Easter surpasses the season of Lent in many different ways. It is a joyous liturgical season that foreshadows that Heavenly banquet that we are all invited to attend.
50 Days
First of all, Easter is a full 10 days longer than Lent, giving the Christian people 50 days to bask in the glory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Lent is 40 days long primarily because it looks to Jesus for inspiration. Before embarking on his own public ministry, Jesus "was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights" (Matthew 4:1-2).
In continuity with the past, Jesus sets out to pray and fast for 40 days, combating temptation and preparing himself for proclaiming the Gospel to others.
While Lent is a season of fasting and penance, Easter is a season of feasting and rejoicing. Its important that it is longer than Lent, as it highlights the spiritual reality that Heaven, a place of ultimate rejoicing, will surpass anything that happens on earth.
Easter reminds us that, "He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken" (Isaiah 25:8).
Pentecost
Secondly, what's interesting is how Christians created the season of Easter based on the number of days that led up to the Jewish feast of Pentecost.
This is because the apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit on that Jewish feast, as narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place" (Acts 2:1).
Pentecost is identified in the Bible as the conclusion of the Jewish harvest festival. The book of Leviticus explains how the celebration of this feast is to be counted, "And you shall count from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven full weeks shall they be, counting fifty days to the morrow after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:15-16).
As a result, the feast of Pentecost for Christians is held 50 days after Easter Sunday and marks the conclusion of the Easter season.
