We explain what Holy Week is for Christianity, when it is celebrated and what is commemorated on each of its days.
What is Holy Week?
Holy Week or Holy Week is one of the most important popular annual celebrations of Christian culture, which commemorates the different stages of the Passion of Jesus Christ: from his entry into Jerusalem, to his Way of the Cross, death and resurrection. Holy Week is one of the annual moments of greatest liturgical and ritual intensity in Christianity.
In religious terms, Holy Week represents the last week of the messiah on Earth. Therefore, its ritual content ranges from the triumphant to the tragic and the glorious.
It is usually celebrated on a variable date of the year, between March and April, after Palm Sunday, and starting on Ash Wednesday, the days begin to be “holy days.” Of all of them, the most important are the so-called “Easter Triduum” (from the Latin Triduum Paschale), which runs from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday (or Resurrection Sunday).
Holy Week initially coincided with the Jewish Passover, and its celebration criteria were more or less the same as the latter. For this reason, Christians consider Jesus of Nazareth as the “Passover Lamb,” whose sacrifice allowed the purging of humanity's sins.
Likewise, the first to celebrate Holy Week were the Jewish followers of Christ, that is, the first Christians, and later the Christianized Romans themselves, whose oldest records in this regard date back to the 4th century.
However, as Christianity spread to all regions of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, Their rites were hybridized with many pagan traditions like the celebration of spring.
That is why contemporary Holy Week It is celebrated in different ways in the different Christian territories of the world using different ways to represent and symbolize the suffering of Jesus Christ during the Stations of the Cross, as well as the subsequent glory of his resurrection.
Usually, in Christian countries, Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday are usually holidays, non-working days.
See also: Symbols of Holy Week
When is Holy Week celebrated?
The celebration of Holy Week takes place on variable dates, between March 22 and April 25 always preceded by Lent and framed between Palm Sunday and Easter or Resurrection Sunday. There is a historical reason for this.
The first rules for the celebration of the “Christian Easter” were defined at the First Council of Nicaea in the year 325, to solve the confusion in this regard (the computus paschalis) that opposed the visions of the Church of Rome and the Church of Alexandria.
Thus, it was decided that the Christian Easter would always be celebrated on a Sunday, which did not coincide with the Jewish one, and that it would be only once a year, since the new year then began at the spring equinox. However, astronomical discrepancies continued between the two churches, which celebrated Easter 4 days apart.
Thus, a new reform of the ritual calendar was needed, which was proposed by the Byzantine monk Dionysius the Exiguous (c. 465-550) in the year 525. It was he who also created the name Anno Domini (“Year of the Lord “), which allowed the Gregorian calendar to replace the Julian calendar. Once Rome was convinced of the benefits of the Alexandrian way of calculating the date of Easter, it was established that:
- Easter must always be celebrated on a Sunday. This Sunday must be the one following the first full moon of the northern spring, so that it does not coincide with the Jewish Passover.
- The Paschal moon must take place on the spring equinox of the northern hemisphere or immediately after. This equinox must occur between March 20 and 21.
In this way, the current calculation of when Holy Week is celebrated was reached.
Maundy Thursday
Holy Thursday is the first day of the Easter Triduum, that is, one of the most important days of Holy Week. It is celebrated the Thursday before Easter Sunday, closing the Lenten Cycle. This day the Catholic Church commemorates the Eucharist at the Last Supper of Jesus Christ and his apostles, as well as the washing of feet performed by the messiah.
Later, in the “holy hour” The prayer of Jesus Christ in the olive garden is commemorated, as well as the betrayal of Judas and the capture of Jesus by the Roman authorities.
Holy Thursday celebrations vary enormously from country to country, but they usually involve, in addition to the corresponding masses, solemn processions with a large popular presence.
Good Friday
The fifth day of Holy Week is perhaps the most representative of the celebration and the one that most deeply commemorates the life of Jesus of Nazareth, given that It was the day of the Stations of the Cross, crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ.
The solemn ceremonies of this day usually abound in red decorations and moments of silence, since it is a day of mourning. Good Friday and Holy Saturday are the only days of the Christian liturgy in which mass is not said.
The Catholic Church orders its faithful to observe fasting and abstinence especially regarding the consumption of red meat, and many other Christian churches offer special services and prohibit the performance of worldly works.
Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday It is the day of waiting for the resurrection of Jesus Christ which commemorates his descent into the tomb and his journey into the abyss. Just like (and much more) than Good Friday, It is a day of mourning of ceremonial silence, in which mass is not given, nor other sacraments are administered.
Traditionally, this day was called Holy Saturday, since the celebration of the resurrection was celebrated already in the morning, but after the liturgical reform of Holy Week in 1955 (undertaken by Pope Pius XII), the use of “Holy Saturday” and a fast is set for one to three hours before the nightly communion, when the Easter Vigil begins, from the night of Holy Saturday until the early hours of Easter Sunday.
Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday, Glory Sunday or Resurrection Sunday is the day on which Holy Week concludes, and that celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after his death on the cross. This celebration begins after the Easter Vigil and lasts for a week, until the Easter Octave, and is one of the most important in the Christian calendar.
Its celebration usually involves religious processions and liturgical celebrations, as well as decorating Easter eggs and other types of festivities, depending on the country and local culture.
The theological meaning of Easter Sunday has to do with the renewal of vows and the confirmation of God's coming judgment which has offered humanity a new covenant thanks to the sacrifice of the messiah, Jesus Christ.
Continue with: Christian Easter
References
- “Holy Week” on Wikipedia.
- “Holy Week” on Catholic.net.
- “What do we celebrate at Easter?” in Public Services, Housing and Credit Cooperative Tío Pujio Ltda (Argentina).
- “Holy Week” on barcelona.cat.
- “Holy Week (Christianity)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
