Pentecost. The Christian holy day of Pentecost, which is celebrated fifty days after Easter Sunday, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. The holy day is also called White Sunday or Whitsunday or Whitsun, especially in the United Kingdom, where traditionally the next day, Whit Monday, was also a public holiday. In Germany Pentecost is called Pfingsten and often coincides with scholastic holidays and the beginning of many outdoor and springtime activities, such as festivals and organized outdoor activities by youth organizations. The Monday after Pentecost is a legal holiday in many European nations. In Eastern Christianity, Pentecost can also refer to the entire fifty days of Easter through Pentecost inclusive; hence the book containing the liturgical texts is called the Pentecostarion. Since its date depends on the date of Easter, Pentecost is a moveable feast. Pentecost is one of the Great Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox Church, a Solemnity in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, and a Principal Feast in the Anglican Communion. Many Christian denominations provide a special liturgy for this holy celebration. The term Pentecost comes from the Greek meaning fiftieth. It refers to the festival celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover, also known as the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of 50 days in rabbinic tradition. The Septuagint uses the term Pentekoste to refer to the Feast of Pentecost only twice, in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit and 2 Maccabees. The Septuagint writers also used the word in two other senses: to signify the year of Jubilee, an event which occurs every 50th year, and in several passages of chronology as an ordinal number. The term has also been used in the literature of Hellenistic Judaism by Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. Shavuot In Judaism the Festival of Weeks is a harvest festival that is celebrated seven weeks and one day after the first Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Deuteronomy 16:9 or seven weeks and one day after the Sabbath referred to in Leviticus 23-16. The Festival of Weeks is also called the feast of Harvest in Exodus 23:16 and the day of first fruits in Numbers 28-26. In Exodus 34-22 it is called the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. The date for the Feast of Weeks originally came the day after seven full weeks following the first harvest of grain. In Jewish tradition the fiftieth day was known as the Festival of Weeks. The actual mention of fifty days comes from Leviticus 23-16. During the Hellenistic period, the ancient harvest festival also became a day of renewing the Noahic covenant, described in Genesis 9:8-17, which is established between God and all flesh that is upon the earth. By this time, some Jews were already living in Diaspora. According to Acts 2:5-11 there were Jews from every nation under heaven in Jerusalem, possibly visiting the city as pilgrims during Pentecost. In particular the hoi epidemountes are identified as visitors to Jerusalem from Rome. This group of visitors includes both Jews and proselytes; sometimes translated as converts to Judaism, proselyte referred to non-Jews who adhered fully to the Mosaic laws, including circumcision. The list of nations represented in the biblical text includes Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judaea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Cyrene, and those who were visiting from Rome. Scholars have speculated about a possible earlier literary source for the list of nations including an astrological list by Paul of Alexandria and various references to the Jewish diaspora by writers of the Second Temple era. After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD offerings could no longer be brought to the Temple and the focus of the festival shifted from agriculture to the giving of the law on Sinai. It became customary to gather at synagogue and read the Book of Ruth and Exodus Chapters 19 and 20. The term Pentecost appears in the Septuagint as one of names for the Festival of Weeks. The biblical narrative of the Pentecost includes numerous references to earlier biblical narratives like the Tower of Babel, and the flood and creation narratives from the Book of Genesis. It also includes references to certain theophanies, with certain emphasis on God's incarnate appearance on biblical Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments were presented to Moses.