I wished someone a Happy Easter and they said, "That already happened." Easter happened last week... unless you have the good fortune of being a Catholic! In that case, Easter is only just getting started. After 40 days of prayer, fasting and abstinence, we have one heck of a party coming. Easter Sunday is just too big to fit in one day, so it gets 8 days. This is known in the Church calendar as the Octave of Easter. We sing the Gloria every day of the week and we sing to the people, "Go in the peace of Christ, Alleluia, Alleluia!" Also, as a side note, your Easter candy should last the whole week until the Sunday after Easter. Known as "Divine Mercy Sunday", it is a profound reminder that God's love can overcome anything, even our own sins.

But we're not done partying yet. Because the Easter season itself lasts 50 days. It includes the feast of the Ascension 40 days after Easter (Acts 1:3) and finishes on the Feast of Pentecost, which this year will be May 24th. That's 50 days of feasting to make up for our 40 days of fasting. The Church in her wisdom is telling us something simple but profound: God always gives us more than we give him. A little fasting is richly rewarded. A lifetime of generosity will be repaid with an eternity. The God who loves us is never outdone in generosity. The world's method of partying gets old fast. A Catholic party is always in some way a celebration of God's love -- and that never gets old.

So next time someone asks, "Did you have a good Easter?"

Tell them, "I'm having a good Easter!"

For those of you who enjoy technical details, here' s a little more to go on:

II. Easter Season

22. The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better as one "great Sunday." [12]

These above all others are the days for the singing of the Alleluia.

23. The Sundays of this season rank as the paschal Sundays and, after Easter Sunday itself, are called the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Sundays of Easter. The period of fifty sacred days ends on Pentecost Sunday.

24. The first eight days of the Easter season make up the octave of Easter and are celebrated as solemnities of the Lord.

25. On the fortieth day after Easter the Ascension is celebrated, except in places where, not being a holyday of obligation, it has been transferred to the Seventh Sunday of Easter (see no. 7).

26. The weekdays after the Ascension until the Saturday before Pentecost inclusive are a preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.