In the Christian calendar, Holy Thursday - also called Maundy Thursday and, in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, Great Thursday[1] - is the feast or holy day on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. It is followed by Good Friday.
On this day four events are commemorated: the washing of the Disciples' feet by Jesus Christ, the institution of the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot.
The evening celebration of these events marks the beginning of what is called the Easter Triduum or Sacred Triduum. The Latin word triduum means a three-day period, and the triduum in question is that of the three days from the death to the resurrection of Jesus. It should be noted that for Jesus and his followers the a new day began at sunset, not at midnight, as it still does today in the modern Jewish calendar.[2] The Last Supper was held at what present-day Western civilization considers to be the evening of Holy Thursday but what was then considered to be the first hours of Friday. Its annual commemoration thus begins the three-day period or triduum of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, days of special devotion that celebrate as a single action the death and resurrection of Christ, the central events of Christianity.
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[edit] Name in English
"Maundy Thursday" is the traditional name for this day in England. It is therefore the usual name also in English-speaking Protestant Churches that originated in that country and even in some that originated in Scotland, although the Scottish Book of Common Prayer uses the name "Holy Thursday".[3] Other English-speaking Protestant Churches, such as the Lutheran, use both "Maundy Thursday" and "Holy Thursday".[4] Among Roman Catholics, except in England, the usual English name for the day is "Holy Thursday", in line with the name used in major Romance Languages.[5] Presumably these modern names came into being before the Catholic Church changed the pagan names of the days of the week in Latin.
The word Maundy is derived through Middle English, and Old French mandé, from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ( A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you), the statement by Jesus in the Gospel of John (13:34) by which Jesus explained to the Apostles the significance of his action of washing their feet. The phrase is used as the antiphon sung during the "Mandatum" ceremony of the washing of the feet, which may be held during Mass or at another time as a separate event, during which a priest or bishop (representing Christ) ceremonially washes the feet of others, typically 12 persons chosen as a cross-section of the community.
[edit] Services
Church services held on this day typically include a reading from the Gospel account of the Last Supper, which includes Christ's taking bread and wine and, declaring them to be his body and blood, giving them to the Apostles. This day also stresses Jesus' washing of the feet of the Apostles at the start of the Last Supper, as recounted in the Gospel of John. At services on this day, a minister, priest, or lay leader(s) may wash the feet of some members of the congregation to commemorate Christ's actions and command. The Washing of the Feet is a traditional component of the celebration in many Christian Churches, including the Roman Catholic, Armenian[6], Maronite, Ethiopian, Mennonite, and United Methodist[7] Churches. Feet washing is also increasingly popular as a part of Maundy Thursday liturgies in many Anglican, Lutheran and Protestant churches.
In the Roman Rite liturgy, the Holy Thursday Mass recalling the Last Supper is the last Mass before the Easter Vigil service. It usually includes a reenactment of the Washing of the Feet of the Apostles, and is followed by a procession taking the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose, and then by stripping of all altars except the Altar of Repose.
[edit] Other names
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the day is referred to liturgically as Great Thursday but is also called Holy Thursday or Holy and Great Thursday.
The day has also been known in English as Sheer Thursday, from an obsolete word shere (meaning "clean" or "bright"). This name might refer to the act of cleaning, or to the fact that churches would switch liturgical colors from the dark tones of Lent, or because it was customary to shear the beard on that day,[8] or for a combination of reasons.[9] This name is a cognate to the word still used throughout Scandinavia, such as Swedish "Skärtorsdag", Danish "Skærtorsdag" and Norwegian "Skjærtorsdag". Skär in Swedish is also an archaic word for wash.
[edit] Customs and names from around the world
- The Maundy Thursday celebrations in the United Kingdom today involve the Monarch (at the time of writing Queen Elizabeth II) offering "alms" to deserving senior citizens (one man and one woman for each year of the sovereign's age). These coins, known as Maundy money or Royal Maundy, are distributed in red and white purses. This custom dates back to King Edward I. The red purse contains regular currency and is given in place of food and clothing. The white purse contains currency in the amount of one penny for each year of the Sovereign's age. Since 1822, rather than ordinary money, the Sovereign gives out special Maundy coins.[10]
Up until the death of King James II, the Monarch would also wash the feet of the selected poor people. There is even an old sketch, done from life, of Queen Elizabeth I washing people's feet on Maundy Thursday.
- The popular German name Gründonnerstag means either "mourning Thursday" from Middle High German greinen (to weep) or "green Thursday".[11] Other names are High, Holy and White Thursday.
- In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the day is called Zelený čtvrtek or Zelený štvrtok respectively, meaning "Green Thursday" as well. Sometimes it is speculated that the name comes from the perhaps green colour of vestments once worn at the Mass that day. Another theory says that the name comes from the green vegetable eaten on this day, such as spinach or cabbage, so that people were healthy all the year round. This custom has its origins in the Jewish Pesach dinner. [12] Because the church bells fall silent until Holy Saturday, here called "White Saturday", because "they have flown to Rome", in some regions they are replaced by groups of children walking round their village and making noise with wooden rattles. People come out of the door and give them coins.
- In Malta, this day is known as Ħamis ix-Xirka, which literally means "Society Thursday". It is celebrated by the reenactment of the Washing of the Feet of the Apostles. This is usually done by selecting 12 men from amongst the congregation.
- In the Philippines, a popular Holy Thursday tradition is the Visita Iglesia (Church Visit), which involves visiting several Churches at which the faithful commemorate the vigil that the Apostles kept while Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is a custom in use in several European countries also.
[edit] References and Footnotes
- ^ See the section Other names below.
- ^ See Boundaries of the day
- ^ Scottish Book of Common Prayer
- ^ Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: Lutheran Family Churches
- ^ No modern language uses a literal translation of the Ecclesiastical Latin name that liturgical books of the Roman Rite give the day: Feria Quinta in Cena Domini (Thursday of the Lord's Supper). Similarly, "Good Friday" is not literal translation of Feria Sexta in Passione Domini (Friday of the Lord's Passion).
- ^ The Armenian Church: Maundy Thursday
- ^ The United Methodist Church: Maundy Thursday
- ^ New Catholic Dictionary; Omnigraphics
- ^ "The old English name for Maundy Thursday was 'Sheer Thursday', when the penitents obtained absolution, trimmed their hair and beards, and washed in preparation for Easter" (Hungarian Saints).
- ^ The Royal Mint
- ^ The word is of medieval origin and is either derived from the color "green" which may refer to the green vestments possibly worn for mass in some regions, or to a custom of eating green salad or pancakes (cf. Deutsches Wörterbuch by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm); or the name is to be traced back to Old High German grīnan ("mourn" or "wail", cf. Engl. groan) and refers to the death of Jesus or the returning of the penitent to the eucharist on that day in older times.
- ^ Velikonoční týden - pašijový, svatý, velký
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