Holy Week

History

Holy Week in the liturgical year is the week immediately before Easter. The earliest allusion to the custom of marking this week as a whole with special observances is to be found in the Apostolical Constitutions (v. 18, 19), dating from the latter half of the 3rd century and 4th century. In this text, abstinence from flesh is commanded for all the days, while for the Friday and Saturday an absolute fast is commanded. Dionysius Alexandrinus in his canonical epistle (AD 260), refers to the 91 fasting days implying that the observance of them had already become an established usage in his time.

There is some doubt about the genuineness of an ordinance attributed to Roman Emperor Constantine, in which abstinence from public business was enforced for the seven days immediately preceding Easter Day, and also for the seven which followed it. The Codex Theodosianus, however, is explicit in ordering that all actions at law should cease, and the doors of all courts of law be closed during those 15 days (1. ii. tit. viii.).

Of the particular days of the "great week" the earliest to emerge into special prominence was naturally Good Friday. Next came the Sabbatum Magnum ("Great Sabbath", i.e., Holy Saturday or Easter Eve) with its vigil, which in the early church was associated with an expectation that the second advent would occur on an Easter Day.

Other writings that refer to related traditions of the early Church include, most notably, The Pilgrimage of Etheria (also known as The Pilgrimage of Egeria), which details the whole observance of Holy Week at that time.

Today, in the Western Christian Church, among Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Catholics, the liturgies used for Holy Week are nearly identical. In the Episcopal Church, the main U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, the 1979 Book of Common Prayer identifies Holy Week—comprising Palm Sunday (Sunday of the Passion) through Holy Saturday—as a separate season after Lent, rather than as part of it; but the weekdays of Holy Week, like those of Lent, are Days of Special Devotion to be observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial, so the practical effect is the same as if Holy Week were considered part of Lent.

In the Moravian Church, the Holy Week services (Passion Week) are extensive, as the congregation follows the life of Christ through his final week in daily services dedicated to readings from a harmony of the Gospel stories, responding to the actions in hymns, prayers and litanies, beginning on the eve of Palm Sunday and culminating in the Easter Morning or Easter Sunrise service begun by the Moravians in 1732.

Holy Week in Western Christianity

Palm Sunday (Sixth Sunday of Lent)

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, complete: Palm and Passion Sunday (Latin Dominica in Palmis de Passione Domini). Traditionally, Palm Sunday commemorates the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem described in all four canonical gospels. As described in these accounts, Christ's entry into Jerusalem was noted by the crowds present who shouted praises and waved palm branches. In the Roman Rite, before 1955 it was known simply as Palm Sunday, and the preceding Sunday as Passion Sunday. From 1955 to 1971 it was called Second Sunday in Passiontide or Palm Sunday. Among Lutherans and Anglicans, the day is known as the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday.

In many liturgical denominations, to commemorate Christ's entry into Jerusalem to accomplish his paschal mystery, it is customary to have a blessing of palm leaves or other branches, for example olive branches. The blessing ceremony includes the reading of a Gospel account of Jesus humbly riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, reminiscent of a Davidic victory procession, and people placing palm and other branches on the ground before him.

Immediately following this great time of celebration over the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, he begins his journey to the cross. The blessing is thus followed by a procession or solemn entrance into the church, with the participants holding the blessed branches in their hands. The liturgy includes the solemn reading of the Passion, the narrative of Christ's capture, suffering and death, as recounted in one of the Synoptic Gospels. (In the Tridentine Mass the Passion is always that of St. Matthew.)

Before the reform of the rite by Pope Pius XII, the blessing of the palms occurred inside the church within a liturgy that followed the general outline of a Mass, with Collect, Epistle and Gospel, as far as the Sanctus. The palms were then blessed with five prayers, and a procession went out of the church and on its return included a ceremony for the reopening of the doors, which had meanwhile been shut. After this the normal Mass was celebrated.

Churches of many denominations, including the Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, Moravian and Reformed traditions, distribute palm branches to their congregations during their Palm Sunday liturgies. Christians take these palms, which are often blessed by clergy, to their homes where they hang them alongside Christian art (especially crosses and crucifixes) or keep them in their Bibles or devotionals.

Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday

The days between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday are known as Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday (Fig Tuesday), and Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday). There are traditional observances held by liturgical denominations to commemorate events from the last days of Jesus Christ's life. Among them:

On Holy Monday, events observed in the liturgy may include Jesus cursing the fig tree, the cleansing of the Temple, the authority of Jesus questioned, and the anointing of Jesus at Bethany (John 12:1–11), an event that in the Gospel of John occurred before Palm Sunday as in John 12:12–19.

On Holy Tuesday, some observe Christ's predictions of his own death, as described in John 12:20–36 and John 13:21–38. (In the Tridentine Mass the Passion according to St. Mark is read instead.)

Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday)

On Holy Wednesday, the story of Judas arranging his betrayal of Jesus with the chief priests is remembered; he was a spy among the disciples of Jesus (Matthew 26:14–25). For this reason, the day is sometimes called "Spy Wednesday". (In the Tridentine Mass the Passion according to St. Luke is read instead.) Other events connected with this date include events at the house of Simon the Leper, especially the anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany, which directly preceded the betrayal of Jesus by Judas to the Sanhedrin.

Tenebrae (Latin for "shadows" or "darkness") is celebrated within Western Christianity during Holy Week, especially on Spy Wednesday. Tenebrae is distinctive for its gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms is chanted or recited. Tenebrae liturgies are celebrated by some parishes of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, the Polish National Catholic Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Moravian Church, the Anglican Communion, the Methodist Churches, and Western Rite Orthodoxy within the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday (also known as Holy Thursday) commemorates the Last Supper, where Christ lays out the model for the Eucharist or Holy Communion. During the meal, Jesus predicted the events that would immediately follow, including his betrayal, the Denial of Peter, and his death and resurrection. The liturgical celebration of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum. Catholic and Lutheran parishes traditionally practice the foot washing (Maundy) ceremony on Maundy Thursday, a practice also kept in other denominations.

In the Catholic Church, on this day the private celebration of Mass is forbidden. Thus, apart from the Chrism Mass for the blessing of the Holy Oils that the diocesan bishop may celebrate on the morning of Holy Thursday, but also on some other day close to Easter, the only Mass on this day is the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, which inaugurates the period of three days known as the Easter Triduum, that includes Good Friday (seen as beginning with the liturgy of the preceding evening), Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday up to evening prayer on that day. The Chrism Mass, whose texts the Roman Missal and the rubrics used in Lutheran Churches now give under Maundy Thursday, but before the Paschal Triduum which begins that evening, may be brought forward early in Holy Week, to facilitate participation by as many clergy of the diocese as possible together with the bishop. This Mass was not included in editions of the Roman Missal before the time of Pope Pius XII. In this Mass, the bishop blesses separate oils for the sick (used in Anointing of the Sick), for catechumens (used in baptism) and chrism (used in baptism, confirmation and the Holy Orders, as well as in rites such as the dedication of an altar and a church).

The Mass of the Lord's Supper commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus with his Twelve Apostles, "the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the priesthood, and the commandment of brotherly love that Jesus gave after washing the feet of his disciples." All the bells of the church, including altar bells, may be rung during the Gloria in Excelsis Deo of the Mass (the Gloria is not traditionally sung on Sundays in Lent). The bells then fall silent and the organ and other musical instruments may be used only to support the singing until the Gloria at the Easter Vigil. The Roman Missal recommends that, if considered pastorally appropriate, the priest should, immediately after the homily, celebrate the rite of washing the feet of customarily twelve men, recalling the number of the apostles.

Good Friday

Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus and his subsequent death. Commemorations of often solemn and mournful, many denominations use Good Friday to perform the Stations of the Cross, or other commemorations of the Passion, either as a self-guided time of reflection and veneration or as a procession of statues or images of the stations.

The evening liturgical celebration on Holy Thursday begins the first of three days in the Easter Triduum, which continues in an atmosphere of liturgical mourning throughout the next day, in spite of the name "Good" given in English to the day.

For Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican Christians, Good Friday is widely observed as a fast day. A Handbook for the Discipline of Lent recommends the Lutheran guideline to "fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday with only one simple meal during the day, usually without meat". Western Catholic Church practice is to have only one full meal with, if needed, two small snacks that together do not make a full meal. The Anglican Communion defines fasting more generically as: "The amount of food eaten is reduced."

In some countries, such as Malta, Philippines, Italy, and Spain processions with statues representing the Passion of Christ are held.

The church mourns for Christ's death, reveres the cross, and marvels at his life for his obedience until death.

In the Catholic Church, the only sacraments celebrated are Penance and Anointing of the Sick. While there is no celebration of the Eucharist, Holy Communion is distributed to the faithful only in the Celebration of the Lord's Passion, but can be taken at any hour to the sick who are unable to attend this liturgy.

Outside the afternoon liturgical celebration, the altar remains completely bare in Catholic churches, without altar cloth, candlesticks, or cross. In Lutheran and Methodist churches, the altar is usually draped in black.

It is customary to empty the holy water fonts in preparation for the blessing of the water at the Easter Vigil.

Holy Saturday (Black Saturday)

Holy Saturday is the day between the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection. As the Sabbath day, the Gospel accounts all note that Jesus was hurriedly buried in a cave tomb after his crucifixion, with the intent to finish proper embalming and burial ceremonies on Sunday, after the Sabbath had ended, as the Sabbath day prohibitions would have prevented observant Jews from completing a proper burial.

In the Catholic tradition after the Good Friday service, which represents the burial of Jesus, until the Easter Vigil on Saturday night, no mass takes place whatsoever on Holy Saturday. The celebration of the Easter Vigil liturgically belongs to Easter Sunday.

On Holy Saturday, the Church waits at the Lord's tomb, in prayer and fasting, meditating on his Passion and Death and on his Descent into Hell and awaiting his Resurrection. The Church abstains from the Sacrifice of the Mass, with the sacred table left bare, until after the solemn Vigil, that is, the anticipation by night of the Resurrection, when the time comes for paschal joys, the abundance of which overflows to occupy fifty days. Holy Communion may only be given on this day as Viaticum.

In some Anglican churches, including the Episcopal Church in the United States, there is provision for a simple liturgy of the word with readings commemorating the burial of Christ.

The doors of the empty tabernacle of the main altar are left open, to symbolise that Jesus Christ is gone. The lamp or candle usually situated next to the tabernacle denoting the presence of Christ is blown out.

In the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian traditions, the Easter Vigil, one of the longest and most solemn of liturgical liturgies, lasts up to three or four hours, consists of four parts:

The Service of Light

The Liturgy of the Word

The Liturgy of Baptism: The sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation for new members of the Church and the Renewal of Baptismal Promises by the entire congregation.

Easter Day

Easter Day (or Easter Sunday), which immediately follows Holy Week and begins with the Easter Vigil, is the great feast day and apogee of the Christian liturgical year: on this day the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated. It is the first day of the new season of the Great Fifty Days, or Eastertide, which runs from Easter Day to Pentecost Sunday. The Resurrection of Christ on Easter Day is the main reason why Christians keep every Sunday as the primary day of religious observance.

Plenary indulgence

In the Roman Catholic Church, plenary indulgence is granted once a day by the 1999 Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, in the following cases:

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for at least one half hour;

The pious exercise of the Way of the Cross;

Recitation of the Marian Rosary or of the hymn Akathistos, in church or an oratory; or in a family, a religious community, or a sodality of the faithful or, in general, when several of the faithful are gathered for any good purpose;

The devout reading or listening to the Sacred Scriptures for at least a half an hour.

Holy Week observances

Cities famous for their Holy Week processions include:

Holy Week has developed into one of Brazil's main symbols of community identity, more specifically in the southern town of Campanha. The Campanha Holy Week begins on the Monday evening with the Procession of the Deposit. The figure of Our Lord of the Stations, representing the blood-stained Jesus carrying the cross, is brought from the church in a large black box and displayed in the main square. Then it is solemnly taken to the church following a band and a procession of people.

Outside the church, a sermon is delivered on the Easter story of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. After the sermon, a choir inside the open doors of the church sings the Miserere by Manoel Dias de Oliveria, while the black box is brought inside the church, and people come in to kiss the human-sized figure of Christ. Processions on Tuesday and Wednesday stop at different chapels at each of which a large painting portrays episodes of the Way of the Cross and a related hymn is sung at each. On Thursday morning the Chrism Mass is celebrated, with a blessing of the oils.

Good Friday afternoon ceremonies are followed by the week's main spectacle of the Taking Down from the Cross in front of the cathedral followed by the Funeral Procession of Our Dead Lord. The drama shows Christ being taken from the cross and placed in a coffin, which is then taken around to the accompaniment of the "Song of Veronica". On Saturday morning a drama is performed by the youth.

The following night, the Paschal Vigil is celebrated, and the streets are transformed into a beautiful array of intricate, colorful carpets to prepare for the following day. Easter Sunday begins before sunrise with the singing of the choir and band performances to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Bells and fireworks are followed by a Mass that ends with the "Hallelujah Chorus".

Holy Week in Guatemala incorporates processions with images of saints carried on huge wooden platforms. The heavy andas are held by the locals, both men and women, who are frequently in purple robes. The procession is led by a man holding a container of incense accompanied by a small horn and flute band. Intricate carpets (alfombras) line the streets during the week's celebration. Easter processions begin at sunrise and everyone comes to join the festivities.

Music

Music for the Holy Week includes Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet, Responsories for Holy Week, Passion oratorios and Easter oratorios.

Tomás Luis de Victoria's Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae (1585) contains settings of 37 texts for the Catholic liturgy of the Holy Week. Carlo Gesualdo's Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia (1611) contains settings of all 27 Tenebrae responsories (for matins of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday), and of a few other text for use in lauds of the Holy Week. Leçons de ténèbres as composed by various French baroque composers were usually intended for performance during the evening of Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Holy Week in Eastern Christianity

Eastern Orthodoxy

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the forty days of Great Lent end on the Friday before Palm Sunday. The two days that follow, Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, form a transition to Holy Week, neither in Lent nor in Holy Week themselves, lightening the fast, with fish eggs being allowed on Lazarus Saturday, and fish on Palm Sunday, which is the lightest degree of fasting (in the modern Greek usage, fish is allowed on Palm Sunday only if the feast of the Annunciation has not happened yet).

Lazarus Saturday commemorates Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, just before he went to Jerusalem himself. The main themes anticipate the Resurrection of Jesus, showing him as master over death. As such, the service of Matins contains elements traditionally associated with Sundays, like the hymn "Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ...". Palm Sunday is considered one of the Great Feasts of the Lord, therefore the normal resurrectional elements of Sunday hymnography are omitted, and the services focus on the Entry of the Lord. As the events commemorated on these two days are closely related, some aspects of the sequence of events are found in the hymnography of both feasts: most famously, the apolytikion for Lazarus Saturday is used again for Palm Sunday, at various times superseding an other one which more closely focuses on the Entry of the Lord.

Holy Week is referred to as "Great and Holy Week", or "Passion Week". In the languages of traditionally Orthodox countries, the days of Holy Week are usually called Great Monday, Great Tuesday etc.

The Orthodox liturgical day starts at sunset (as it has from antiquity), meaning that during most of the year Vespers is the first service of the day. However, Holy Week differs in that respect, as the service of Vespers on Sunday evening, which should belong to Holy Monday, actually belongs to Palm Sunday, and all hymns still refer to the Entry of the Lord. Thus, for all days of Holy Week Vespers is actually the last service of the day. This is an essential aspect of Lent in general and Holy Week in particular: time is upended, reversed, which is mystagogical way of showing both that salvation is the work of God, and that God's ways are not understandable to the mind of man.

During Holy Week, in most parishes, services usually are held earlier than the canonical time (which is always preferred to holding them later than the canonical time) so that more faithful may attend. Thus, the service of matins of Great Monday is celebrated on Sunday evening in parish churches and vespers are celebrated the next morning.

Coptic Orthodox Church

The Coptic Orthodox Christians fast the Lent for 55 days including the Holy Week which they call Holy Paschal Week.

The Friday before Palm Sunday is called "The Concluding Friday of Great Lent". On this day a special liturgy called "The Unction of the Sick" is conducted. It consists of seven prayers and at the conclusion of the prayers, the priest anoints each member of the congregation with the holy oil.

The following day – the last Saturday before Holy Week – is called "Lazarus Saturday". On this day the Coptic Church commemorates the Raising of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary of Bethany. This day is related to the events of Holy Week in that John 12 tells of a visit of Jesus to Lazarus immediately before recounting the events of Palm Sunday.

Since the liturgical day starts from the evening before a calendar day, the prayers of Palm Sunday begin on the evening of Lazarus' Saturday.

Throughout Holy Week, a paschal liturgy is conducted each evening, starting on Sunday night (the eve of Monday), and every morning, up until Easter. These paschal liturgies take place in the middle of the church, not on the altar, because Jesus suffered and was crucified on Golgotha, outside of Jerusalem. The altar is bared of all its coverings and relics.

Each day liturgy is divided into 5 "hours"; The First Hour, The Third Hour, The Sixth Hour, The Ninth Hour, and The Eleventh Hour.

Likewise, each night liturgy is also divided into the same five hours. However, Good Friday has an extra hour added to it, that of The Twelfth Hour.

During each hour, one or a few prophecies are read at the beginning, a hymn ("Thine is the Power") is chanted twelve times, a psalm is sung in a sad tune, one passage from a gospel is read, and an exposition concludes the hour.

On Good Friday Eve and Good Friday, all four gospel accounts of the day's events are read, and more prophecies are read as well.

Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Lutheran Churches

Holy Week observances and customs of the Eastern Catholic and Eastern Lutheran churches are generally the same as in the rites of the corresponding Eastern Orthodox or Oriental Orthodox Church or Assyrian Church of the East.

Related observances

Through time, the festival of Holy Week was extended at both ends, with observances starting on Friday of Sorrows, the last Friday before Palm Sunday, and Eastertide, with various observances marking days of the Easter Octave.

Friday of Sorrows

The religious processions that are part of the Holy Week celebrations in many countries begin two days before Holy Week on what in those countries is called Friday of Sorrows.

On the Friday before Holy Week, the Roman Rite celebrated universally from 1727 to 1969 a liturgical feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Celebration of this feast began in Germany but spread to many other countries even before Pope Benedict XIII made it a universal feast, assigning it to the Friday before Palm Sunday. Another feast with the same name was and still is celebrated in September. With his Code of Rubrics of 1960, Pope John XXIII reduced the feast on the Friday of what was then called Passion Week (the week before Holy Week) to the level of a commemoration, and in 1969 the celebration was removed from the General Roman Calendar as a duplicate of the September feast. Pope John Paul II's 2002 edition of the Roman Missal provides an alternative collect for this Friday:

This provision of an alternative collect was the equivalent of granting the Lenten celebration of Our Lady of Sorrow the rank of memorial, since during Lent a memorial, even if otherwise obligatory, is represented in the liturgy of the day at most by optional use of its collect. The liturgical calendar of Malta gives the celebration the rank of feast, making its observance obligatory. Observance of the Tridentine Mass calendar as it stood in 1962 is still permitted in the circumstances indicated in the 2007 document Summorum Pontificum, giving Our Lady of Sorrows a commemoration within the liturgy of the Friday.

In many Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Peru, as well as in Spain and the Philippines, this Friday feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is called Viernes de Dolores (Friday of Sorrows). It is sometimes also referred to as "Council Friday", because of the choice of John 11:47–54 as the Gospel passage read in the Tridentine Mass on that day (which is now read in slightly expanded form on Saturday of the fifth week of Lent), which recounts the meeting of the Sanhedrin to discuss what to do with Jesus. Its date is exactly a week before Good Friday.

The somber and often nocturnal commemoration with public processions directs thoughts to the desolate emotional state of the Virgin Mary on Black Saturday as prophesied by the Rabbi Simeon on the "seven sorrows" that as an allegorical sword pierced her heart. She is represented as worrying and grieving with Saint Mary Magdalene for Jesus; therefore the event is markedly similar to a mourning event among the people.

Octave of Easter

The Octave of Easter, also referred to as Bright Week in the Eastern tradition, is the eight-day period (octave) in Eastertide that starts on Easter Sunday and concludes with the following Sunday.

Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and is a holiday in some countries. Easter Monday in the Western Christian liturgical calendar is the second day of Eastertide and analogously in the Byzantine Rite is the second day of Bright Week. Recognized as a bank holiday in many countries, many traditional religious events, as open-air Masses and blessings with the Easter water happen on Easter Monday, as well as other popular traditions linked to the Easter eggs, such as the Easter omelette, made from Easter eggs and shared with friends and neighbours in the South of France.

Śmigus-dyngus (Polish pronunciation: [ˈɕmigus ˈdɨnɡus]; also lany poniedziałek, meaning "Wet Monday" in Polish; Czech: Oblévačka; Slovak: Oblievačka; Hungarian: Vízbevető; Ukrainian: поливаний понеділок) is a Catholic celebration held on Easter Monday mostly in Poland, but also in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and some parts of western Ukraine. It is also observed by Polish diaspora communities, particularly among Polish Americans, who call it Dyngus Day.

Traditionally, boys throw water over girls and spank them with pussy willow branches on Easter Monday, and girls do the same to boys. This is accompanied by a number of other rituals, such as making verse declarations and holding door-to-door processions, in some regions involving boys dressed as bears or other creatures. The origins of the celebration are uncertain, but it may date to pagan times before 1000 AD; it is described in writing as early as the 15th century. It continues to be observed throughout Central Europe, and also in the United States, where certain patriotic American elements have been added to the traditional Polish ones.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches, this day is called "Bright Monday" or "Renewal Monday". The services, as in the rest of Bright Week, are quite different from during the rest of the year and are similar to the services on Pascha (Easter Sunday) and include an outdoor procession after the Divine Liturgy; while this is prescribed for all days of that week, often they are only celebrated on Monday and maybe a couple of other days in parish churches, especially in non-Orthodox countries. Also, when the calendar date of the feast day of a major saint, e.g., St. George or the patron saint of a church or one's name day, falls during Holy Week or on Easter Sunday, the saint's day is celebrated on Easter Monday.