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Holy week
Dates of holy week celebrations:Holy Week starts on 1 April 2007 and ends on 7 April 2007.
Colors:
In most of the churches, the decorations are made in red. This is to symbolize the blood of martyrdom. There are some churches which take off all decorations on Good Friday.
Scripture Readings:
During the period of Holy week, the Revised Common Lectionary appoints Scripture readings for worshipping.
The East:
This is called the Great Week in the Eastern Church. The celebrations are the same but they make use of the Julian calendar to calculate Easter.
Special Days:
Here are the special days:
- Palm Sunday (or Passion Sunday).
- Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday).
- Good Friday.
- Holy Saturday.
- The duration from sunset on Holy Thursday to sunset on Easter Day is also called as Triduum. This means “three days” in Latin.
Holy Week observances started way back in Jerusalem. This happened in the earliest days of the Church. This was when people went to Jerusalem at Passover to reenact the events of the week which led to the Resurrection.
Egeria was a Christian who traveled a lot during the period of 381-385. She wrote about Christian customs and observances in Egypt, Palestine and Asia Minor. She described how religious people traveled to Jerusalem and reenacted the events of Holy Week. On Palm Sunday afternoon, the people waved palm fronds. They made a procession from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. Holy week observances reached far to Spain by the fifth century. It then reached to Gaul and England by the early seventh century. They reached Rome by the twelfth century.
The reason why Holy Week happens is to reenact, relive, and participate in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Holy Week is the same in the eastern and western Church. However, since the eastern Christians use the Julian calendar for calculating Easter, the celebrations happens at different times. However, the following events in the week before Easter are the same irrespective of whether it is east and west, relative to the date of Easter:
- Palm Sunday (or Passion Sunday), the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.
- Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday)
- Good Friday, the arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus Christ.
- Holy Saturday, the Sabbath on which Jesus rested in the grave.
Friday: Preparation Day, the Passover
This is a day when the disciples arranged for the Passover meal. This is called as Friday Eve since the day begins with the previous sunset. That is the reason why 24 December is called as “Christmas Eve.” Jesus and the disciples ate the Passover in the upper room and they had it early. During that time, most Passover Seders did not include lamb. This was because most Jews lived too far away from the Temple for getting a lamb.