Pentecost

My daughter and I were talking about Pentecostalism, which we both knew a little about, and then we started wondering about the word Pentecost, which looks, and is, Greek.

I vaguely remembered this from the New Testament: "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

So, Pentecost turns out to be a form of the ancient Greek word for Fiftieth.

And Fiftieth was the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, which was observed on the 50th day after the 1st day of Passover.

Why 50 days? Apparently it was 7 weeks (a "week of weeks") from the 2nd day of Passover, which mathematically works out to be 50 days from the 1st day of Passover.

As for me, I think it's nifty
that Pentecost derives from fifty,
but if you feel it's a useless fact,
toss it away and don't look back!