ASCENT. This Thursday, May 18, 2023 will be an opportunity to bridge the gap for a long 4-day weekend. Do you know where this holiday comes from? Who makes the bridge? Linternaute.com offers you a reminder shot.
[Updated May 17, 2023 11:44 AM] Ascension Day has been a public holiday in France since 1801, a decision made under Napoleon Bonaparte but it is a moving, year-to-year holiday. It is indeed set 40 days after Easter Sunday. Please note, in France, only May 1st, Labor Day, must necessarily be a rest day, that is to say a day not worked, except in establishments and services which cannot interrupt their activity such as hospitals.
In the Christian tradition, the Ascension celebrates the rise of Jesus towards God, his “Father”. According to the Bible, forty days after Easter, Jesus, dead and risen, rose and disappeared before the apostles. The risen Jesus said to the eleven apostles, “Go into all the world. Proclaim the Good News to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever disbelieves will be condemned.” He is then said to have sent the Holy Spirit, unveiled ten days later at Pentecost.
Ascension Thursday is a public holiday in France. The explanation is simple: under the Old Regime, Christian festivals punctuated the life of cities and countryside. The Ascension, like Easter, Christmas or the patronal feasts were non-working in a country that was still mainly rural. The French Revolution tried – unsuccessfully – to replace them with new secular celebrations. The Concordat signed in 1801 by Napoleon Bonaparte with Pope Pius VII, reinstated four Christian holidays in the calendar: Christmas, the Ascension of Christ, the Assumption of Mary (August 15) and All Saints’ Day.
We then speak of “holidays of obligation”. Despite the separation of Church and State in 1905, these four dates remain non-working throughout France (Alsace and Moselle also celebrate it, while Saint-Etienne on December 26 and Good Friday are unemployed only in the three departments of eastern France). Moreover, this day is a public holiday in many countries such as Germany, Belgium or Switzerland (but not Italy, Spain or the United Kingdom).
Many French people take advantage of the systematic presence of this holiday Thursday, between April and June each year, to start their weekend two days earlier and thus extend it: it is the Ascension Bridge. It involves taking time off on Fridays which is supposed to stay worked. Many other holidays can be bridged when the date (and the employer) permits. But the “Ascension Bridge” seems to be gradually becoming institutionalized. The majority of French administrative services close on Fridays. A closure presented as “exceptional” in most cases, but which has an almost general character.
To find out in particular the list of closed prefectures and sub-prefectures, the State has set up an interactive map of services (available here) specifying the conditions of closure. In town halls, many municipal services will also be unavailable, as will tax centers and CAF services… For all French schoolchildren, including those attending schools where there is usually class on Saturday morning, it has become a ritual in the school calendar!
Until now, National Education gave academies the choice of interrupting classes on the Friday and Saturday following the public holiday. In April 2015, the ministry specified that from the spring of 2016, all schools in France would be closed for the two days following Ascension Thursday. The 4-day weekend was therefore expected to become widespread from this date. It was a request made for a long time by teachers, parents, but also elected officials and employers during meetings with the Ministry of Education to build school calendars. Pupils from schools, colleges and high schools in zones A, B and C will therefore be on leave on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at the end of classes.
With this bridge as with the others, classes have for several years now tended to empty out, with many parents “exceptionally” withdrawing their offspring from school to be able to go away for the weekend. The measure is particularly supported by the tourism sector, which sees in the great weekend of Ascension the opportunity to make the figure. For parents’ representatives as well as for teachers, blowing up the Friday following the Ascension Bridge is also a way to lighten a very busy school calendar in the last quarter, certain areas, depending on the dates of the Easter holidays and the dates exams, which can take up to 10 weeks of lessons before the main school holidays. The sanctuary of the bridge for the students is therefore good news for many… except for the employees who work despite everything on Fridays and who have to find a mode of care.
For Christians, Ascension Thursday has a very specific meaning. It corresponds to the Ascension of Christ, that is to say the moment when Jesus ascends to heaven. This event marks the end of his earthly life, 40 days after Easter, that is to say his resurrection (passage from death to life following the crucifixion). This episode is described at the end of the Gospel according to Luke: Jesus takes his apostles to Bethany, a village in Judea where he liked to retire to flee the persecutions of Jerusalem. There he blesses them. “And it came to pass, as he blessed them, that he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. For them, having worshiped him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were constantly in the Temple at praise God”.
Another account of the Ascension opens the Acts of the Apostles. Also written by Luke, it states: “You are going to receive, says Jesus, a power, that of the Holy Spirit who will descend on you. You will then be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth”. After having pronounced this speech, Jesus would have risen towards the sky before disappearing in a cloud. An angel would then have asked the apostles not to wait to hear the word of the son of God. For Christians, this episode of Jesus’ departure from earthly life is not considered negatively: it is instead the beginning of the Church and the “mission” of the propagation of the Catholic faith by the apostles.
The 40-day period following Easter corresponds, according to the Bible, to the period when the resurrected Jesus has not yet ascended to heaven and remains on Earth. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Christ “for forty days appeared to the apostles and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God” says Luke. It is a key period, since he thus demonstrates, according to Christian believers, his resurrection. References to a 40-day periodicity are numerous in the Bible. The motif appears in the duration of Noah’s flood or in Christ’s retirement in the desert, corresponding to Lent. The Ascension itself precedes Pentecost by ten days.
In 2023, Ascension Thursday “falls” on May 18. You should know that May 18 is not the date of Ascension every year. This day is mobile in the Gregorian calendar. It moves between April 30 and June 3 depending on the year. But no matter what, Ascension always happens 40 days after Easter Sunday. This is why Ascension always falls on a Thursday.
The date of Ascension changes each year but always coincides with a Thursday, since the Christian holiday always “falls” 40 days after Easter. The date of Easter is fixed according to the Ecclesiastical Computing, that is to say a set of calculations used by the Christian Churches to fix the day of certain celebrations. Since the Council of Nicaea, held in the year 325, Easter takes place on the Sunday following the first full moon which follows March 21, that is to say between March 22 and April 25. Since Easter always takes place on a Sunday, the fortieth day after Easter is always a Thursday. The celebration of the Ascension therefore always takes place on a Thursday between April 30 and June 3.
