Phoenix-area Catholics greeted the start of the Easter season, some attending a Saturday evening vigil on March 8 or celebrating with Bishop John Dolan, who presided over his first Easter service in Arizona.

The Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Ahwatukee reported 30 people at its evening Easter vigil Saturday, March 8. That’s one of the highest numbers of attendees in recent years, the Diocese of Phoenix said on Facebook. 

"Bishop John Dolan celebrated a joyous Easter Sunday Mass at St. Simon and Jude Cathedral, his first as bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix,” the page said. The Mass was held on Easter Sunday, March 9, and streamed on YouTube, where Dolan’s homily drew positive reviews.

Easter Sunday marks the Resurrection, of course, but it also marks the start of the 50-day season, also called Eastertide, that leads up to Pentecost. The National Catholic Register said that during the Easter Octave, the first eight days of the season that takes Catholics through Divine Mercy Sunday, Catholics may participate in various activities and reflect on the season's significance. The season is also seen as a time of rebirth of faith.

“Let us proclaim ‘He is Risen’ throughout this Octave & for the entire Easter Season of 50 days until Pentecost,” Joseph Strickland, bishop of Tyler, Texas, said on Twitter. “Easter is not just a day but Jesus’s Resurrection ushers in a New Day for all humanity for all time. Let us strive to live in the Light of His Resurrection always!” 

The Easter season is the longest in the ecclesiastical calendar, the Anglican Compass explained. In comparison, the Lenten season that precedes it lasts 40 days. Jesus explained the reasoning behind the lengths for each season. He said the Lenten fast is shorter because the need for fasting would eventually fade away. The Easter season, also called the Great Feast of the Lamb, represents eternity and lasts longer because the time for feasting would persist, Jesus continued, according to the report. 

The 50-day duration of Eastertide is also significant as it represents the 40 days Jesus roamed on earth after his resurrection and the 10 days between his ascension into heaven and Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles as they met with Mary, Jesus’ mother. Pentecost will fall on May 28 this year.

"As Jesus was raised from the dead, we walk with confidence, in what St. Paul called ‘newness of life,’ following in Jesus’ footsteps, our lives now an adventure destined for heaven and the love that never ends," José Gomez, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, wrote in the Angelus newsletter. "These next 50 days, from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, are meant to be lived as one long feast, a ‘great Sunday,’ as the Church Father St. Athanasius put it.”