WE are coming up to the holiest time of the year as far as Christians are concerned. People of other faiths may be interested in what makes Holy Week special for Christians.
People of no faith at all may still be interested in what inspired, for example, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, or Michelangelo’s Pieta.
And sometimes Christians are a bit hazy about their own faith.
So here’s a thumbnail sketch of the Christian Holy Week.
Holy Week remembers and celebrates the last week of Jesus’ life on earth. (Christians say ‘on earth’ because they believe that Jesus is still alive.)
It begins on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode in triumph into Jerusalem and the crowds acclaimed him as the Messiah.
They waved palm branches in his honour. On Palm Sunday, many Christians still go in procession, and take home small crosses woven out of palm leaves.
The next big day is Maundy Thursday. ‘Maundy’ comes from the word ‘command’.
On the first Maundy Thursday Jesus held a Passover supper with his disciples, and ‘commanded’ them to be of service to each other. To symbolise this he washed their feet, taking the slave’s role. In many churches on Maundy Thursday the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper) is celebrated, and the feet of the congregation are washed.
Then comes Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified.
‘Good’ might seem the last thing to call this day, but Christians believe that in the death of Jesus God lovingly identified himself with humanity in its suffering and pain.
It is the love that God shows for us in Jesus that is ‘good’.
Saturday of Holy Week is often called Holy Saturday, a day of preparation for Easter, when Christians remember how the body of Jesus lay in the tomb.
And so to Easter Sunday, the day when the first disciples found the tomb empty, and they met with the living Jesus.
‘Easter’ is a word from the old pagan celebration of spring.
It is surprising that (in English) this is the name for the holiest day of the Christian Year, but it is a reminder that the Resurrection of Jesus is God’s springtime, the day he brought new life to the world.