Significance Of Ascension Day And How It Is Celebrated: The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, is also known as Ascension Day, Ascension Thursday, or sometimes Holy Thursday, that honors the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven.
What is the Significance of Ascension Day?
Ascension Day marks the moment Jesus literally ascended into heaven before his disciples, at the village of Bethany, near Jerusalem.
The Bible says Jesus promised the disciples that soon they would get the Holy Spirit. He also asked them to stay in Jerusalem until the Spirit had arisen. As he blessed them he started to rise into heaven to take his seat at the right hand of God. The Ascension is significant to Christians as it indicates the conclusion of his work on Earth and permitted him to make a place for followers in heaven.
When is Ascension Day celebrated?
Ascension Day is celebrated all across the branches of Christianity on the sixth Thursday after Easter, precisely forty days after Easter Sunday.
On the other hand, for the reason that the Eastern Orthodox Church uses the older Julian calendar in spite of the modern Gregorian calendar in order to calculate the date, Orthodox Christians are going to celebrate Ascension Day a week later than their Catholic and Protestant counterparts.
Ascension Day 2021 Dates
This year in 2021, Ascension Day is going to be celebrated on May 30 (Western) as well as June 6 (Eastern).
How Ascension Day is Celebrated?
Traditionally, the day was marked with a march with torches and banners. The tradition persists “in some sections of Germany and central Europe”, says Catholic Culture, where, “preceded by candles and cross, the faithful walk with prayer and song through fields and pastures, and the priest blesses each lot of ground”.
Ascension has an Afterfeast of eight days. The Sunday after Ascension is the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea. This council expressed the Nicene Creed up to the words, “He (Jesus) ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.”
The Afterfeast concludes the next Friday, the Friday before Pentecost. The next day is appropriately a Saturday of the Dead.
The church readings for the period from Ascension Day to Pentecost emphasize on devotion to dispense Christ’s word and hope for eternal salvation at the Second Coming.
Day of Jesus’s Ascension Bible Verses:
John 7:33-65
33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?” 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this, he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified. 40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
Mark 16
1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ” 8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. 9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
Acts 1:1-11
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
Luke 24
1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Bottom Lines
Ascension Day is the Christian Celebration of Lord Jesus Christ Rising into Heaven after he spent 40 days on Earth after the Resurrection. It is the day which is celebrated 40 days after Easter Sunday on Ascension Thursday. This date is also 10 days before the celebration of Pentecost.
