For Christians, the week before Easter is called Holy Week. The week starts with Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, and ends with Holy Saturday, the Saturday before Easter. The four important days are: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The three last days together are called the Easter Triduum. In Good or Holy Week (suffering week, penance week, or holy week) it is about the suffering and death of Jesus. Holy Week symbolizes the last week of Jesus.
Contents
- Palm Easter or Palm Sunday
- How to make a palm Easter stick
- White Thursday
- Good Friday
- Silent Saturday
Palm Easter or Palm Sunday
festive entry of Jesus into Jerusalem / Source: Pedro Orrente, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Palm Sunday is the last Sunday before Easter and the first day of Holy Week. It is the day on which the festive entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is celebrated. The people in Jerusalem were happy at his coming, they shouted and covered the road with palm branches. It was a glorious entry of the Messiah. Palm branches, boxwood branches, are still blessed in Catholic churches. The boxwood branches are taken home by the faithful and placed in a crucifix and are said to bring good luck. The priests in the church wear red clothing, royal red in this case.
In some places a parade is held with palm sticks. Children walk behind a band with decorated palm sticks. The sticks form a wooden cross that is decorated with boxwood branches (or other greenery), candy, streamers, eggs and a rooster. The green would refer to the palm branches on which Jesus walked into Jerusalem. The cross shape refers to the crucifixion and all the sweets and decorations are a foretaste of the great miracle that Easter brought. Then the rooster, it is often suggested that the animal refers to Peter. This man had said three times on Good Friday that he did not know Jesus, after which a rooster started crowing.
The first Palm Easter processions took place in the Middle Ages. However, a pagan meaning has always been given to the Palm Easter stick. Spring begins! Around this time there have always been pagan festivals that heralded spring.
Ostara / Source: Rumpenisse, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
The green branches can refer to the new greenery and the decorations to the hope for a fruitful year. A new year finally started for the farmers, a new beginning, the land had to be worked again and people had had enough of the dark and sometimes boring winter time. There was scrubbing. The expression at its Easter best is there for a reason. The major cleaning took place in the days before Easter and on Easter Sunday the house was tidy, the clothes washed and the sidewalk scrubbed.
The date of Easter is intertwined with pagan fertility festivals. The fertility goddess Ostara is often mentioned, but perhaps celebrations in her honor go back to even older rituals surrounding that great goddess Astarte. Many symbols around the Easter season probably have a pagan background, the Easter fires, the eggs, the Easter bunny and the rooster on the Easter palm stick.
How to make a palm Easter stick
Make a cross from two sticks. When you have green twigs, tie them along the wood. Just a bit of patience with thin rope and twigs. You start at the end and place the twigs on top of each other like roof tiles. You can (considerably faster) wrap crepe paper around the cross. The best thing is to tie a little green at the top of the cross. Make a garland of eggs (candy or blown out), peanuts and candies and hang it in the cross. You can also decorate with streamers and a rooster at the top of the cross. You can get a bread rooster from the bakery or make your own crafts with bread dough, but a rooster made of sturdy cardboard is also useful for small children.
White Thursday
the last supper / Source: Willem Key (circa 1515/1516–1568), Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Maundy Thursday because the priests wear white robes in church. The Last Supper is commemorated on Maundy Thursday. The night after the Last Supper, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of his disciples. Jesus knew at that moment that his life would soon end. The Lord’s Supper is celebrated in Protestant churches, while Catholics call it the Eucharist. Bread is eaten and wine is drunk. The bread is a reference to the body of Jesus, the wine to the blood he lost for the people. Matthew 26 says: As they finished eating, Jesus took bread, blessed him, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Good Friday
Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus on this day. It is a sad story and yet this day is called a good one. Christians believe that Jesus died on this day because he wanted to save us from our sins. The bells of the churches are not rung on this day, out of respect for the suffering and as a sign of deep mourning. In some churches, believers go in procession along the Way of the Cross. This is a route along images of the road that Jesus had to take to the mountain of skulls. Processions are still held in southern European countries in particular, in which believers with large crosses symbolically represent the last hours of Jesus.
Silent Saturday
Holy Saturday is the Saturday before Easter. It is a literal silence, there is no service in the church, it is quiet. Jesus was taken to his grave and the grave was closed with a heavy rock. Easter Saturday turns into the Easter vigil, the vigil for Easter Sunday. It is the dark night before that great festival of the Christian church, the festival of the Resurrection of Jesus.