Monday within the Octave of Easter
Solemnity
- Feast Day
- April 6
Monday within the Octave of Easter is the second day of the eight-day Octave celebrated as a single Solemnity of the Lord (Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and Calendar, no. 24). Each day of the Octave bears the rank of solemnity and excludes any memorial of saints.
The Mass of Easter Monday proclaims the Gospel of the women at the empty tomb and the appearance of the risen Christ to them as they ran to tell the disciples (Matthew 28:8-15). The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles begins the Easter cycle of readings from Acts that continues through Pentecost. The Gloria is sung, the double Alleluia is added to the dismissal, and the Sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes may be sung.
The day is a public holiday in many Catholic countries, often called Easter Monday, and is observed with continued festivity following Easter Sunday.
The Octave of Easter prolongs the celebration of the Resurrection across eight days, treating them as a single act of worship. The Church Fathers, including Saint Augustine, called this period the days of pure joy. By making each day a solemnity, the liturgy refuses to allow the joy of Easter to be confined to a single day, instead drawing the faithful into a sustained meditation on the post-resurrection appearances and on their incorporation into the new life of the risen Christ through baptism.
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