Holy Week

Holy Week, in the Christian church, is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, observed with special solemnity as a time of devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week Marked by distinctive liturgies, processions, observances, and acts of reflection that vary across Christian traditions, the week serves as the most sacred period of the liturgical year. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week

Holy Week begins with Palm, or Passion, Sunday, which celebrates the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Britannica Students: Easter

Easter is immediately preceded by Holy Week, which includes Maundy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples; Good Friday, the day of his Crucifixion; and Holy Saturday, the transition between Crucifixion and Resurrection. Britannica Scholars: Easter Holy Saturday commemorates Christ's burial and his triumphant descent into hell. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week

The procession with palms, which was already observed in Jerusalem in the fourth century, is accompanied by the reading or singing of the Passion Narrative. Church of England: Passiontide Maundy Thursday (from mandatum, 'commandment', because of the use of John 13.34 in the Antiphon) contains themes of humble Christian service expressed through Christ's washing of his disciples' feet, the institution of the Eucharist, and the agony of Gethsemane. Church of England: Passiontide

The veneration of the Cross is older; the sequence of meditations and music known as the Three Hours' Devotion was introduced into the Church of England in the nineteenth century. Church of England: Passiontide It is a widespread custom for there not to be a celebration of the Eucharist on Good Friday, but for the consecrated bread and wine remaining from the Maundy Thursday Eucharist to be given in communion. Church of England: Passiontide

The church remains stripped of all decoration through the following day, which is a day without a liturgy: there can be no adequate way of recalling the being dead of the Son of God, other than silence and desolation. Church of England: Passiontide

The Church of England sets that Saturday silence out with care, and we leave the wording as it stands.

Originally, only Good Friday and Holy Saturday were observed as holy days. Later, Wednesday was added, and by the beginning of the 3rd century the other days of the week had been added as holy days. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week By the later 4th century the practice had begun of separating the various events of the final week of Jesus' life and commemorating them on the days on which they occurred. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week

The name Holy Week was used in the 4th century by St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and St. Epiphanius of Constantia. In the Greek and Roman liturgical books, it is called the Great Week. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week In Eastern churches, Holy Week is preceded by Lazarus Saturday, which celebrates the raising of Lazarus of Bethany and marks the end of Great Lent. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week

Liturgically, Easter comes after the Great Vigil, which was originally observed sometime between sunset on Easter Saturday and sunrise on Easter Sunday. Britannica Scholars: Easter The use of the Paschal candle, to denote the appearance of light out of darkness through the Resurrection, was first recorded in the year 384; by the 10th century it had gained general usage. Britannica Scholars: Easter

The Easter sunrise service is a distinctive Protestant observance in North America. Britannica Scholars: Easter

In 2016 the Holy Week observances in the Roman Missal were revised, in a decree issued by Pope Francis, to allow women and girls to participate in the foot-washing ritual on Maundy Thursday. Prior to this decree, the ritual was restricted to men and boys. Britannica Scholars: Holy Week

The Church of England notes that the services and ceremonies of Holy Week have in the course of Christian history been the occasion of, or have actively encouraged, hostility towards the Jews, and that this places a double responsibility on those who lead the keeping of Holy Week today: to be faithful to the act of collective memory, but also to be sensitive to the ways in which an unreflecting use of traditional texts can perpetuate a strain of Christian anti-Semitism. Church of England: Passiontide