Easter Monday is a beautiful occasion, the name commonly used to indicate the Monday after Easter Sunday. It is a day of celebration in many countries around the world and there are different denominations and traditions to define it.
In Italy it is called “Angel Monday” (even if it wasn’t really Monday), because of the episode in the Gospels in which it is said that an angel (two, according to the evangelists Luke and John) announced the resurrection of Jesus in Mary Magdalene and other pious women, who went to the tomb and found it empty. It should be underlined that the wording “Easter Monday” is not part of the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church which calls it the “Octave of Easter”, in the same way as the other days of the octave (Tuesday, Wednesday…).
According to the Gospels, the angel’s announcement and the visit to the tomb took place on the day after Easter, which however was the Jewish Easter, on Saturday. Subsequently, with the adoption of Sunday as the Christian Easter day (established by the Council of Nicaea in 325), the apparition of the Angel was in turn placed on Monday.
The trip out of town… like the disciples
It is customary on Easter Monday to take trips out of town or have picnics. This tradition could also derive from Sacred Scripture. The evangelist Luke (24, 13-35) recounts one of the first appearances of the risen Jesus: he showed himself to the disciples traveling to Emmaus, just outside Jerusalem. No longer in the city, but outside the doors. Precisely to remember this event, the most modern trips out of town were born, which in Italy have experienced a real boom since the post-war period, when the State introduced Easter Monday among the public holidays to extend the Easter celebrations.
Because it’s called Easter Monday
Pasquetta is evidently a diminutive-term of endearment for Easter which has come into popular use to indicate the public holiday that follows Easter.
Easter Monday is not a so-called “holiday of obligation” for the Catholic liturgy, except for Germany and other German-speaking countries, while as a civil holiday in Italy it was only introduced in 1947, therefore after the war, to extend the holidays by one day Easter. Like Easter, it is a “movable feast”, that is, it does not fall on the same calendar day every year, but on a different Monday, defined by the date of the vernal equinox and the phases of the moon.
In any case, Easter Monday remains a much loved holiday in Italy, which offers the opportunity to spend time with loved ones and enjoy the beauty of nature in spring, with the hope that the weather will give us a splendid sunny day .
