Ascension Day takes place every year exactly 39 days after Easter Sunday.
What's behind the festival?
When is Ascension Day 2021?
Where is the holiday?
An overview.
Munich - Ascension Day as a holiday has a long tradition: the Christian festival has existed since the 4th century, and has been anchored as a national holiday since 1934.
Those who do not know what to do with Christian customs primarily celebrate Father's Day or Men's Day on the same day.
Ascension Day is also celebrated internationally: In Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and the Netherlands people have free time, in Italy, Poland and Hungary the public holiday has meanwhile been abolished.
Ascension Day 2021: When does the festival take place?
Because Ascension Day is always celebrated on the 40th day after Easter Sunday, every year it reliably falls on a Thursday between April 30th and June 3rd.
But where do the meticulously counted 39 days between the two Christian festivals come from?
In fact, 40 is considered a sacred number in the Catholic Church, and a passage from the Bible defines the "ascension" of Jesus on the fortieth day after Easter.
The next reason to celebrate the holiday is not far: just ten days later, Christians celebrate Pentecost.
Where is Ascension Day public holiday 2021?
Who is free?
The regular Thursday appointment makes everyone happy who can treat themselves to a long weekend with the holiday - in all federal states.
Because Ascension Day is a public holiday in all of Germany.
Ascension Day: what is celebrated?
For Christians, Ascension Day follows on from the story of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.
The ascension of Christ then means the actual “ascension” of Jesus Christ into heaven, that is, his return as the Son of God to his Father.
The fact that some time passes between the resurrection and the return of Jesus to heaven is mainly explained as follows: With his death on Good Friday, Jesus first descends into the kingdom of the dead.
On Easter Sunday he returns to the living through the resurrection from the realm of the dead, he appears again and again to his followers to show the resurrection.
On Ascension Day he then finally ascends to heaven.
Incidentally, according to theological understanding, heaven in this case is not to be understood as a geographical place, but is interpreted as an expression for God's very own realm.
Numerous customs arose around the church festival: For example, a figure of Christ was pulled up into the church vault or a figure of the devil was overthrown in a medieval church service.
In the meantime, especially church services, ascension rides and processions are common, in which, among other things, a good harvest is requested.
Ascension Day: wagon tour on Father's Day already established in Christian customs
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Famous and notorious are the handcart tours that are organized on Father's Day
© Guido Kirchner / picture alliance / dpa
Father's Day always falls on the same date as Ascension Day.
The high-percentage wagon tours and hikes on Father's Day also have an origin in Christian traditions: It was common early on to organize corridors and processions on Ascension Day.
There are various reasons for this tradition, but it is clear that as early as the Middle Ages, some of them were misused for alcoholic feasts under an alibi-religious guise.
The churches spoke out clearly against the binge drinking, so they finally moved into secular customs of the 19th century as so-called “gentlemen's parties”.
With the introduction of Mother's Day, they established themselves over time as part of a counterpart, “Father's Day” - and are now partially replaced by more family-friendly excursions.
(eu)