The events that lead to our joy and rejoicing

In an article by Mary Fairchild, the author explains that biblical scholars debate the order of events in Holy Week, but she nonetheless builds a timeline which Christians observe, starting not with Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday but with Palm Sunday.

SHROVE TUESDAY AND ASH WEDNESDAY

The word “shrove” derives from the English “shrive,” which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and penance. Traditionally, Anglo-Saxon Christians would be “shriven,” be absolved, on this day when Christians indulge in and use up eggs and milk before fasting begins; thus, pancake suppers mark the Pre-Lenten Season or Shrovetide. Pancake Day, other sources surmise, may be a pagan holiday wherein pancakes represent the sun and celebrate the arrival of spring.

Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and abstinence, has been observed since the sixth century. Primarily a Roman Catholic tradition, this Day of Ashes comes from “Dies Cinerum” in the Roman Missal, possibly originating during Gregory the Great’s papacy (590-604). Ashes symbolize humility and mortality, sorrow, and repentance for sin. The Anglo-Saxon church in the 10th century placed the sign of the cross on one’s forehead, and it became universal in the Western church at the Synod of Benevento in 1091.

The cross on the forehead recalls the same mark the priest makes at Baptism when the newly born Christian is saved from sin and becomes the servant of Christ. In Ezekiel, this passage relates the sealing of the servants of God for their protection: “Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark [a “tav”] upon the foreheads of the men who sign and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” Tav, one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, looks like the Greek chi, two crossed lines, which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ, Christos. The sign is a forebear of making the sign of the cross that some Christians practice.

PALM SUNDAY

A week ago, Christians met in their various churches to observe Palm Sunday, which celebrates the trip to Jerusalem Jesus made, knowing that His end was near. Near the village of Bethpage, he asked two of his disciples to bring him a donkey which He rode into Jerusalem upon the palm boughs his followers strewed before him and waved as He passed, shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” In my church we begin this procession from the garden, depending on the weather, and proceed to the sanctuary (this year to the parking lot) singing, “All glory, laud, and honor / to Thee, Redeemer King /To whom the lips of children / Made sweet hosannas ring.” An Anglican minister, John Mason Neale, translated the Latin version of this hymn, “Gloria, laus et honor,” which Theodulf of Orléans wrote in 820.

Theodulf served as bishop under Charlemagne, but when Louis the Pious became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Theodulf was arrested because he opposed icons and was suspected of supporting a rival to the throne. During his house arrest at a monastery, Theodulf wrote “Gloria, laus et honor” for Palm Sunday. Legend says that when Louis heard Theodulf sing the hymn, he was inspired to release him and to order that the hymn be sung every Palm Sunday thereafter.

On Palm Sunday evening, Jesus and his disciples spent the night in Bethany, two miles east of Jerusalem, probably in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Later, when people shout for Jesus to save himself, we feel the irony that Christ spent some of His last hours with one whom he had saved.

TENEBRAE AND MAUNDY THURSDAY

Tenebrae may mean the three services — Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday — before Easter Sunday. On its own, “tenebrae,” the Latin for darkness, is a service during which candles, as many as 15 to match the number of readings (matins and lauds), are extinguished one by one to total darkness, after which a “strepitus” or loud noise occurs, representing the earthquake at the time of Jesus’ death. A single candle is relit, and worshippers depart in silence by its lone light. Foot washing may be a part of this service as well. The church is stripped of all its hangings, crosses, candlesticks, and altar cloths during the extinguishing of the candles.

GOOD FRIDAY AND STATIONS OF THE CROSS

“Good” formerly meant “pious” or “holy,” but some sources say “good” is a version of “God Friday.” In the Catholic Church, the 1955 reform of Holy Week changed Good Friday from Feria sexta in Parasceve (Friday of Preparation) to Feria sexta in Passione et Morte Domini (Friday of the Passion and Death of the Lord).

Some churches observe Good Friday with a ritual, Stations of the Cross, also called Way of the Cross, wherein specific events in Christ’s life are noted with the aid of 14 or 15 pictures, icons, plaques, or other representations. The stations proceed thusly: Jesus’ condemnation to death, His carrying His cross, His falling the first time, His meeting His mother, Simon’s helping carry the cross, Veronica’s wiping of Jesus’ face, His second falling, His clothing taken away, His being nailed to the cross, His death, His body taken down, and His being laid in the tomb.

HOLY SATURDAYA day of waiting and meditation, Holy Saturday may involve an evening service of readings from Genesis to Ezekiel, a night “when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin and are restored to grace and holiness of life.” It anticipates the joy and rejoicing of Easter Sunday and the end of Holy Week, a term used since the fourth century.

Happy Easter to all!

Liz Meador is a retired English instructor from Wayne Community College and an adjunct at North Carolina Wesleyan College.