Catholics welcomed the start of the Easter season Sunday, with dioceses heralding the blessings of the Resurrection and the 50-day lead-up to Pentecost.

“He is risen! He is risen indeed,” the Archdiocese of Detroit posted on its Facebook page. “Today we celebrate our salvation and the power of the Gospel to make us new in Christ. Let us pray today that the Gospel is unleashed in our lives.” 

The Easter season, or Eastertide, starts with the eight-day Easter Octave that lasts until Divine Mercy Sunday, the National Catholic Register said. The start of the season is seen as a time of rebirth.

“Let us proclaim ‘He is Risen’ throughout this Octave & for the entire Easter Season of 50 days until Pentecost,” Tyler Bishop Joseph Strickland said on Twitter as he welcomed the start of the longest season in the liturgical calendar. “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 Anglican Compass reported on the Easter season, noting one reason for the Easter season's 50-day length is due to the eternal nature of what it represents, compared to the Lenten season, which includes fasting and lasts 40 days. Jesus explained the difference by declaring that fasting would eventually fade away, and the Great Feast of the Lamb represents eternity and would persist. 

Eastertide lasts 50 days because after Jesus was resurrected, he spent 40 days on earth before he ascended to heaven. Ten more days passed before Pentecost occurred. Pentecost is the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles as they were gathered around Mary, the mother of God. 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 an article 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.”