ETYMOLOGY OF "WHITSUNTIDE" AND "MASS"

Perhaps the following Note and Query on the much-disputed origin of the word *Whitsunday*, as used in our Liturgy, may find a place in your Journal. None of the etymologies of this word at present in vogue is at all satisfactory. They are— I. *White Sunday*: and this, either— 1. From the garments of *white linen*, in which those who were at that season admitted to the rite of holy baptism were clothed; (as typical of the spiritual purity therein obtained:) or,— 2. From the glorious light of heaven, sent down from the father of Lights on the day of Pentecost: and "those vast diffusions of light…