I love birthdays. My own birthday being my very favorite. My mom always teases that I don't have birth-days but rather birth-months.

Anything worth celebrating one day is worth celebrating 30 days or more.

Catholics know this. Their liturgical calendar includes holy days and feasts galore. To help them remember all year long. I've tasted to see. These events are good.

My evangelical family is starting to catch on too. We've developed activities to celebrate Advent. We're baby-stepping our way into Lent. I attended my first Ash Wednesday service this year. I wrote a reflection every day of Holy Week.

But we haven't embraced this season of the church year yet. Eastertide. Did you know Easter isn't always celebrated as a one-day event? I adore Easter. Commercialism rears its ugly head a little but nothing compared to the grip it's gotten on Christmas.

So, this year, I'm embracing Eastertide. According to Wikipedia:

Eastertide is the period of fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday.

Resurrection Sunday was quite a party. I'm joining the church in extending the festivities from a Resurrection Sunday to Resurrection season. 50 days.

Let's continue the Resurrection celebration!

I asked around on Twitter but had trouble identifying any blog posts about this season of the church calendar. I did a google search but came across little but the facts.

Interested in learning more? Here are some resources I did come across:

Eastertide: N.T. Wright on how Christians should celebrate - A good argument for what we might be missing by not extending the Easter celebration.

What Is Eastertide - What a pastor learned as he learned more about Eastertide and how his church life was enriched by participating.

Don't Waste the Easter Season - Not only a call to participate in Eastertide but a music playlist to enjoy those Easter Sunday songs just a wee bit longer.

A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together - I mention this book every time I talk about the church calendar year. She grew up Southern Baptist. Dear to me. This book is beautiful and I pull it out all year long. She doesn't go into a lot of depth about Eastertide but she sure gets you in the mood to celebrate all things church.

Something Special for Easter - A fellow blogger, Cara Strickland, worked with a designer from Slightly Stationary to offer an Easter Meditation Calendar. I ordered a set in anticipation of celebrating this season. Day 1 says simply:

He is risen indeed. 

We don't have to wait until next year to celebrate Easter again.