Eastertide is the time of new life. It reminds us of the new life of our Savior - living forever a life which belongs no longer to the earth and which one day we shall share with Him in heaven. And it is the hope of new life in our own lives — from Christ to us — for we have more than the assurance of rejoining Him; snatched by Him from the power of the devil we belong to Him as His by right of the new life we share with Him through baptism.
Easter week is the week of the baptized. They have passed from death to life, from the darkness of sin to the life of grace in the light of Christ. Wherever there are neophytes, the Easter season, and particularly the first week, is the period of postbaptismal catechesis or mystogogy. The community shares with them a deepening understanding of the paschal mystery and an ever-greater assimilation of it in daily life through meditation, participation in the Eucharist, and the practice of charity.
On the fortieth day after Easter the Ascension is celebrated, except in places where, not being a holy day of obligation, it has been transferred to the Seventh Sunday of Easter. This solemnity directs our attention to Christ, who ascended into heaven before the eyes of his disciples, who is now seated at the right hand of the Father, invested with royal power, who is there to prepare a place for us in the kingdom of heaven; and who is destined to come again at the end of time.
This sacred season of fifty days comes to an end on Pentecost Sunday, which commemorates the giving of the Holy Spirit to the apostles, the beginnings of the Church and its mission to every tongue and people and nation. (Excerpted from the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Ceremonial of Bishops)
From catholicculture.org
