Today we celebrate the Feast of Holy Pentecost, as we do each year on the fiftieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter) and ten days after the Feast of the Ascension of Christ. The Feast is always celebrated on a Sunday. In the Serbian tradition, freshly cut grass, branches and leaves are scattered all over the Church, which during the northern spring of our homeland, symbolise the newness and the regeneration bestowed upon us and on all creation by the Holy Spirit. On the kneeling prayers read at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy on this day, the faithful led by the priest pray fervently, all the while braiding circular rings of grass which they take home to adorn their icons.
The Feast commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, a feast of the Jewish tradition. It also celebrates the establishment of the Church through the preaching of the Apostles and the baptism of the thousands who on that day believed in the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ. The Feast is also seen as the culmination of the revelation of the Holy Trinity.
