, with little beaches of shining white nestling at the heads of many a quiet bay, whose shores were untrodden, except by the feet of the black and savage aborigines inhabiting the mainland. Far out to ...
— Tom Gerrard - 1904 • Louis Becke

... commercial arrangement; but at two leaps, with a halfway station intervening. Halfway station, with a new coinage ready, much purer of alloy (and marked HOW much, for the benefit of parties with accounts to settle), is to commence on TRINITATIS (Whitsunday) instant; from and after Whitsunday the improved new coin to be sole legal tender, till farther notice. Farther notice comes accordingly, within a year, March 29th, 1764: "Pure money of the standard of 1750 [honest silver coinage: readers may remember Linsenbarth, the CANDIDATUS ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... the beginning of the campaign by Geoffrey de Talebot, and held by him for four or five weeks for the Empress Matilda. It was then captured by Stephen, and the victory celebrated in the cathedral on Whitsunday (A.D. 1138), when the King attended mass wearing his crown, and seated, it is said, in the old chair described in ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Hereford, A Description - Of Its Fabric And A Brief History Of The Episcopal See • A. Hugh Fisher

... of Pentecost or Whitsunday, there came to us certain Alanians, called there Acias or Akas, who are Christians after the Greek form, using Greek books, and having Grecian priests, but they are not schismatics like the Greeks as they honour all Christians without ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr

... and where was it established? It was established in Palestine, in the Upper Chamber, on the first Whitsunday, ...
— The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments • E. E. Holmes

... drawn up to prevent the Catholics of the town and country from coming to assist at it; who having been, for some years, deprived of the benefit of following their own mode of worship, would have gladly been present. Actuated by so holy and laudable a desire, some of the inhabitants of Pau, on Whitsunday, found means to get into the castle before the bridge was drawn up, and were present at the celebration of mass, not being discovered until it was nearly over. At length the Huguenots espied them, ...
— Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Complete • Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre

... the time and the tedium of the passage of this ridge. From Whitsunday to Trinity Sunday, inclusive, there were only two days that we could make progress on the ridge at all, and on one of those days the clouds from the coast poured over so densely and enveloped us so completely that it was impossible to see far enough ...
— The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) - A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest - Peak in North America • Hudson Stuck

... leaving Cook's River. Island of St Hermogenes. Cape Whitsunday. Cape Greville. Cape Barnabas. Two-headed Point. Trinity Island. Beering's Foggy Island. A beautiful Bird described. Kodiak and the Schumagin Islands. A Russian Letter brought on Board by a Native. Conjectures about it. Rock Point. Halibut Island. A Volcano ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 • Robert Kerr

... we were off Pine Island, a small islet of the Percy group, on which a light has been established. From Pine Island onwards to the Whitsunday Passage the navigation recalls the experiences of many pleasant summers on the west coast of Scotland. The inner route, which we followed, passes between numberless rocks and islands. The Percy Isles form a distinct ...
— The Last Voyage - to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' • Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey

... were often received by Christian mystics and were probably true as subjective experiences. Thus Suso was visited one Whitsunday by a heavenly messenger who bade ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot

... Phlipote's idol! It was agreed that Whitsunday should be spent at Versailles. On that day the royal apartments were open to the public, and at the hour of High Mass the crowd flowed back towards the vestibule of the chapel to witness what was called the procession of the Cordons Bleus. The "Blue Ribbons" were the knights ...
— Essays from 'The Guardian' • Walter Horatio Pater

... to the door of every religious house in Scotland the following document—the most extraordinary imitation of a legal writ that Scotland has seen. It is probably not written by Knox, but by some other strong pen. It bears to be a notice or 'summons' of ejectment for the ensuing Whitsunday, ...
— John Knox • A. Taylor Innes

... deep. Upon this we hauld our wind to the Eastward round the Northermost point of the Bay, which bore from us at this time North-East by North, distance 4 Leagues. From this point we found the Main land trend away North by West 1/2 West, and a Strait or Passage between it and a Large Island* (* Whitsunday Island.) or Islands laying in a Parrallel direction with the Coast; this passage we Stood into, having the Tide of Ebb in our favour. At Noon we were just within the Entrance, and by observation in the ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook

... One Whitsunday morning, when the sun was shining and the birds singing, Robin Hood called to Little John to come with him into Nottingham to hear Mass. As was their custom, they took their bows, and on the way Little John ...
— The Book of Romance • Various

... in the year 563 St. Columcille, a Donegal native of royal descent, accompanied by twelve companions, crossed the sea in currachs of wickerwork and hides, and sought to land in Caledonia. They reached the desolate Isle of Iona on the day preceding Whitsunday. ...
— The Glories of Ireland • Edited by Joseph Dunn and P.J. Lennox

... to shew where, every separate lection had its 'beginning' ([Greek: arche]), and where its 'end' ([Greek: telos]). And some of these lections are made up of disjointed portions of the Gospel. Thus, the lection for Whitsunday is found to have extended from St. John vii. 37 to St. John viii. 12; beginning at the words [Greek: te eschate hemera te megale], and ending—[Greek: to phos tes zoes]: but over-leaping the twelve verses now under ...
— The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels • John Burgon

... I departed from Augusta towards Venice, and came thither vpon Whitsunday the thirteenth of the same moneth. It is needlesse to speake of the height of the mountaines that I passed ouer, and of the danger thereof, it is so wel knowen already to the world: the heigth of them is marueilous, and I was the space of sixe ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 9 - Asia, Part 2 • Richard Hakluyt

... one Whitsunday, that Arthur was holding his court at Caerleon, when word was brought to him of a splendid white stag that ranged the Forest of Dean, and forthwith the King proclaimed ...
— Stories from Le Morte D'Arthur and the Mabinogion • Beatrice Clay

... At Whitsunday 1790, in his twentieth year, Hogg entered the service, as shepherd, of Mr James Laidlaw, tenant of Blackhouse,—a farm situate on the Douglasburn in Yarrow. This proved the most signally fortunate step which he had yet taken. Mr Laidlaw was a man of singular shrewdness and of a highly cultivated ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... from Glasgow, made port, after a long and stormy voyage, on Whitsunday, 1870. She had come up during the night, and cast anchor off Castle Garden. It was a beautiful spring morning, and as I looked over the rail at the miles of straight streets, the green heights of Brooklyn, and the stir of ferryboats and pleasure craft on the river, my hopes ...
— The Making of an American • Jacob A. Riis

... Sexagesima, Quinquagesima; Ash Wednesday (the first day in Lent), six Sundays in Lent (the sixth being Palm Sunday), Holy Week (including Good Friday), Easter, five Sundays after Easter, Ascension Day, Sunday after Ascension, Pentecost or Whitsunday, Trinity Sunday; and from twenty-three to twenty-seven Sundays after Trinity. The Lutheran Church observes also the festival of the Reformation on the 31st day of October. Each Sunday and Festival Day has its own Gospel and Epistle lesson, ...
— An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism • Joseph Stump

... and days as in Popery. I am so far a Puritan that I think nothing would have been lost, if Christmas day and Good Friday had been the only week days made holy days, and Easter the only Lord's day especially distinguished. I should also have added Whitsunday; but that it has become unmeaning since our Clergy have, as I grieve to think, become generally Arminian, and interpreting the descent of the Spirit as the gift of miracles and of miraculous infallibility by inspiration have rendered it ...
— Coleridge's Literary Remains, Volume 4. • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... Whitsunday (14 May) Divine Service was conducted in the city in English according to the Book of Common Prayer.(1484) Commissioners were appointed in July "to ride about the realm for the establishing of true religion," four being nominated for the city, whose ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe

... even for a short space of time, it brings forth many offensive animalcules. The tornadoes began with us when in about 12 deg. of N. latitude, and continued till we were two degrees to the south of the equinoctial line, which we passed on the 28th of April. The 19th of May, being Whitsunday, we passed the tropic of Capricorn, so that we were complete seven weeks ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... State, if he entered it and remained, he was liable to arrest and imprisonment. The Legislature, by vote, permitted him to return, and finally an amicable adjustment was effected with the creditor through the agency of the vestry in Poughkeepsie, and he was established as rector of Christ Church, Whitsunday, May 27, 1787, and continued in charge till 1791. He then removed to New Jersey and became rector of St. Peter's Church, Amboy, and Christ Church, New Brunswick; but in July, 1793, he accepted the rectorship of St. Mary's, Burlington, ...
— Report Of Commemorative Services With The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885. • Diocese Of Connecticut

... the organ and church, the missionary club and my district, I am a regular lay-curate. Then there is Mr. Duffer's early service, eight o'clock; and Fridays and Wednesdays and all the saints' days, and decorating for the great festivals—perhaps a little too much of that, but on Whitsunday the chancel was lovely, was it not, Mrs. Carnegie?" Mrs. Carnegie nodded her acquiescence. "Then I have a green-house at last, and that gives me something to do. I should like to show you my green-house, Bessie. But you must be used to such magnificent ...
— The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax • Harriet Parr

... training, were baptized. They were called catechumens, because they were catechised or questioned, and candidates because they wore long white robes, candidus being the Latin word for white, and by degrees the day came to be called Whitsunday. Furthermore, Miss Etta told all about the Whitsuntide festivals of old English times in the days of the corrupt church, when festivities of the most riotous kind took place on the two days following Sunday; and the girls ...
— Katie Robertson - A Girls Story of Factory Life • Margaret E. Winslow

... {56} Holy Days. These take the place of those which appear in the regular list for the same days. If two special days coincide, the minister may read the Lessons of either, except that, on Advent Sunday, Easter Day, Whitsunday and Trinity Sunday, the Lessons for those days ...
— The Prayer Book Explained • Percival Jackson

... during the early Christian centuries. The most important anniversary to be observed was Easter, in memory of the resurrection of Christ. A period of fasting (Lent), which finally lasted forty days, preceded the festival. Whitsunday, or Pentecost, was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter. [9] Two other festivals of later adoption were Christmas, the celebration of which was finally assigned to the 25th of December, [10] and Epiphany (January ...
— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER

... periods when they would be sure to find him at Portiuncula. Still it appears probable that these meetings did not become true Chapters-General until toward 1216. There were at first two a year, one at Whitsunday, the other at Michaelmas (September 29th). Those of Whitsunday were the most important; all the Brothers came together to gain new strength in the society of Francis, to draw generous ardor and grand hopes from him ...
— Life of St. Francis of Assisi • Paul Sabatier



Words linked to "Whitsunday" :   Whitsuntide, Whitweek, Pentecost, quarter day, Whitsun



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