What do you call today, the day before Easter? It is increasingly called Easter Saturday. That is what the BBC calls it in its programme guides. Robin Hood and Casualty await us as an alternative to the Easter Vigil. But Easter Monday is the Monday after Easter, and Easter Tuesday the day after that, and so on. The OED refers to these as ‘obvious combinations’, and after Easter Tuesday puts ‘etc’, noting that ‘in ordinary language Easter is often applied to the entire week commencing with Easter Sunday’. Certainly the week beginning on Easter day is Easter week, yet I do not feel in my heart that anyone would now call the Saturday after Easter Easter Saturday. If they did, they would be open to misunderstanding.
The OED allows the term Easter-eve for the day before Easter day. I would call today Holy Saturday. After all, Good Friday is sufficiently established to protect it from the indifference of the ungodly. Even the Radio Times recognises the day. It doesn’t have to be a ‘good day’ in the sense of a ‘nice day’ (as we are now bidden to have). ‘Cheare up, my soule,’ Francis Quarles pleads in one of his Emblems, ‘calle home thy spir’ts, and beare/ One bad Good-Friday; full-mouthed Easter’s neare.’
As for the other days running up to Easter, they are losing any distinguishing names. The whole week is called Holy Week by the churchgoing. There is more confusion because Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) has been redesignated Passion Sunday (previously the name for the Sunday before) by Catholics, who nevertheless can’t help still calling it Palm Sunday. As a consequence no one can understand anyone else who refers to Passion Sunday or Passion Week.
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