EASTER— ALL ITS PAGANISM #1, #2, #3, #4

 CHRISTIAN  FEASTS  AND  CUSTOMS

by  Francis Weiser (1952)

Pre-Lent

HISTORY AND LITURGY

The liturgical preparation for the greatest feast of Christianity-Easter—proceeds in five periods of penitential character. As the observance of this preparation approaches the feast, the penitential note grows progressively deeper and stricter. The first period is the season of pre-Lent, from Septuagesima Sunday to Ash Wednesday; the second extends from Ash Wednesday to Passion Sunday; the third comprises Passion Week; the fourth includes the days of Holy Week up to Wednesday; the fifth consists in the Sacred Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday). In these three days, which are devoted entirely to the commemoration of the Lord's Passion, the penitential observance reaches its peak, until it ends (at the Easter Vigil) in the glorious and joyful celebration of the Resurrection.¹

Origin • 

The three Sundays preceding Lent are called Septuagesima (seventieth), Sexagesima (sixtieth), and Quinquagesima (fiftieth). Actually they are not the seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth days before Easter, as their names would indicate. These titles seem to have been arbitrarily chosen for the sake of round numbers, in keeping with the much older term of Quadragesima (fortieth), which denotes the first Sunday of Lent²

This preparatory time of pre-Lent in the Latin Church was suggested by the practice of the Byzantine Church, which started its great fast earlier, because their "forty days" did not include Saturdays. Saint Maximus (465), Bishop of Turin, mentioned the practice in one of his sermons. It is a pious custom, he said, to keep a fast of devotion (not of obligation) before the start of Lent.³

The immediate occasion, however, for introducing the liturgical observance of pre-Lent seems to have been the frequent public calamities of the sixth century, especially the invasion of the Langobards, who devastated Italy and threatened Rome. This danger prompted the pope (Pelagius I or John III) to set these weeks (during which many people already fasted) aside for a general penitential observance. The liturgical texts of the Sunday Masses still exhibit traces of this origin.⁴

Since the time of danger and need endured through many years, the celebration became established in Rome as a traditional annual observance. From Rome it spread to other parts of the Western Church. We find the pre-Lenten Sundays mentioned as early as 541, in the fourth Council of Orleans.⁵

The penitential character of pre-Lent is usually motivated by the thought of "preparing for Lent." Fasting was never prescribed but was highly recommended in past centuries.⁶

Liturgy *

At the time of Pope Saint Gregory I (604) the Masses of the pre-Lent Sundays were already celebrated in Rome with the same liturgical texts that are used today.⁷ The spirit of this season is one of penance, devotion, and atonement, the liturgical texts and rules reflecting this character. The Gloria is omitted, in the Mass, the Te Deum in the Divine Office, purple vestments are worn, and the altars may no longer be decorated with flowers.⁸ The Mass prayers of Septuagesima Sunday reflect most clearly the anguished cry for the Lord's help that rose from the heart of Saint Gregory and his people at sight of the misery and desolation that filled all Italy and threatened Rome:

The groans of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me: and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from his holy temple. (Psalms 17. Introit)

 O Lord, we beseech thee, graciously hear the prayers of thy people, that we, who are justly afflicted for our sins, may for the glory of thy name be mercifully delivered. (Collect)

Sexagesima Sunday still bears the character of its original celebration in honor of Saint PauL It probably was an annual feast on January 25 (Translation of St. Paul) which, being transferred to this Sunday, perpetuated the Roman celebration and extended it to the whole Church. The Mass text is a combination of penitential prayers with notes of rejoicing in honor of the Apostle of the Gentiles.⁹

The Mass prayers of Quinquagesima Sunday exhibit the note of penance and remind us of the approaching obligatory fast. In the Tractus of the Mass the Church breaks out in a jubilant prayer of praise, as if assured that her fervent appeals for God's help during the season of pre-Lent had been mercifully heard and heeded by the Lord.

Fast and Penance • 

In the Latin Church many priests and people, as well as the religious, fasted voluntarily during the latter part of pre-Lent, especially from Quinquagesima Sunday on.¹⁰ In the Byzantine Church this fasting was officially regulated from early times. They started abstaining from meat on Sexagesima, which, is therefore called "Meatless" (apokreo in Greek; miasopust, in Slavic). With Quinquagesima the Eastern Church began (and still begins) the abstinence from butter, cheese, milk, and eggs. Thus in eastern Europe that day is called "Cheeseless Sunday' (syropust)P-

In preparation for Lent the faithful in medieval times used to go to confession on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. From this practice, that day became known as "Shrove Tuesday" (the day on which people are shriven from sins).

FAREWELL TO  ALLELUIA

Alleluia, or hallelujah, is one of the few Hebrew words adopted by the Christian Church from apostolic times. It means "Praise the Lord!"

On Saturday before Septuagesima Sunday (the third Sunday before Lent) this ancient and hallowed exclamation of joy and praise in the Christian liturgy is officially discontinued in the Western Church to signify the approach of the solemn season of Lent¹² According to the regulation of Pope Alexander II (1073) the Alleluia is sung twice after the prayers of the Divine Office,¹³ and not heard again till the solemn vigil service of Easter, when it once more is used as a glorious proclamation of Easter joy. The Greek Church, however, still retains the Alleluia even in Lent

Usage of the Woed • 

Saint John the Evangelist mentioned alleluia in his Apocalypse (19:1-6), and the early Church accepted the word from the beginning. From Jerusalem the custom of using it spread with the expanding Church into all nations. It is interesting to note that nowhere and at no time was any effort made to translate it into the vernacular, as Saint Isidore of Seville (636) mentioned in his writings.¹⁴ He explains this by the reverence for the hallowed traditions of the apostohc Church.

In addition to the official liturgy, as early as the third century the Christian writer Tertulhan said in his treatise on prayer that the faithful of his time used to insert many alleluias in their private devotions.¹⁵ Saint Jerome (420) praised the pious farmers and tradesmen who used to sing it at their toil, and the mothers who taught their babies to pronounce "alleluia" before any other word.¹⁶

In the Roman Empire the Alleluia became the favorite prayerful song of oarsmen and navigators. Saint Augustine (430) alluded to this custom, saying, "Let the Alleluia be our sweet rowing-song!"¹⁷ And some years later, the Roman poet and bishop Sidonius Apollinaris (480) described how the river banks and shores of Gaul resounded with the Alleluia song of the rowing boatmen.¹⁸ Even the Roman soldiers fighting against pagan barbarians used it as battle cry and war song. Saint Bede the Venerable (735), in his history of England, reported such an "Alleluia victory" won by the Christian Bretons over the Picts and Scots in 429.¹⁹

Finally, the expression "Alleluia, the Lord is risen" became the general greeting of Christians in early medieval times on the Feast of the Resurrection. Apart from these popular usages the Alleluia has at all times found its primary and most meaningful application in the official liturgy. In the early centuries, the Roman Church used it only during Easter time, but it soon spread over the rest of the ecclesiastical year, except of course, during Lent. It used to be sung even at funerals and burial Masses as an expression of the conviction that for a true Christian the day of death was actually the birthday of eternal life, a day of joy.²⁰ The Eastern Churches have preserved this custom in their Masses for the dead up to now.

Farewell Customs • 

The depositio (discontinuance) of the Alleluia on the eve of Septuagesima assumed in medieval times a solemn and emotional note of saying farewell to the beloved song. Despite the fact that Pope Alexander II had ordered a very simple and somber way of "deposing" the Alleluia, a variety of farewell customs prevailed in many countries up to the sixteenth century.²¹ They were inspired by the sentiment which Bishop William Duranti (1296) voiced in his commentaries on the Divine Office: "We part from the Alleluia as from a beloved friend, whom we embrace many times and kiss on mouth, head and hand, before we leave him." ²²

The liturgical office on the eve of Septuagesima was performed in many churches with special solemnity, and alleluias were freely inserted in the sacred text, even to the number of twenty-eight final alleluias in the church of Auxerre in France. This custom also inspired some tender poems which were sung or recited during Vespers in honor of the sacred word. The best known of these hymns is, Alleluia, dulce carmen (Alleluia, Song of Gladness), composed by an unknown author of the tenth century. It was translated into English by John Mason Neale (1866) and may be found in the official hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church.²³

In some French churches the custom developed in ancient times of allowiag the congregation to take part in the celebration of a quasi-liturgical farewell ceremony. The clergy abstained from any role in this popular service. Choirboys officiated in their stead at what was called "Burial of the Alleluia" performed the Saturday afternoon before Septuagesima Sunday. We find a description of it in the fifteenth-century statute book of the church of Toul:

On Saturday before Septuagesima Sunday all choir boys gather in the sacristy during the prayer of the None, to prepare for the burial of the Alleluia. After the last Benedicamus [i.e., at the end of the service] they march in procession, with crosses, tapers, holy water and censers; and they carry a coffin, as in a funeral. Thus they proceed through the aisle, moaning and mourning, until they reach the cloister. There they bury the coffin; they sprinkle it with holy water and incense it; whereupon they return to the sacristy by the same way.²⁴

In Paris, a straw figure bearing in golden letters the inscription "Alleluia" was carried out of the choir at the end of the service and burned in the church yard.

With the exception of these quaint aberrations, however, the farewell to alleluia in most countries was an appropriate addition to the official ceremonies of the liturgy. The special texts (hymns, responsories, antiphons) used on that occasion were taken mostly from Holy Scripture, and are filled with pious sentiments of devotion, like the following unusual personification collected from a farewell service of the Mozarabic liturgy of Spain (ninth or tenth century):

Stay with us today, Alleluia,

And tomorrow thou shalt part. When the morning rises,

Thou shalt go thy way. Alleluia, alleluia.

The mountains and hills shall rejoice,, Alleluia,

While they await thy glory. Thou goest, Alleluia; may thy way he blessed,

Until thou shalt return with joy. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.²⁵

Thus the Alleluia is sung for the last time and not heard again until it suddenly bursts into glory during the Mass of the Easter Vigil when the celebrant intones this sacred word after the Epistle, repeating it three times, as a jubilant herald of the Resurrection of Christ.²⁶

MAN AND NATURE

Just as many Christmas customs and similar observances had their origin in pre-Christian times, so, too, some of the popular traditions of Lent and Easter date back to ancient nature rites. The "spring lore" of the Indo-European races is their source in this case. From Yule to the summer solstice (which was celebrated on June 24), a continuous tradition of spring rites and symbolic fertility cults was practiced among our forefathers.²⁷

The Fight against Winter •

 These activities began at the winter solstice, when the day was shortest in the year, and lasted until April or May. In order to frighten the demons of winter away, and at the same time to hide their own identity, the participants in this "fight" were disguised in wild and strange costumes. Wearing masks of horrible size and shape, they ran shouting and screaming through the open spaces around their homes.²⁸

Mummers' and carnival masquerades of later times and the uproarious celebrations on various days between Christmas and Easter have their origin in this "fight." In southern Germany, in Austria, and among the Slavic nations such mummers" (Perchten) parades are still held every year. Dressed in ancient costumes and masks, the paraders follow traditional routes, accompanied, by the loud and discordant noise of drums, cowbells, crude trumpets, and the cracking of whips or the shooting of mortars (Boiler).²⁹

Another rite of "frightening the winter away" was the setting of fires between Yule and May. Attached to wooden rings or wheels, brands were sent rolling down the meadows from the hilltops. In southern Germany the first Sunday of Lent is still called Brandsonntag (Fire Sunday), when many such burning wheels move, sparkling in the dark night, on the hillsides and from the mountain peaks. In France the same Sunday was called Fete ales hrandons (Feast of Torches) because on that day young people ran through the streets with firebrands to chase the winter away.³⁰

As the spring advanced and days grew warmer, the people celebrated "winters burial." Sometimes with mock sadness, more often, however, with, wild and joyous abandon, they dragged a ragged straw figure, often of giant size, through the village, accompanied by a large crowd of "mourners" in masquerade. Popular funeral rites were held, and the huge figure, dressed in white to symbolize the snow, was either buried or "executed" by quartering, drowning, burning, or hanging, with the lusty approval and acclaim of the onlookers. In the sixteenth century they started in many places to stuff the figure with powder and fireworks, so that the heat of the flames would make it explode with a thunderous crash.³¹

Such burials of winter are still held in many countries. Very often, however, the ceremony has come to be interpreted as the "burial of carnival," or the "burning of Judas" on Holy Saturday.³²

The climax of these rites was the play depicting "winter's defeat." The actors, impersonating with appropriate dress the figures of summer and winter, would carry on a verbal battle in which winter, defeated, conceded the victory to summer.³³

Fertility Rites • 

While the struggle between summer and winter went on (December to April), many symbolic celebrations were held to demonstrate how anxious people were for the coming warm season and to insure as well the blessings of fertility (the. important second part of these ancient rites).

The joy over the appearance of new plants and flowers in spring prompted man to attribute to them a special power of protection and healing. People planted special spring flower gardens; they brought branches of early-blossoming plants, like pussy willows, into their homes; they decorated themselves and their living rooms with wreaths of flowers and clusters of blossoms. A striking Christian variation of these nature rites was the medieval custom of planting "Mary gardens," which were made up of all the flowers and herbs that are ascribed by love and legend as a special tribute to the Blessed Virgin. This charming tradition has recently been revived in many places.³⁴

Another fertility rite was the symbolic "plowing" of the earth in early spring, with a real plow or a wooden log, to make the soil fertile. It was done with elaborate ceremonies, often connected with a mummers' parade. In Germany and eastern Europe it became a part of the carnival celebration (Blochziehen). In England it was held in January, and the Monday after Epiphany (January 6) acquired from this ancient custom the name "Plough-monday." The original fertility cult is still preserved in the superstition that maidens who draw the plow or sit on it or touch it will soon be married and will be blessed with healthy offspring.³⁵

Chemistry and physics as we know them, of course, were a mystery to our pre-Christian forefathers. From constant observation, however, they knew only too well the effects of rain, or lack of rain, on vegetation and life. Water, therefore, assumed in their minds a magic role of producing fertility, health, and new life. This is the basis of the many ancient "water rites."³⁶ It was the fashion among all nations of Europe to sprinkle women and girls with water, thus to insure them the blessings of fertility and good health. This custom is still preserved in European countries, where during carnival time or at Easter the boys sprinkle or splash water on the girls, and the girls retaliate on the following day. In cities perfume is often used instead of water.

In the Middle Ages the Feast of Christ's Resurrection became the favorite time for such ancient water rites. In many parts of central and eastern Europe, and also in France, girls and women wash their faces in brooks and rivers on Easter Sunday morning (Osterwaschen). It is a widespread legend that on Easter Day all running water is especially blessed because the Risen Lord sanctified all life-giving elements and bestowed upon them special powers for the one great day of His resurrection.

Similar customs prevail in French Canada, where people wash themselves with water taken from rivers or fountains on Easter Sunday. They also preserve it in bottles, and it is said to remain fresh until the following Easter, being credited with great healing powers. 

In Germany and Austria bridegroom and bride sprinkle each other with such water before going to church on their wedding day. Domestic animals, too, are believed to benefit from the power of Easter water. In many parts of Europe farmers sprinkle them with water drawn from brooks or springs during Easter night. In some sections of Germany horses are ridden into a river on Easter Sunday to obtain for them protection and good health.³⁷

 Irish legends attribute to water fetched on Easter Day magic powers against witches and evil spirits.

Among the Slavic nations the men in rural districts will rise at midnight on Holy Thursday and walk to the nearest brook to wash themselves. They do this in honor and imitation of Christ who, according to an old Oriental legend, fell into the river Cedron on His way to the Passion.

The Church has provided a Christian version of the ancient water rite by blessing and distributing Easter water on Holy Saturday, thus elevating the pre-Christian symbolism of nature Into a Christian sacramental. It is customary for millions the world over to obtain for their households the Easter water blessed on Holy Saturday.

Another rite of fertility was the touch with the "rod of life" (Lebensrute).³⁸ A few branches were broken from a young bush, and any maiden touched or hit by this rod was believed to obtain the blessings of health and fertility. This symbolism was incorporated in the mysteries of the Roman goddess Libera, in which young matrons were initiated into childbearing and motherhood by a ritual of flagellation to insure fertility.

All through Europe this custom is found at carnival time or Eastertide. Girls and women are tapped with leaved rods or pussy willow branches, which are often decorated with flowers and ribbons. A familiar relic of this tradition seems to be the modern practice of throwing the bridal bouquet at weddings. It reveals its ancient symbolism by the claim that the girl who catches the bouquet (thus being touched by the rod of life) will be the next one to marry.

The greater part of the pre-Christian usage and meaning of the rod of life was transferred in medieval times to the Christian symbolism of the "palms" which the Church blesses on Palm Sunday.

Spring Festival * 

When the victory of spring was fully won and winter had disappeared, our forefathers used to celebrate by dancing around a gaily decorated tree (maypole), cleared of branches except on its top. The tree itself was a symbol of nature's triumph, a tribute to the power of new life.³⁹ In medieval times maypoles were erected in every community. In rural towns of the Austrian Tyrol the inhabitants still observe the appealing custom of planting a maypole, at any time of the year, in front of houses where newly wed couples live; there the gay symbol remains until the night after the birth of the first child, when the young men of the village silently take it down.⁴⁰

The crowning of the "May Queen" is another ancient rite which has been practiced by Indo-European peoples for thousands of years. One of the girls, chosen by a vote of young men, was led in procession to the place of the spring festival, where she presided over the celebration. She was often accompanied by a young man who was called the "May King." Both were dressed in festive robes, wore wreaths of flowers on their heads, and held in their hands a wooden scepter (the rod of life) adorned with flowers and ribbons.⁴¹

The final victory over winter was also celebrated with the setting of "bonfires" on hills and mountain peaks in all countries of northern Europe during pre-Christian times. The Easter fires and Saint Join's fires are still a cherished part of the annual folklore in many sections, especially the Alpine provinces.⁴²

Thus the religious celebration of the sacred seasons of Lent and Easter is accompanied by many popular traditions of ancient origin which have added a charming touch to the supernatural meanings of the season. Under the guiding inspiration of the Church a popular observance was molded, in which most of the natural customs were ennobled through the spiritual power of Christianiry.

CARNIVAL CELEBRATION

Names • 

In ancient times, when the law of abstinence was: much stricter and included many other foods besides meat, the clergy and a good number of the laity started abstaining progressively during the pre-Lenten season, until they entered the complete fast on Ash. Wednesday. After Quinquagesima (the Sunday before Lent) this voluntary fasting began with abstinence from meat; consequently, this Sunday was called Dominica Gamevala from the Latin carnem levare (carnelevarium), which means ""withdrawal" or "removal" of meat.⁴³

The German word for this time of carnival is Fassriacht, or Fasching, which probably comes from the ancient vasen ("running around crazily"). It was adopted by the Slavic nations (as fasiangy) and by the Hungarians (as farsang). Another German word of later origin is Fastnacht (Eve: of the Fast). The Lithuanians call, the carnival season Uzgavenes (Pre-Lent).

Carnival celebrations are still held in most countries of central and western Europe- and among the Latin nations of Europe and America.

Carnival Foods. • 

The primary reason for carnival celebrations is the feasting, rejoicing, and reveling before the: imminent season of fast and abstinence. It is a trait of human nature to anticipate approaching privations by greater or lesser excesses. The intensity of this urge, however, should not be judged from the mild Lenten laws of today, but from: the strict and harsh observance of ancient times, which makes modern man shiver at the mere knowledge of its details. No wonder the good people of past centuries felt entitled to "have a good time" before they started on their aWe^ some fast.

Another reason for the feasting, and a very practical one, was the necessity for finishing those foods which could not be eaten during Lent, and which, in fact, could not even be kept in homes during the fast—meat, butter, cheese, milk, eggs, fats, and baedm This meant an increased consumption of rich foods and pastries the week before Ash Wednesday. Hence have come the names "Tat Tuesday"  (Fetter Dienstag' in German; Mafdi gras in French); "Butter Week" (Sedmica syrnaja) in Russia and other Slavic countries; and "Fat Days" (Tluste Dni) in Poland.

In the northern counties of England, the Monday of carnival week is "Collop Monday" (from the Latin colpones, cut pieces). Gollops consist of sliced meat or bacon, mixed with eggs, and fried in butter.44 In Scotland people eat "Crowdie," a kind of porridge cooked with butter and milk. On Tuesday, England enjoys her famous Shrove Tuesday pancakes. The Germans have pastries called Fassnachtstollen, the Austrians Faschingskrapfen.⁴⁵

Fastelavnsboller are sold in Norway in great quantities during carnival time. Resembling our muffins, these "boilers" are sold throughout the whole year plain, but at carnival time they are filled with whipped cream and coated with sugar and frosting.

Russia, before the present regime, attached a national and strictly regulated importance to the several seasons of carnival, Lent, and Easter. Carnival or "Butter Week" was a general holiday. As in the western countries, there are pre-Christian relics in the Russian festival too. In the country districts a fantastic figure called Masslianitsa (Butter Goddess) is gaily decorated and driven about on a sledge while the peasants sing special songs and horovode (folk choruses). At the end of the week it is burned, and a formal farewell is bidden to pleasure until Easter. Rich but unsweetened pancakes (blinni) are served in every household at carnival time.

Carnival Frolics • 

Since carnival is a time of feasting and reveling, it was only natural that many elements of the pre-Christian spring lore should have become part of the celebration. Lent excluded the boisterous practices of mumming and masquerading, so what better time could be found for it than the gay days of the carnival? All the familiar features of our modern carnival celebrations are firmly rooted in a tradition that actually dates from about the fourteenth century.

The pre-Christian element of the carnival frolics in the Latin Countries seems to be a growth of the Roman Saturnalia, a pagan feast in honor of the field god Saturnus held annually in December.46 Northern countries have adopted customs and rites from the much older Indo-European spring lore.⁴⁷

The popes, as temporal rulers of their state, acknowledged the carnival practice in Rome by regulating its observance, correcting its abuses, and providing entertainment for the masses. Paul II (1471) started the famous horse races which gave the name Corso to' one of Rome's ancient streets, the former Via Lata (broad street). He also introduced the carnival pageants for which the Holy City was famous.⁴⁸ Within the past few centuries other cities, too, have developed their own special features of carnival celebration, like the famed carnival of Cologne, the parade of gondolas in Venice, the carnival balls of Vienna, the floats and parades in the cities of South America, and the mummers' parade in Philadelphia. The best-known celebration of carnival in America is the famous Mardi Gras in New Orleans, which takes its name from the day on which it is annually held.

Forty Hours' Devotion • 

In order to encourage the faithful to atone in prayer and penance for the many excesses and scandals committed at carnival time, Pope Benedict XTV, in 1748, instituted a special devotion for the three days preceding Lent, called "Forty Hours of Carnival," which is held in many churches of Europe and America, in places where carnival frolics are of general and long-standing tradition. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed all day Monday and Tuesday, and devotions are held in the evening, followed by the Eucharistic Benediction.⁴⁹

^{.................}

^{AND  SO  WE  HAVE  YET  MORE}  

^{INVENTIONS  OF  THEOLOGY  WITH}

^{CUSTOMS  ADOPTED  AND  INVENTED}

^{BY  MAN  AS  HE  MAKES  UP  HIS  OWN}

^{RELIGION  TO  WORSHIP  GOD.}

^{JESUS  SAYING  THAT  THEY  WORSHIP}

^{HIM  IN  VAIN,  WITH  TRADITIONS  OF  MEN}

^{WHILE  DOING  AWAY  WITH  THE}  

^{COMMANDMENTS  OF  GOD.}

To be continued

CHRISTIAN  FEASTS  AND  CUSTOMS

by  Francis Weiser (1952)

Lent

HISTORY AND  LITURGY

General Features *

 Within the liturgy of the Church Lent is the season of penitential and prayerful preparation for the great feast of Easter. This penance was practiced from the.earliest times by strict fasting, additional prayer services, and by .other penitential exercises which, were of obligation for those who had committed public sins and crimes, and in which, the other faithful joined more and more during medieval times in token of humble, voluntary penance.¹

The external manifestation of the penitential character of Lent is apparent in the liturgical color (purple), and in the discontinuance of Alleluia, Gloria, and Te Deum in all seasonal Masses and Offices starting with Septuagesima. From Ash Wednesday on, organs remain silent, solemn weddings and other joyous celebrations in church are prohibited.²

In the ancient Church Lent was also the season of immediate preparation for baptism (scrutinia: investigations). The catechumens were not only instructed but also frequently questioned about their knowledge and understanding of what they had been taught. A public scrutiny took place, in which the bishop carefully ascertained whether they had given up all habits of sinful living. They had to produce witnesses who would testify as to their sincerity and purity of motive.³

The thought of Christ's Passion, which now is predominant in popular devotion all through Lent, is reflected in the liturgy only during the last two weeks of the season (Passiontide).⁴

The Mass texts of Lent are of very early origin; they go back before the time of Gregory the Great (604). Only the Thursday Masses are of later date; Gregory II (731) introduced them.⁵ A unique feature of these weekday masses is the Oratio supei-populum (Prayer over the People) after the Postcommunio. This prayer used to be recited in every Mass throughout the year in the fifth and sixth centuries, but was later replaced by the "Blessing of the Faithful" which came into the Roman liturgy from the Gallic-Frankish observance. Only in Lent has it been retained up to the present⁶

Fast • 

From the time of the Apostles the Church has singled out two days of the week for special observance: in honor of Christ's resurrection, Sunday replaced the ancient Sabbath as the new "Day of the Lord," while in memory of His death, Friday became a weekly day of fast in addition, a strict two-day fast was kept from Good Friday to Easter Sunday by many early Christians who did not eat or drink at all during that period. The practice of this "Passion fast" was based on the Lord's, word: "The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day" (Mark 2, 20).⁷

^{(THIS  IS  VERY  WRONG  AND  UTTER}  

^{NONSENSE!!  SUCH  THINGS  DID  NOT}

^{TAKE  PLACE  IN  THE  TIME  OF  THE}  

^{APOSTLES,  AS  I  PROVE,  AND  ALSO}

^{SAMUELE  BACCHIOCCHI,  IN  OTHER}

^{STUDIES  ON  MY  WEBSITE  -  Keith Hunt)}

Eventually, a longer period of fasting was introduced in preparation for Easter, although its observance varied widely in the early centuries. Some churches fasted only in Holy Week, others for two or more weeks. Sunday was always excepted from the fast (in the Eastern Churches, Saturday as well). During the third and fourth centuries most churches gradually adopted a forty days' fast, in imitation of Christ, Who had fasted forty days in the desert (Luke 4:2). Saint Athanasius (373), Patriarch of Alexandria, after having traveled to Rome and over the greater part of the Roman Empire in Europe, wrote in the year 339 that "the whole world" fasted forty days.⁸

^{(AGAIN  VERY  WRONG,  AS  THE}  

^{CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  BRITAIN  WILL}

^{TESTIFY.  WHEN  THE  ROMAN  CHURCH}

^{CAME  TO  BRITAIN  ABOUT  600  A.D.}

^{THEY  DISCOVERED  A  CHRISTIANITY}

^{THEY  CALLED  "JEWISH  AND}  

^{HERESY"  -  Keith Hunt)}

How did the Christians fast in times past? The various forms of fast and abstinence in the first centuries made for confusion, but gradually there emerged general rules which eventually became the accepted practice of the whole Church. In a letter to Saint Augustine of Canterbury (604), Pope Saint Gregory the Great announced the final form of abstinence which soon became the law: 

"We abstain from flesh meat and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, eggs" (and butter, of course)."⁹ 

For almost a thousand years this remained the norm of abstinence for all except those who were excused for reasons of ill health. In fact, the Eastern Churches (and many pious people among the Slavic nations of the Latin Church) still keep their fast in this manner; they don't touch meat or eggs or butter all through Lent, not even on Sundays.

The observance of Lent also includes the jejunium (fast in the strict sense). Its early practice consisted of eating only once a day, toward evening; nothing else except a little water was taken all day. After the eighth century, the time for this one and only meal was advanced to the hour of the None in the liturgical prayer (meaning the ninth hour of the Roman day, which is three o'clock in the afternoon). This meal was gradually transferred to the middle of the day (hence our word noon, from None). The noonday meal did not become a general practice until the fourteenth century.¹⁰

Saint Basil the Great (379), Archbishop of Caesaria in Asia Minor, vividly described in one of his sermons the widespread observance of the fast in the fourth century (and by "fasting" he meant only one meal a day):

"There is no island, no continent, no city or nation, no distant corner of the globe, where the proclamation of Lenten fast is not listened to. Armies on the march and travelers on the road, sailors as well as merchants, all alike hear the announcement and receive it with joy. Let no man then separate himself from the number of fasters, in which every race of mankind, every period of life, every class of society is included."¹¹

^{(ONCE  MORE  THIS  IS  NOT  CORRECT;}  

^{THE  BRITISH  CHRISTIANS  AND  TRUE}

^{CHRISTIANS  SCATTERED  HERE  AND}  

^{THERE  WERE  NOT  OBSERVING  THE}

^{CUSTOMS  AND  TRADITIONS  OF  ROME -}

^{Keith Hunt)}

The severity of the ancient rule was applied very sensibly at all times by the Church authorities. Saint John Chrysostom (407), Patriarch of Constantinople, gave this instruction: "If your body is not strong enough to continue fasting all day, no wise man will reprove you; for we serve a gentle and merciful Lord who expects nothing of us beyond our strength."¹² Pope Saint Leo I (461) pointed out that fasting is a means and not an end in itself; its purpose is to foster pure, holy, and spiritual activity. He coined the famous phrase which a thousand Christian writers have not ceased to reiterate: "What we forego by fasting is to be given as alms to the poor."¹³

It was not until the ninth century, however, that less rigid laws of fasting were introduced. It came about in 817 when the monks of the Benedictine order, who did much labor in the fields and on the farms, were allowed to take a little drink with a morsel of bread in the evening. This extremely light refreshment they took while they listened to the daily reading of the famous Collationes (collected instructions) written by Abbot Cassian in the fourth century. Our modern word collation, meaning a slight repast, comes from this.¹⁴

Eventually the Church extended the new laws to the laity as well, and by the end of medieval times they had become universal practice; everybody ate a light evening meal in addition to the main meal at noon. The present custom of taking some breakfast on fasting days is of very recent origin (the beginning of the nineteenth century).

Abstinence from lacticinia (milk foods), which included milk, butter, cheese, and eggs, was never strictly enforced in Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia because of the lack of oil and other substitute foods in those countries. The Church using common sense granted many dispensations in this matter in all countries of Europe. People who did eat the milk foods would often, when they could afford it, give alms for the building of churches or other pious endeavors.¹⁵ (One of the steeples of the Cathedral of Rouen in France is still known for this reason as "butter tower.") In past centuries the Western Church increasingly allowed the consumption of lacticinia until the new Code of Canon Law (1918) omitted them entirely from the list of abstinential foods.¹⁶

During the Reformation some of the Protestant churches retained the Lenten fast, but not for long. In England, the government issued a series of proclamations and statutes enjoining the duty of Lenten fast. It was announced by the town criers on order of Parliament and changed all the time. The Puritans substituted monthly fast days. After the Restoration (1660), the Lenten laws were generally neglected, although they remained on the statute book until 1863, when Parliament finally repealed them. On the other hand, while the observance of Lent was no longer kept, many members of the Protestant clergy (among them John Wesley) personally kept the fast and also recommended it to their congregations. The growth of the Oxford Movement revived the practice of Lenten fasting in some Protestant groups, who now observe it according to the spirit of the universal Christian tradition.¹⁷

Among the Eastern Rites, many people still retain the old and strict routine, refusing to avail themselves of dispensations, although such are readily granted.¹⁸ In the Near East numerous priests keep a total fast for two days and eat only every third day all through Lent. Among the Russians, Ukrainians, and other Slavic nations, it is common practice to fast until three in the afternoon, while children, though not obliged to, fast voluntarily until noon.

Preparation for Baptism * 

In the first centuries after the persecutions in the Roman Empire, Lent was not only a time of fasting and public penance but also the annual season of "preparation for baptism."¹⁹ Those who had proved themselves serious applicants and had received preliminary instructions for many months would be admitted to the baptismal rites at the begfrmfng of Lent. While the details of this practice varied, locally, it was everywhere a somewhat hard school for the catechumens (candidates for baptism). If they were married, they had to live in continence all through Lent They were not allowed to bathe and had to keep a complete fast every day until sunset.²⁰ Above all, however, they had to practice fervent prayer and sincere contrition for their past sins. Separated from the faithful, they stood in church: at every service, weak from hunger, and constantly admonished by the bishop,, "harshly scourged with regulations and catechetical instructions," as Saint Augustine observed.²¹

Standing barefoot on old rags or goat skins (symbolizing the godless world), they were exorcized in a special ceremony at the start of Lent. The bishop would breathe on them with a hiss and utter the command addressed to the Devil, whose slaves they had been in. idolatry: "Depart, thou accursed one!" ²² At another ceremony, they listened for the first time to the Apostolic Creed, named symbolum (probably meaning handclasp; contract). Each candidate solemnly affirmed his belief in the sacred truths, and was then obliged to memorize the Creed, in order to "return the handclasp" (reddere symbolum) by public recitation on Holy Saturday.

A week later (usually on Palm Sunday), the bishop entrusted them with the sacred words of the Lord's Prayer, the "Our Father." Finally, on Holy Thursday, they interrupted the fast and took a welcome bath at the public bathhouses,, which were still in use in Roman cities and towns.²³ The rest of the ceremonies, familiar from the ritual of baptism, were performed at the solemn Easter Vigil.

Names • 

The official term of the forty days' fast, Quadragesima (fortieth), is first mentioned in the fifth canon (decree) of the Council of Nicaea (325), although its reference to Lent is not yet certain; at the time of Saint Gregory (sixth century), however, the word was clearly applied to the period of Lenten fast.²⁴ The same word was also applied to the Sunday on which the fast began at that time (the first Sunday of Lent). In about 600 A.D. the period of fasting was made to begin four days earlier by Saint Gregory in order to establish the exact number of forty days, and since that time Lent has begun on the Wednesday before Quadragesima Sunday. (Only the Diocese of Milan in Italy still adheres to the ancient custom of starting the fast on the first Monday in Lent.) ²⁵

The names for Lent in all Latin countries come from the word Quadragesima. The Greek word for it is Tessarakoste, and the Slavonic, Chetyridesnica.²⁶ Our English term refers to the season of the year, sometimes explained as coming from the old Anglo-Saxon Lengten-tide, springtime, when the days are lengthening. The German Fastenzett means "fasting time." The Hungarians call it the "Great Fast" (Nagy-bojt), and in Arabic-speaking countries they say the "Big Fast" (Sawm al-Kabir). The Christian population of Malta has adopted the Moslem term Randan for Lent.

Ash Wednesday • 

The first day of Lent is called "Ash Wednesday" in all Christian countries of the Western world from the ceremony of imposing blessed ashes in the form of a cross on the foreheads of the faithful while the priest pronounces the words "Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris" (Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return) (Genesis 3: 19).²⁷ The name "Ash Wednesday" (Feria quarta cinerum) was officially introduced by Pope Urban II (1099); prior to that the first day of Lent was called "Beginning of the Fast" (initium jejunii).²⁸

The ashes used are obtained from burning the blessed palms of the previous Palm Sunday. They are also given a special blessing before being distributed on Ash Wednesday. The four prayers employed in the Roman Missal for this ceremony date back to the eighth century.²⁹

Public Penance • 

The use of ashes as a token of penance and sorrow is an ancient one, often mentioned in the Scripture of the Old Testament (for example, in Jonas 3: 5-9 and Jeremias 6: 26 and 25: 34). Christ, too, refers to this custom, in Matthew 11: 21. The Church accepted it from Jewish tradition and preserved its original meaning.³⁰ The early Christian writer Tertullian (third century) mentions the imposition of ashes as one of the external marks of Christian penance.³¹Persons who had committed serious public sin and scandal were enjoined on Ash Wednesday with the practice of "public penance."³² The period of this penance lasted until Holy Thursday, when they were solemnly reconciled, absolved from their sins, and allowed to receive Holy Communion. Since it extended through forty days, its observance was called "quarantine" (forty).³³ This word was also accepted into general use to denote a separation or expulsion from human contact in the case of infectious diseases.

The imposition of public penance on Ash Wednesday was an official rite in Rome as early as the fourth century, and soon spread to all Christianized nations. Numerous descriptions of this ancient ceremony have been preserved in medieval manuscripts and, in every detail, breathe a spirit of harshness and humility really frightening to us of the present generation.

Public sinners approached their priests shortly before Lent to accuse themselves of their misdeeds, and were presented by the priests on Ash Wednesday to the bishop of the place. Outside the cathedral, poor and noble alike stood barefoot, dressed in sackcloth, heads bowed in humble contrition. The bishop, assisted by his canons, assigned to each one particular acts of penance according to the nature and gravity of his crime. Whereupon they entered the church, the bishop leading one of them by the hand, the others following in single file, holding each others hands. Before the altar, not only the penitents, but also the bishop and all his clergy recited the seven penitential psalms.³⁴Then, as each sinner approached, the bishop imposed his hands on him, sprinkled him with holy water, threw the blessed ashes on his head, and invested him with the tunic of sackcloth.

After this ceremony the penitents were led out of the church and forbidden to re-enter until Holy Thursday (for the solemn rite of reconciliation). Meanwhile, they would spend Lent apart from their families in a monastery or some other place of voluntary confinement, where they occupied themselves with prayer, manual labor, and works of charity. Among other things they had to go barefoot all through Lent, were forbidden to converse with others, were made to sleep on the ground or on a bedding of straw, and were not allowed to bathe or to cut their hair.³⁵

Private Penance • 

Although the imposition of ashes originally applied only to public sinners, many devout people soon voluntarily submitted to it, so that by the end of the eleventh century it had become general in all European countries. The popes, too, adopted it for their personal use. In medieval times they walked barefoot on Ash Wednesday to the church of Santa- Sabina, accompanied by their cardinals (also barefoot), where the pope received the ashes from the oldest cardinal-bishop, and afterward distributed them to all the cardinals.³⁶

After the Reformation, the imposition of ashes was discontinued in most Protestant churches, but was kept alive for a time in the Church of England by special proclamations of the government in 1538 and 1550, which reaffirmed it. It was gradually neglected, and completely forgotten in England by the seventeenth century. Today the Anglican Church keeps a relic of the ancient character of Ash Wednesday in a special service of "Commination,'' a solemn avowal of God's anger and justice against sinners. In recent years, some Protestant churches have returned to the practice of imposing ashes.³⁷

Among the members of the Oriental Churches, Ash Wednesday is not observed. Their Lent begins on Monday before Ash Wednesday, which they call "Clean Monday" because the faithful not only cleanse their souls in penance but also wash and scrub their cooking utensils very thoroughly to remove all traces of meat and fat for the penitential season.³⁸

Lenten Cloth • 

An interesting symbol of penance, used from Ash Wednesday until Wednesday in Holy Week, was the "Lenten Cloth," a common tradition in England, France, and Germany from the eleventh century on.³⁹ In Germany it was also called by the popular name of "Hunger Cloth" (Hungertuch, Schmacht-lappen). It was composed of an immense piece of cloth suspended in front of the sanctuary, and parted in the middle, which symbolized the outcasting of the penitent congregation from the sight of the altar.⁴⁰ It was purple or white in color and decorated with crosses or scenes from Christ's Passion, was drawn back only for the main parts of the Mass, and remained suspended all through Lent until the words were read in the Passion Gospel of Wednesday before Easter (Holy Week). "And the curtain of the temple was torn in the middle" (Luke 23: 45 ).⁴¹

LAETARE  SUNDAY

Day of Joy •

 The fourth Sunday in Lent (Mid-Lent) derives its Latin name from the first word of the Mass text, Laetare Jerusalem. (Rejoice, O Jerusalem). It is a day of joy within the mourning season. The altars may be decorated with flowers, organ playing is permitted, and rose-colored vestments may be worn instead of purple ones.

The historical background of this sudden joyful note during the penitential season lies in the ancient practice of the traditio symboli ("handing over" of the symbolum, the Apostolic Creed). The catechumens received the sacred text for the first time on Wednesday after the fourth Sunday in Lent⁴² Soon afterward, the "Our Father" was also given to them. These ceremonies formed the last and decisive step toward baptism for those who had successfully stood the tests and scrutinies and proved themselves worthy to be admitted into the Church. Thus already at the beginning of the week (Laetare Sunday) the exultation of Mother Church over the approaching increase of her children (through baptism) manifested itself in the above-mentioned liturgical expressions of joy.⁴³

The Station of the fourth Sunday was held at the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (called simply "Hierusalem" in ancient books).⁴⁴ Hence the repeated mention of Jerusalem in the liturgical texts. The holy city is taken as a type of the New Testament "Jerusalem," the Church, who is our Mother (Galatians 4: 26), giving supernatural birth to us in baptism.

In later centuries, when the original practice of the traditio on Wednesday in Mid-Lent had been discontinued (being connected with the baptismal ceremony into one rite), the true reason for the Sunday's liturgical character of joy was forgotten, and other reasons were often given. Thus Pope Innocent III (1216) said in one of his sermons:

"On this Sunday, which, marks the middle of Lent, a measure of consoling relaxation is provided so that the faithful may not break down under the severe strain of Lenten fast but may continue to bear the restrictions with a refreshed and easier heart."45

The Golden Rose • 

As a symbol of joy on Laetare Sunday the popes used to carry a golden rose in their right hand when returning from the celebration of Mass. Originally it was a natural rose, but from the eleventh century on it was made of gold. This custom seems to derive from an ancient popular spring celebration in Rome, at which people carried blossoms or flowers.⁴⁶

Since the fifteenth century this golden rose consists of a cluster or branch of roses wrought of pure gold and set with precious stones in brilliant workmanship by famous artists. The popes bless it every year, and often they confer it upon churches, shrines, cities, or distinguished persons as a token of esteem and paternal affection. In case of such a bestowal, a new rose is made during the subsequent year.

The meaning and symbolism of the golden rose is expressed in the prayer of blessing. It represents Christ in the shining splendor of His majesty, the "flower sprung from the root of Jesse." From this ecclesiastical custom Laetare Sunday acquired its German name, Rosensonntag (Sunday of the Rose).⁴⁷

Mothering Sunday • 

In England a popular observance developed toward the end of the Middle Ages. On Laetare Sunday, boys and girls who lived away from home (as apprentices and servants) were given leave to go home to visit their "mother church" in which they had been baptized and had worshiped as children. They always carried with them gifts to put on the altar. This custom, of course, was based on the liturgical significance of the Church as the "New Jerusalem." It was also the custom for the boys and girls to visit their own mother on the same day. They brought her flowers and simnel cakes (a rich plum cake; from simila, fine flour) and would do all the housework for her. This old custom still survives in certain parts of England, and the cakes are sold in London as well as provincial towns.⁴⁸ Hence the name "Mothering Sunday" and the famous old saying, "He who goes a-mothering finds violets in the lane." An ancient carol entitled "Mothering Sunday" (It is the day of all the year) may be found in the Oxford Boole of Carols.49 The tune is taken from an old German song of the fourteenth century.

PASSIONTIDE

Passion Sunday • 

The fifth Sunday in Lent, called "Passion Sunday" (Dominica Passionis) since the ninth century, occurs two weeks before Easter and inaugurates Passiontide, the final and particularly solemn preparations for the great feast.⁵⁰ As a liturgical season, Passiontide is older than Lent, having been established by the Church as a period of fasting as early as the third century. During the first four weeks of Lent the spirit of personal penance prevailed, but these last fourteen days were devoted entirely to the meditation of Chirst's Passion. Among the Slavic nations Passion Sunday is also called "Silent Sunday" and "Quiet Sunday." ⁵¹

In the Divine Office of Passiontide the famous hymns of the Holy Cross (Vexilla regis and Tongue lingua, gloriosi lour earn) are sung or recited. Psalm 42 (Introibo) is omitted at the Mass, as is the Gloria Patri in the Divine Office. These changes, however, are probably due to reasons other than the liturgical memory of the Lord's Passion.⁵²

On the eve of Passion Sunday the crucifixes, statues, and pictures in the churches are draped in purple cloth as a sign of mourning. This custom originated in Rome, where in ancient times the images of the papal chapel in the Vatican used to be shrouded when the deacon sang the concluding words of the Sunday Gospel, "Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple" (John 8, 59).⁵³ The liturgical services of Passiontide are based on what happened to our Lord during the last days before His death, leading up to the mysteries of the Passion. (Mystery, in this connection, is the religious term for any episode of Christ's life related in the Gospels.) The Mass texts are dominated by the thought of the Just One, persecuted by His enemies, as He approaches the supreme sacrifice on Golgotha.⁵⁴

Feast of the Seven Sorrows • 

On Friday after Passion Sunday the Church celebrates the Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin, commemorating events of pain and suffering in her life, as recorded in the Gospels. The devotion to the sufferings of Mary was very popular and widely practiced in medieval times. In 1423, a synod at Cologne introduced a Mass text and prescribed a feast in honor of the Seven Sorrows to be annually held in western Germany.⁵⁵ In 1727, Pope Benedict XIII (1730) extended this feast to the whole Church.⁵⁶

As sequence (hymn after the Gradual of the Mass) the Church employs the famous Latin poem Stabat Mater Dolorosa, which originally was written as a prayer for private devotion by an unknown author (probably a Franciscan) in the thirteenth century. It is often attributed to the Franciscan Jacobus de Benedictis (1306), better known under his popular name Jacopone da Todi. His authorship, however, is still not certain.⁵⁷

The Stabat Mater has been translated from the Latin into the vernacular among all Christian nations, and is a greatly cherished Lenten hymn everywhere.

In Latin countries, especially in Spain and South America, the Feast of the Seven Sorrows is a great day of popular devotions. Thousands throng every church to visit the shrine of the Sorrowful Mother, which is radiant with many lights and richly decorated with flowers, palms, and shade-grown clusters of pale young wheat. In central Europe, where the feast is called "Friday of Sorrows" (Schmerzensfreitag), popular devotions are held, and for dinner a soup is served consisting of seven bitter herbs.⁵⁸

DEVOTIONS  AND  HYMNS

Stations of the Cross • 

The prevailing popular devotion in Lent is, quite naturally, the veneration of the suffering Lord and the meditation on His Passion and death. Both the Eastern and Western Churches practice the touching devotion of the fourteen Stations of the Cross, which originated in the time of the Crusades, when the knights and pilgrims began to follow in prayerful meditation the route of Christ's way to Calvary, according to the ancient practice of pilgrims. This devotion spread in Europe and developed into its present form through the zealous efforts of the Franciscan friars in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As custodians of the shrines in the Holy Land, the Franciscans are still entrusted with, the official erection and blessing of new Stations.⁵⁹

Lenten Hymns • 

Most of the medieval Lenten songs are translations or adaptations of Latin hymns used in the Divine Office. The poem of Saint Gregory the Great (604) Audi benige conditor (End maker of the world, O hear) is recited during Vespers in Lent.⁶⁰ It inspired many popular Lenten songs during the Middle Ages. In the English language alone, more than twenty translations are known.

Another hymn ascribed to Saint Gregory is Clarum decus jejunii (The sacred time of Lenten fast). An English translation, with a melody by Johann Sebastian Bach (1750) may be found in the Protestant Episcopal hymnal.⁶¹Other Latin hymns include Ex more docti mystico (By mystical tradition taught), which is recited daily at the Office of the Matins; its authorship is also ascribed to Saint Gregory. O sol salutis (O Jesus, saving sun of grace), by an unknown author of the seventh or eighth century, is used at Lauds during Lent.

Passion Hymns * 

The most important hymns in honor of the Redeemer's Passion are used in the liturgical office of Passiontide. From early centuries translations of these hymns have also served as popular Lenten songs. At Matins, in Passiontide, the Church intones the famous song Pangue lingua gloriosi lauream certaminis (Praise, O tongue, the victory of the glorious battle), written by Venantius Fortunatus (602), Bishop of Poitiers.⁶² This is frequently sung in choral groups all over the world.

At Vespers, in Passiontide, another hymn by Venantius Fortunatus is heard: Vexilla Regis prodeunt (The royal banners forward go). He composed it in 569, when the relics of the true cross, sent by Emperor Justinian II of East Rome, arrived at the monastery of Poitiers. Of this hymn, about fifty English translations since the fourteenth century are known.

An old German song, O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (O bleeding Head, so wounded), written by Paul Gerhardt in 1656, was often translated into English; it is sung both in Catholic and Protestant churches during Lent. The tune is taken from an old German folk song composed by Hans L. Hassler and published in 1601. Johann Sebastian Bach employed the melody repeatedly in his Saint Matthew Passion.

Of modern Passion hymns, the most famous is the American Negro spiritual "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" It was first published in 1899, and has since become a favorite song in many churches. The traditional melody was arranged by the Reverend Charles Winfred Douglas (1944), and made famous by the Negro tenor Roland Hayes.

There are numberless ancient English poems written in honor of Christ's Passion which at one time probably served as church hymns but are forgotten today.

FOLKLORE

Mourning • 

A character of mourning was always an important feature of the season of Lent Church and state laws forbade public entertainments and festivities.⁶³ In medieval times people would also forego all private entertainment at home that were of joyous and hilarious nature.

At the royal courts in past centuries, Lent was an official period of mourning. The monarchs and their households dressed in black, as did most of the nobility and people in general. England remained loyal to this custom even after the Reformation; Queen Elizabeth I (1603) and the ladies of her court wore black all through Lent. In Russia, up to the twentieth century, all secular music ceased in Lent. During the first and last weeks all public amusements were forbidden. Women dressed in black and laid their ornaments aside. In the rural sections of Poland, dancing and singing still cease on Ash Wednesday. Both men and women don clothes of dark and somber color; the girls relinquish their finery and multicolored ribbons, and an atmosphere of devout recollection descends over the entire village. In many countries the expressions of mourning are now restricted to the last days of Holy Week, as in the Latin nations, where women dress in black on Good Friday. In Malta, the men, too, wear black.

Easter Confession • 

The Church imposes on its members the duty of receiving the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion at least once a year.⁶⁴ Though most of the faithful approach the sacraments oftener, the "Easter confession' is still singled out in various countries as a solemn rite. It is usually made in Lent, and the Church provides special services of preparation, such as annual missions for the congregations. These services are very popular in the Latin countries. They are called misiones in the Spanish-speaking parts, esercizi (spiritual exercises) in Italy, retrattes (retreats) in France and Canada. The original purpose of the Lenten missions was to help people prepare for a good confession.

In Russia, the faithful kept a specially strict fast during the whole week preceding their Easter confession. Starring on Monday, they attended two services a day. On Saturday, before going to confession, they would bow deeply to each member of their household, including the servants, and utter the age-old phrase "In the name of Christ, forgive me if I have offended you." The answer was "God will forgive you." Thus prepared, they made their confession on Saturday, and went to Communion on Sunday. Coming home from Mass and Communion, they again faced their whole family; but this time everyone embraced them with smiles and congratulations, flowers decorated the room and the breakfast table, and the entire household shared in the joy of the one who had received his Easter Communion. Similar traditions are still observed among the other Slavic nations. It was a custom in Austria for men and boys coming home from their Easter confession to decorate their hats with flowers and distribute pretzels to all in the house while receiving congratulations and good wishes.⁶⁵

Lenten Food • 

A most interesting survival of early Christian Lenten fare is a certain form of bread familiar to all of us. The Christians in the Roman Empire made a special dough consisting of flour, salt, and water only (since fat, eggs, and milk were forbidden). They shaped it in the form of two arms crossed in prayer, to remind them that Lent was a season of penance and devotion. They called these breads "little arms" (braceUae).⁶⁶ From the Latin word the Germans later coined the term Brezel or Prezel, from which comes our word pretzel. The oldest known picture of a pretzel may be seen in a manuscript from the fifth century in the Vatican.⁶⁷

All through medieval times and into the present, pretzels remained an item of Lenten food in many parts of Europe. In Germany, Austria, and Poland, they made their annual appearance on Ash Wednesday; special vendors (Brezelmarm) sold them on the streets of cities and towns.⁶⁸ People would eat them for lunch, together with a stein of their mild, home-brew beer. In Poland they were eaten in beer soup.

In the cities pretzels were distributed to the poor on many days during Lent. In parts of Austria, children wore them suspended from the palm bushes on Palm Sunday. With the end of Lent the pretzels disappeared again until the following Ash Wednesday.⁶⁹ It was only during the last century that this German (actually, ancient Roman) bread was adopted as an all-year tidbit; and its Lenten significance all but forgotten.

In Russia, the Lenten fare is the most meager of all European nations. Rigidly observed by the faithful far into the twentieth century, the traditional fast is still kept by old people: no meat, no fish, no milk (nor anything made of milk), no butter, no eggs, no sugar or candy. The diet during this period consists of bread made with water and salt, vegetables, raisins, honey, and raw fruit⁷⁰

The Polish people's main staples in Lent include herring (smoked or cooked), and zur, a mush made of fermented rye meal and water, which serves as a base for some Lenten soups.⁷¹

Among the Ukrainians, neither meat nor dairy products are used by those who keep the strict fast. During Lent meals are never cooked, only vegetables, fruit, honey, and special bread are eaten.

Mid-Lent • 

The week from the Wednesday before to the Wednesday after Laetare is called "Mid-Lent" in most countries. It is a time of many popular customs and traditions, most of them connected with ancient spring lore. In Germany and among the northern Slavic nations the "burial of winter' is celebrated in rural sections. In Poland children carry the effigy of a stork through the village; thus they greet the return of the bird as a harbinger of the approaching summer. In France and Canada, Mid-Lent is kept with a joyous meal and entertainment in the home. A rite performed in central and southern Europe is the decoration of wells and fountains with branches and flowers, to celebrate their final liberation from winter ice. Laetare Sunday is called Fontana (Sunday of Fountains) in parts of Italy because of this.⁷²

In Germany, Austria, and among the western Slavs, Laetare Sunday used to be the day of announcing the engagements of young people (Liebstatt Sonntag; Druzebna) .⁷³ In Bohemia the boys would send messengers to the homes of their girl friends to deliver the solemn proposal. In Austria the girls of the village lined up in front of the church after Mass; their boy friends would take- them by the hand and lead them back into the house of God, and thus "propose" to them by a silent act of religious import. After having prayed together, the couple would seal their engagement with a special meal. It is a curious fact that these engagement customs were called "Valentine," although they did not take place on Saint Valentine's Day. The name is explained by the fact that Saint Valentine was the heavenly patron of young lovers and engaged couples.⁷⁴

In Ireland not only Mid-Lent but the whole season of Lent is the traditional time of matchmaking (cleamhnas). The older people visit each other's homes to discuss the possibilities of matching their sons and daughters. Among the young generation, there is much fun poked at those not yet married. In some parts of Ireland weddings are held only on Easter Sunday, after the last preparations have been made during Lent.

....................

WELLLLL......IF  THIS  DOES  NOT

 BLOW  YOUR  MIND……THE  CUSTOMS  AND TRADITIONS  ADOPTED,

INVENTED  AND  MADE  UP  BY THE  MIND  OF  MAN,  ADDING TO  THE  WORD  

OF  GOD……THIS IS  ALL  JUST  UNREAL  AND  I  SHAKE  MY  HEAD  IN 

AMAZEMENT  AT  HOW  PEOPLE  WILL  INVENT  THE  OUTWARD  FORM  OF  

PIETY  AND  SO  LOOK  HOLY  AND  RIGHTEOUS.

IS  IT  ANY  WONDER  THAT  THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  HAS  

DECEIVED  OVER  A  BILLION  PEOPLE  ON  EARTH.  SHE  LOOKS  ON  THE  

SURFACE  AS  HOLY  AND  RIGHTEOUS  WITH  ALL  HER  FORMS  OF 

OUTWARD  RITES,  CUSTOMS,  AND TRADITIONS,  INVENTED  OVER  THE  

CENTURIES.  TRULY  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME  IS  THE  GREATEST  EXAMPLE  

OF  CHRIST  SAYING  "IN  VAIN  DO  THEY  WORSHIP  ME,  TEACHING

FOR  DOCTRINES  THE   COMMANDMENTS  OF  MEN,  WHILE  MAKING  VOID  

THE  COMMANDMENTS  OF  GOD."

Keith Hunt

To be continued. 

You  should  certainly  be  seeing  the  depth  of  Satan,  and  his  cunning ways  of  a  so-called  "Christian"  religion  that has  now  deceived  the  whole  world  in  one way  or  another.

CHRISTIAN  FEAST  AND  CUSTOMS

by Francis Weiser (1952)

Holy Week

THE GREAT AND SACRED WEEK Names *

 In the Greek Church Holy Week bears the solemn title he "Sacred and Great Week" (He hagia kai megale hebdomas). In the Latin Church the official term is the "Greater Week" [hebdomada major). The popular names are "Great Week" among the Slavic nations, and "Holy Week" in other countries, the German name Kanooche means "Week of Mourning." In indent times Holy Week was also called "Week of Remission," since the public sinners were absolved on Maundy Thursday, another name was "Laborious Week" (semaine peineuse) beause of the increased burden of penance and fasting. The faithful of the Eastern Churches also call it the "Week of Salvation." ¹

Observance • 

From the very beginning of Christianity it has always been devoted to a special commemoration of Christ's Passion and death through the practice of meditation, prayer, asting, and penance. 

(WHAT  A  HUGE  MISTAKE....THE CHURCH  OF  THE  FIRST  CENTURY  OBSERVED  NO  SUCH  HOLY  WEEK AS  THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  BROUGHT  IN  -  Keith Hunt(

After the great persecutions, the Christian Emperors of both the East and West Roman Empires issued various decrees forbidding not only amusements and games, but also regular work in trade, business, professions, and courts. The sacred days were to be spent free from worldly occupations, entirely devoted to religious exercises. Every year during Holy Week an imperial edict granted pardon to a majority of those retained in prison; in the courts many charges were withdrawn in honor of Christ's Passion.

Following this custom, kings and rulers in medieval days retired from all secular business during Holy Week to spend the time in recollection and prayer, often within the seclusion of a monastery. Farmers set aside their plows, artisans their tools, Schools and government offices closed, and courts did not sit. Popular feeling caused the banning not only of music, dancing, and secular singing but also of hunting and any other kind of sport. It was truly a "quiet" and "holy" week even in public life.² The Sacred Triduum of Holy Week (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) was a time of holyday obligation all through the Middle Ages. The Christian people, freed from servile work, were all present at the impressive ceremonies of these days. Due to the changed conditions of social life, however, Pope Urban VIII, in 1642, rescinded this obligation. Since then the last three days of Holy Week have been classified as working days, despite the sacred and important character they bear, which was powerfully stressed by the renewal of the liturgical order of Holy Week in 1955.³  

Gleaning * 

According to an ancient tradition, the three days after Palm Sunday are devoted in many countries to a thorough cleaning of the house, the most vigorous of the whole year. Carpets, couches, armchairs, and mattresses are carried into the open and every speck of dust beaten out of them. Women scrub and wax floors and furniture, change curtains, wash windows; the home is buzzing with activity. No time is wasted on the usual kitchen work; the meals are very casual and light On Wednesday night everything has to be back in place, glossy and shining, ready for the great feast.⁴ In Poland and other Slavic countries people also decorate their homes with green plants and artificial flowers made of colored paper carrying out ancient designs.⁵

This traditional spring cleaning is, of course, to make the home as neat as possible for the greatest holidays of the year, a custom taken over from the ancient Jewish practice of a ritual cleansing and sweeping of the whole house as prescribed in preparation for the Feast of Passover.⁶

PALM SUNDAY

Liturgy • 

As soon as the Church obtained her freedom in the fourth century, the faithful in Jerusalem re-enacted the solemn entry of Christ into their city on the Sunday before Easter, holding a procession in which they carried branches and sang the "Hosanna" (Matthew 21, 1-11).⁷ In the early Latin Church, people attending Mass on this Sunday would hold aloft twigs of olives, which were not, however, blessed in those days.

The rite of the solemn blessing of "palms" seems to have originated in the Frankish kingdom. The earliest mention of these ceremonies is found in the Sacramentary of the Abbey of Bobbio in northern Italy (at the beginning of the eighth century). The rite was soon accepted in Rome and incorporated into the liturgy. A Mass was celebrated in some church outside the walls of Rome, and there the palms were blessed. Then a solemn procession moved into the city to the basilica of the Lateran or to St. Peter s, where the pope sang a second Mass. The first Mass, however, was soon discontinued, and in its place only the ceremony of blessing was performed.⁸

Everywhere in medieval times, following the Roman custom, a procession composed of the clergy and laity carrying palms moved from a chapel or shrine outside the town, where the palms were blessed, to the cathedral or main church. Our Lord was represented in the procession, either by the Blessed Sacrament or by a crucifix, adorned with flowers, carried by the celebrant of the Mass. Later, in the Middle Ages, a quaint custom arose of drawing a wooden statue of Christ sitting on a donkey (the whole image on wheels) in the center of the procession. These statues (Palm Donkey; Palmesel) are still seen in museums of many European cities.⁹

As the procession approached the city gate, a boys' choir stationed high above the doorway of the church would greet the Lord with the Latin song Gloria, laus et honor. This hymn, which is still used today in the liturgy of Palm Sunday, was written by the Benedictine Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans (821):

Glory, praise and honor, O Christ, our Savior-King, To thee in glad Hosannas Inspired children sing.¹⁰

After this song, there followed a dramatic salutation before the Bussed Sacrament or the .image of Christ. Both clergy and laity knelt and bowed in prayer, arising to spread cloths and carpets on the ground, throwing flowers and branches in the path of the procession. The bells of the churches pealed, and the crowds sang the "Hosanna" as the colorful procession entered the cathedral for the solemn Mass.

In medieval times this dramatic celebration was restricted more and more to a procession around the church. The crucifix in the churchyard was festively decorated with flowers. There the procession came to a halt. While the clergy sang the hymns and antiphons, the congregation dispersed among the tombs, each family kneeling at the grave of relatives. The celebrant sprinkled holy water over the graveyard, the procession formed again and entered the church. In France and England the custom of decorating graves and visiting the cemeteries on Palm Sunday is still retained.¹¹

Today the blessing of palms and the procession are usually performed within the churches. The new liturgical arrangements made by Pope Pius XII have restored the original solemnity of the procession, and the members of the congregation now take active part again in the sacred ceremonies of Palm Sunday. The blessing of palms, however, is now very short and simple compared to the former elaborate ritual.¹²

^{Names *}

The various names for the Sunday before Easter come from the plants used—palms (Palm Sunday) or branches in general   (Branch   Sunday,   Domingo   de  Ramos,   Dimanche   des Rameaux). In most countries of Europe real palms  are unobtainable,  so in their place people use many other plants: olive branches (in Italy), box, yew, spruce, willows, and pussy willows.¹³ In fact, some plants have come to be called "palms" because of this usage, such as the yew in Ireland and the willow in England (palm willow)  and in Germany  (PalmMtzchen). From the use of willow branches Palm Sunday was called "Willow Sunday" in parts of England and Poland, and in Lithuania Verbu Sekmadienis (Willow Twig Sunday). The Greek Church uses the names "Sunday of the Palm-carrying" and "Hosanna Sunday." Centuries ago it was customary to bless not only branches but also various flowers of the season (the flowers are still mentioned in the first antiphonof the procession). Hence the name "Flower Sunday," which the day bore in many countries—"Flowering Sunday" or "Blossom Sunday" in England, Blumensonntag in Germany, Pdsques Fleuris in France, Pascua Florida in Spain, Virdgvasdrnap in Hungary, Cvetna among the Slavic nations, ZagKkasart in Armenia.¹⁴

The term Pascua Florida, which in Spain originally meant just Palm Sunday, was later also applied to the whole festive season of Easter Week. Thus the State of Florida received its name when, on March 27, 1513 (Easter Sunday), Ponce de Leon first sighted the land and named it in honor of the great feast.

The Passion • 

In the new liturgical order of Holy Week, Palm Sunday bears the official title "Second Sunday of the Passion, or Palm Sunday." Thus the Church enhances the significance of this Sunday as a memorial of Christ's sufferings, which are commemorated by the reading of the Passion. The word Passion in this connection means those passages of the Gospels which report the events of Christ's suffering and death. The Passions of all four Gospels are read or chanted in all Catholic churches during the liturgical services on certain days o£ Holy Week, and observed in varying degrees in many Protestant churches. On Palm Sunday, the Passion of Saint Matthew (26, 36—27, 54) is solemnly sung during Mass, in place of the usual Gospel.

The ancient liturgical rules prescribe that three clergymen of deacon's rank, vested in alb and stole, chant the sacred text. They are to alternate in contrasting voices. One (tenor) represents the Evangelist narrator; the second (high tenor) chants the voices of individuals and crowds; the third (bass) sings only the words of Christ.¹⁵

The melodies prescribed for the liturgical chanting of the Passion are among the most impressive examples of Gregorian chant, and for many centuries remained the only Passion music, until the nonliturgical works on the Passion were written.

The Palms • 

In central Europe, large clusters of plants, interwoven with flowers and adorned with ribbons, are fastened to the top of a wooden stick. All sizes of such palm bouquets may be seen, from the small children's bush to rods of ten feet and more.¹⁶ The regular "palm," however, consists in most European countries of pussy willows bearing their catkin blossoms. In the Latin countries and in the United States, palm leaves are often shaped and woven into little crosses and other symbolic designs. This custom was originated by a suggestion in the ceremonial book for bishops that little crosses of palm" be attached to the boughs wherever true palms are not available m sufficient quantity.¹⁷

In the spirit of this blessing, the faithful reverently keep the palms in their homes throughout the year, usually attached to a crucifix or holy picture, or fastened on the wall.¹⁸ In South America they put the large palm bouquets behind the door. In Italy people offer blessed palms as a token of reconciliation and peace to those with whom they have quarreled or lived on unfriendly terms. The Ukrainians and Poles strike each other gently with the pussy-willow palms on Palm Sunday; this custom, called Boze Rany (God's Wounds) they interpret as an imitation of the scourging of our Lord.¹⁹

In Austria, Bavaria, and in the Slavic countries, farmers, accompanied by their families, walk through their fields and buildings on the afternoon of Palm Sunday. Praying and singing their ancient hymns, they place a sprig of blessed palms in each lot of pasture or plowland, in every barn and stable, to avert the punishment of weather tragedies or diseases, and to draw God's blessing on the year's harvest and all their possessions.²⁰

HOLY  THURSDAY

Names • 

Holy Thursday bears the liturgical name "Thursday of the Lord's Supper" (Feria Quinta in Coena Domini). Of its many popular names the more generally known are:

Maundy Thursday (le mande; Thursday of the Mandatum). The word mandatum means "commandment." This name is taken from the first words sung at the ceremony of the washing of the feet, "A new commandment I give you" (John 13, 84); also from the commandment of Christ that we should imitate His loving humility in the washing of the feet (John 13, 14-17). Thus the term mandatum (maundy) was applied to the rite of the feet-washing on this day.²¹

Green Thursday. In all German-speaking countries people call Maundy Thursday by this name (Grundonnerstag). From Germany the term was adopted by the Slavic nations {zeleny etvrtek) and in Hungary (zold csutortok). Scholars explain its origin from the old German word grunen or greinen (to mourn), which was later corrupted into griin (green). Another explanation derives it from carena (quadragena), meaning the last day of the forty days' public penance.²²

Pure or Clean Thursday. This name emphasizes the ancient tradition that on Holy Thursday not only the souls were cleansed through the absolution of public sinners, but the faithful in all countries also made it a great cleansing day of the body (washing, bathing, shaving) in preparation for Easter. Saint Augustine (430) mentioned this custom.²³ The Old English name was "Shere Thursday" (meaning sheer, clean), and the Scandinavian, Skaer Torsdag. Because of the exertions and thoroughness of this cleansing in an age when bathing was not an everyday affair, the faithful were exempted from fasting on Maundy Thursday.²⁴

Holy or Great Thursday. The meaning of this title is obvious since it is the one Thursday of the year on which the sacred events of Christ's Passion are celebrated. The English-speaking nations and the people of the Latin countries use the term "Holy," while the Slavic populations generally apply the title "Great." ²⁵ The Ukrainians call it also the Thursday of the Passion." In the Greek Church it is called the "Holy and Great Thursday of the Mystic Supper." ²⁶

Masses • 

In the early Christian centuries the bishop celebrated three Masses on Maundy Thursday. The first (Mass of Remission) for the reconciliation of public sinners; the second (Mass of the Chrism) for the blessing of holy oils; the third (Mass of the Lord's Supper) in commemoration of the Last Supper of; Christ and the institution of the Eucharist²⁷ This third Mass was celebrated in the evening, and in it the priests and people received Holy Communion. It is interesting to note that in ancient times Holy Thursday was the only day of the year when the faithful could receive the Blessed Sacrament at night after having taken their customary meals during the day (since it was not a fast day).

Today the Mass of the Chrism is still solemnly celebrated in every cathedral. During this Mass the bishop blesses the holy oils (oils of the sick, holy chrism, and oil of the catechumens).²⁸

In the evening the Mass of the Lord's Supper is celebrated in all churches. It is one of the most solemn and impressive Masses of the year, since the very "birthday" of the Holy Sacrifice is commemorated in it. The altar is decorated, crucifix and tabernacle are veiled in white, and the priests wear rich vestments of white, the liturgical color of joy. At the beginning of the Mass the organ accompanies the choir, and through the Gloria a jubilant ringing of bells proclaims the festive memory of the institution of the Blessed Sacrament. After the Gloria the bells fall silent and are replaced by a wooden clapper and not heard again till the Gloria of the Easter Vigil is intoned on Holy Saturday.²⁹

Only one priest celebrates Mass in each church on Holy Thursday; the other priests and the lay people receive Communion from his hand, thus representing more vividly the scene of our Lord's Last Supper. The faithful are expected and invited (but not strictly obliged) to attend this Mass and receive Holy Communion.

Repository • 

After the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament is carried in solemn procession to a side altar, richly decorated with candles and flowers, where it is kept in the tabernacle until the Good Friday service. This "repository" altar is a highly venerated shrine in every church, visited by thousands of people. A popular custom in cities is to visit seven such shrines. Throughout the night, in many countries, groups of the clergy and laymen keep prayerful watch in honor of the agony of Christ.

In the Latin countries of Europe and South America the Maundy Thursday shrine is called monumento. It is much more elaborate than the shrines of other nations. Usually a special scaffolding with many steps, representing a sacred hill, is erected, so high that it almost reaches to the ceiling. On the top of this the Sacrament is elevated, raised above a glorious forest of candles, palms, orchids, lilies, and other decorations. Dressed in black, the city people visit at least seven such monumehtos, which, in many places, are open through the night. On their way from church to church they say the rosary.

Denuding of Altars • 

After the Mass and procession on Holy Thursday, the altars are "denuded" in a ceremony of deep significance. Priests robed in purple vestments remove the altar linen, decorations, candles, and veils from every altar and tabernacle except the repository shrine. Robbed of their vesture, the bare altars now represent the. body of Christ, Who was stripped of His garments. In medieval times the altars used to be washed with blessed water and wine, the priests using bundles of birch twigs or palms to cleanse and dry them. In the Vatican this ceremony is still performed by the canons of St. Peter's on Holy Thursday.³⁰

Mandatum • 

Finally, there is the ancient rite of the Mandatum, the washing of the feet. It is prescribed by the rules of the Roman Missal as follows:

After the altars are denuded, the clergy shall meet at a convenient hour for the Mandatum. The Gospel Ante diem festum (John 13, 1-17) is sung by the Deacon. After the Gospel the prelate puts off Ms cope and, fastening a towel around him, he kneels before each one of those who are chosen for the ceremony, washes, wipes and kisses the right foot.

From ancient times, all religious superiors, bishops, abbots, and prelates, performed the Maundy; so did the popes at all times. As early as 694 the Synod of Toledo prescribed the rite.³¹ Religious superiors of monasteries washed the feet of those subject to them, while the popes and bishops performed the ceremony on a number of clergy or laymen (usually twelve). In medieval times, and in some countries up to the present century, Christian emperors, kings, and lords washed the feet of old and poor men whom they afterward served at a meal and provided with appropriate alms.³²

In England, the kings used to wash the feet of as many men as they themselves were years old. After the Reformation, Queen Elizabeth I still adhered to the pious tradition; she is reported to have used a silver bowl of water scented with perfume when she washed the feet of poor women on Maundy Thursday. Today, all that is left of this custom in England is a distribution of silver coins by royal officials to as many poor persons as the monarch is years old.³³

The washing of feet is still kept in many churches.³⁴ In Mexico and other sections of South America the Last Supper is often re-enacted in church, with the priest presiding and twelve men or boys, dressed as Apostles, speaking the dialogue as recorded in the Gospels. In Malta, a "Last Supper Table" is richly laden by the faithful with food that is later distributed to the poor.

Reconciliation of Penitents • 

An ancient rite of Maundy Thursday now totally extinct was the solemn reconciliation of public penitents. As on Ash Wednesday, they again approached the church dressed in sackcloth, barefoot, unshaven, weak, and feeble from their forty days fast and penance. The bishop led them into the house of God, where he absolved them from their sins and crimes after the Gospel of the Mass of Reconciliation.

With his blessing they joyfully hurried home after the Mass to bathe, shave, and cut their hair in preparation for Easter, and to resume their normal dress and routine of daily life, which had been so harshly interrupted during the time of their public penance.³⁵

Royal Hours • 

The Greek Church celebrates a night vigil from Holy Thursday to Good Friday, in which the texts of the Passion, collected from the Bible and arranged in twelve chapters (called the "Twelve Gospels") are sung or read, with prayers, prostrations, and hymns after every chapter. In the cathedral of Constantinople, the East Roman emperors used to attend this service; hence it was called the "Royal Hours."³⁶ Its original name is Pannuchida (All-Night Service). In Russia people would carry home the candles that they had used in this vigil, and with them they would light the lamps that burned day and night before the family ikons (holy pictures). The Ukrainians celebtate the "Royal Hours" on Good Friday morning.³⁷

Folklore • 

Many popular customs and traditions are connected with Maundy Thursday. There is, above all, the universal children's legend that the bells "fly to Rome" after the Gloria of the Mass. In Germany and central Europe the little ones are told that the church bells make a pilgrimage to the tomb of the Apostles, or that they visit the pope, to be blessed by him, then sleep on the roof of St. Peter's until the Easter Vigil.³⁸ In France the story is that the bells fly to Rome to fetch the Easter eggs that they will drop on their return into every bouse wbere the children are good and well behaved.

In some Latin countries sugared almonds are eaten by everybody on Maundy Thursday. From this custom it bears the name "Almond Day" in the Azores. In central Europe the name "Green Thursday" inspired a tradition of eating green things. The main meal starts with a soup of green herbs, followed by a bowl of spinach with boiled or fried eggs, and meat with dishes of various green salads.³⁹

Following the ecclesiastical custom, the bells on farm buildings are silent in Germany and Austria, and dinner calls are made "with wooden clappers. In rural sections of Austria boys with, clappers go through the villages and towns, announcing the hours, because the church clock is stopped. These youngsters (Ratschen-huben) sing a different stanza each hour, in which they com-Kaemorate the events of Christ's Passion.⁴⁰

GOOD  FRIDAY

From the earliest centuries, Good Friday was universally celebrated in the Church as a day of sadness, mourning, fasting, and jnrayer. The Apostolic Constitutions (fourth century) called it a "day of mourning, not a day of festive joy." Saint Ambrosius (397), Archbishop of Milan, mentioned Good Friday as a "day of bitterness on which, we fast." ⁴¹

Names • 

The liturgical title in the Western Church, is "Friday of the Preparation" (Feria sexta in Farasceve). At the time of Christ, the Jews used the Greek word Faraskeue (getting ready) for Friday, meaning the day of preparation for the Sabbath. This word is now used both in the Oriental and Occidental Churches. Popular names are "Holy Friday" among the Latin nations, "Great Friday" among the Slavic peoples (petok veliki) and Hungarians (nagypentek), "Friday of Mourning" in German (Karfreitag), "Long Friday" in Norway (Langfredag), and "Good Friday" in English and Dutch.

The early Church, following apostolic tradition, employed the hallowed term "Paseh" (from Hebrew pesach, passover) both to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Thus Good Friday is called the "Pasch of Crucifixion' (pascha staurosimon), Easter the "Pasch of Resurrection" (pasclw anastasimon), and the Eastern Church has kept these names up to our day.⁴²

_r

Service of Reading and Prater • 

The first part of the Good Friday service is the only example of an ancient Roman Synaxis (prayer meeting without Mass) that has survived to the present. It consists of a silent prostration before the altar, followed by lessons (readings from the Bible), chanting of the'Passion of Saint John, prayers, and the solemn Collects for all classes of men and for the needs of the Church, the celebrant starting every invocation with the words "Oremus, dilectissimi nobis" (Let us pray, dearest brethren).

Adoration of the Cross • 

After the Synaxis one of the most moving ceremonies of the year takes place, the Adoration of the Cross. (The word adoration in this instance is a translation of the Greek proskunesis, which meant a tribute of the highest honor, performed by a prostration to the ground.) In medieval England and Germany the ceremony was called "creeping to the Cross" {zum Kreuz kriechen).

The celebrating priest unveils the crucifix in three stages, singing "Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Salvation of the world"; to which the choir and people, kneeling and reverently bowing, answer "Come, let us adore!" Then the crucifix is placed on a pillow in front of the altar. The priest and his assistants approach it, genuflecting three times, and devoutly kiss the feet of the image. The rest of the clergy and the lay people follow, performing the same humble act of veneration. Meanwhile, the choir sings the ancient Improperia (complaints) of Christ:

My people, what have I done to thee?

Or in what have I grieved thee? Answer me!

I brought thee out of the land of Egypt:

And thou hast prepared a cross for thy Saviour.

For thy sake I scourged Egypt and its first-born:

And thou didst scourge me and deliver me to

death.

In answer the choir sings the invocation called Trisagion (thrice holy) in Latin and Greek:

O holy God,

O strong, holy One,

O holy, immortal One, have mercy on us.

The Adoration of the Cross was adopted by the Roman Church from Jerusalem, where the true Cross of Christ was thus venerated every year on Good Friday as early as the fourth century. Aetheria, after her pilgrimage to the Holy Land about a.d. 395, left in her diary the first description of this ceremony. It is of special interest that, according to her report, not only the Cross, but also the title board bearing the inscription (John 19: 19-22) was presented to the pilgrims. They were allowed to kiss, but not to touch, the sacred objects.⁴³ When the Mohammedans conquered Jerusalem under Sultan Saladin, in 1187, they took the relics away, and no trace of them was ever found. Fortunately, a piece of the true Cross was brought to Rome in the fourth century, and from it many churches in all countries have received small particles as relics.44

Communion Service • 

After the solemn veneration of the cross, the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession from the repository shrine (where it was placed the day before) to the main altar. Then the Communion service is celebrated. It is a solemn rite presenting some ceremonies of the Mass, but not the Divine Sacrifice itself. On the day on which Christ offered Himself on the Cross for the redemption of the world, the Church reverently abstains from performing the same sacrifice, in its unbloody repetition, which otherwise is offered every day according to His command (1 Corinthians 11: 23-26). The faithful are encouraged to receive Holy Communion at this service.⁴⁵

After the solemn ceremonies of Good Friday, the altar is stripped again, the tabernacle is left open, no lights burn in the sanctuary. Only the crucifix, now unveiled, takes the place of honor in front of the empty tabernacle. The faithful, however, practice various additional devotions on Good Friday. In all coontries such devotional exercises are now held with traditional piety.

Holy Sepulcher *

 The most ancient and impressive of these extraliturgical rites is the shrine of the Holy Sepulcher, a custom that derived from the practice of the early Church in Jerusalem, where the faithful kept a devout prayer vigil at the tomb of the Lord from the evening of Good Friday until the start of the Easter services.⁴⁶ Unfortunately, this practice was not incorporated in the Roman liturgy. It would give a liturgical inspiration and significance to the evening of Good Friday and to Holy Saturday, which now are utterly aliturgical.

This tradition of a vigil at the Holy Sepulcher was brought from Jerusalem to Europe and spread in the form of a semi-liturgical practice through many countries.⁴⁷ In past centuries it was a universal tradition in England and France. The rite was performed with liturgical texts and ceremonies. In some countries a crucifix or the Blessed Sacrament (or both together) were borne in solemn procession to a shrine called the Sepulcher. There the priest deposited them in a sort of tabernacle shaped like a tomb chamber. The faithful visited the shrine all through Good Friday and Holy Saturday.⁴⁸

Today, the custom of the Holy Sepulcher is still observed in central and eastern Europe and in the Latin countries. After the liturgical service, the priests carry the Blessed Sacrament in splendid procession to the side altar. The monstrance in which the Sacrament is borne is covered with a transparent veil of white lace to symbolize the burial shroud of Christ A representation of the Lord's tomb, showing an image of the Saviour resting in death, awaits the procession. This shrine is decorated with many candles, palms, flowers, and lights. There the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on a throne for the veneration of the faithful. All through Good Friday and Holy Saturday, people come in great numbers, kneel in devout prayer before the Eucharistic Lord, actually a spiritual "wake" of devotion and adoration. In Austria it is a traditional custom for soldiers of the army, in parade uniform, with steel helmets and fixed bayonets, to man a guard of honor at the shrine, and thus atone for the irreverent guard of Roman soldiers at the tomb of Christ⁴⁹

In Spanish-speaking countries of Europe and South America the monumento is taken down on Good Friday and in its place a representation of Calvary is erected, with life-size figures of Christ on the Cross, the Blessed Mother, Saint John, and Mary Magdalen. After the service, the priest mounts a ladder to detach the body of Christ from the Cross. He takes it down and places it in the shrine of the Sepulcher. There the faithful visit and pray all through the evening and on Holy Saturday. It is customary to recite thirty-three Credos in honor of the years of our Lord's life.

In the Byzantine Church, on the afternoon of Good Friday, the elders of the parish carry a cloth containing a picture of our Lord's body resting in death. Followed by the priest, they walk in procession to the shrine of the Sepulcher, where the cloth is placed on a table to be venerated by the people. The entire ceremony and the shrine are called Platsenitsia (winding sheet) by the Ukrainians and other Slavs of the Oriental Church.

La Russia a silver coffin bearing a cross was placed in the center of the church and surrounded with lights and flowers. One after another the faithful, creeping on their knees, approached to kiss the cross and to venerate the image of Christ's body painted on the "winding sheet"

Origin of the Forty Hours' Devotion • 

Usually the origin of the Forty Hours' Devotion is ascribed to the city of Milan, where, in 1527, in a time of war and calamities, the faithful were invited to visit the exposed Blessed Sacrament four times a year and to pray to the Eucharistic Lord, imploring His mercy and help. The dates for this devotion, which was called "Forty Hours' Prayer," were Easter, Pentecost, Feast of the Assumption, and Christmas.⁵⁰

It is interesting to note that the church where this devotion was to be held bore the name Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The duration, forty hours, points far back into the earliest centuries of Christianity, when the faithful honored our Lord's rest in the tomb by a fast and prayer of forty hours. "From the moment of Christ's death to the morning of His resurrection it is forty hours," said Saint Augustine (430).⁵¹ By the second century it was a widespread custom for people to fast day and night for forty hours, from Good Friday afternoon until Easter Sunday morning, according to the word of Saint Irenaeus (202) recorded in the history of Eusebius.⁵²

To the fast of forty hours there was added a forty hours' prayer at the Holy Sepulcher, as Aetheria reported in her diary.⁵³ Fasting and prayer at the shrine of the Sepulcher remained through all the centuries of the Middle Ages, and in some countries even the latter is still kept. Liturgically speaking, however, only the fasting is provided in the Roman Bite, while the Eastern Rites have a "burial" service and a symbolic shrine of the Sepulcher in their Good Friday ritual.⁵⁴ The practice of prayerful watch at the tomb of Christ, which would admirably fit the liturgical meaning of Holy Saturday, has never been officially introduced in the Latin Church. Instead, the Forty Hours' Devotion, which grew out of the ancient forty hours' "wake," was separated from its original place and officially established as a liturgical devotion at various other times of the year. This lack of a liturgical ritual for Holy Saturday has become more apparent since the renewal of the Holy Week order (1955).⁵⁵

Three Hours' Devotion • 

A very well-known Good Friday service is the Devotion of the Three Hours (Tre Ore). It was first performed in Lima, Peru, by Father Alphonso Messia, S.J. (1732), and quickly spread to all the Latin-speaking countries.⁵⁶ In Italy it was introduced with special enthusiasm, and from there went to England and America, where in recent years it has grown in popularity also in many Protestant churches. It consists of sermons on the seven last words of Christ, alternating with hymns and prayers. In most countries of Europe the Three Hours' Devotion is hardly known. Instead, oratorios on the seven words are often presented by church choirs in a musical service on Good Friday night. Such musical programs are also observed in many Protestant churches, both in Europe and America.

Processions • 

A famous feature of Good Friday is the popular procession in the Latin countries. Such public processions were also held in most countries of central and western Europe up to the nineteenth century.⁵⁷ In many regions, especially in Spain, the confraternities (confradias) of lay people, wearing hoods and carrying lighted candles, walk through the streets in religious parades. Images of the suffering Christ and the Blessed Virgin are conveyed in a pageant of magnificent splendor. The statues, borne on huge platforms, are beautifully decorated and surrounded by a multitude of burning tapers. In Malta the bearers wear Oriental robes, and many go barefoot in observance of vows.

This Spanish custom of the confradia processions, especially the famous tradition of the city of Seville, has also found its way into the Spanish-speaking countries of the New World. Among the most impressive celebrations of this kind is the annual Semana Santa (Holy Week) observance in Mexico City. There a funeral procession (el santo entierro) is held with a touching scene in which the Mother of the Lord meets the lifeless body of her Son (el pesame). The Stations of the Cross are often dramatically represented in a passion play outside the church, followed by sermon and prayer. In parts of South America a procession, carrying the empty cross and many statues, moves slowly through the crowded church while the people pray and sing. In Caracas, Venezuela, this service is supposed to last four to five hours; and in order to fill the time, the procession not only moves very slowly but proceeds in a quaint manner, walking three steps forward and two steps backward.

In India the native Christians accompany the "funeral" of Christ, which is met outside the church by a statue of the sorrowful Virgin. A sermon is preached, and both statues together are taken into the church. There the people perform the purana, a service of wailing, at which they sing hymns to their ancient, plaintive tunes. The early missionaries to India were Portuguese, and they took these customs with them.

Music • 

Following the Reformation, the practice grew in Germany of presenting, on Good Friday afternoon, in place of the ancient liturgical service, musical settings of the parts of the Gospel narrating the Passion and death of Christ. One of the earliest works of this kind is the composition of Antonio Scandello (1580), choir director of the court chapel at Dresden. He wrote a St. Johns Passion that follows the traditional recitative of the liturgical chant in the solo part (evangelist). He was the first composer to set the story of the Passion to music in oratorio form, and it became the model for most of his successors for hundreds of years.

Heinrich Schuetz (1672) set to dramatic music all four Gospel narrations of the Passion. They all close with a devotional chorus in motet style based on some familiar church, hymn.

The best known and perhaps the.greatest of all are the two immortal compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach, Saint John Passion and Saint Matthew Passion. The Saint John Passion was first performed on Good Friday, 1723, at Leipzig. Its first complete American performance was given by the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1888. The Saint Matthew Passion, somewhat longer,-was also produced for the first time in Leipzig, in 1729. During Passiontide throughout the world many performances of both these famous compositions are heard by thousands, especially since the advent of radio and television.

While Handel, in 1704, at the age of nineteen, wrote a Passion, far better known is his inspired Messiah. The latter half of this gigantic oratorio deals with the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

A composition called the Seven Last Words for solo, chorus, and orchestra was written by Franz Josef Haydn (1809) at the request of the cathedral chapter of Cadiz, Spain, to be performed at the Three Hours' Devotion, and is being heard rather frequently in recent years.

The Christus am Oelberg (Christ on the Mount of Olives) by Beethoven, Charles Gounod's Seven Last Words, Cesar Franck's Redemption, with a text by Eduard Blau, are some of the many works of music for Passiontide. Gounod's Seven Last Words is often performed in both Catholic and Protestant churches on Good Friday.

A composition that in recent years has become a favorite with church choirs is the dramatic setting of the Seven Last Words, with a Latin text, by the Frencb organist and composer Theodore Dubois (1924). It was first performed in Paris in 1869, and is now often given as a sacred concert on Palm Sunday evening or at some other time during Holy Week.

Some of the best-known works of English composers often beard in Protestant churches during Holy Week include: Maunders Olivet to Calvary, Gaul's Holy City, and Stainer'i Crucifixion.

Parsifal, by Richard Wagner (1883), based on a folklore in* terpretation of the search, for the Holy Grail, is an opera frequently beard in Holy Week, and the music for the "Good Friday Spell" from it is usually played by symphony orchestras here and in Europe during that period.

Popular Observance • 

Following the spirit of the liturgy, the faithful everywhere keep Good Friday as a day of strictest fast, often far beyond the obligation of the law. Many people take nothing but a little bread and water all day. In some counties of England plain rice cooked in milk is the traditional Good Friday meal. The Irish people hold a "black fast' which usually means that they take only water or tea on that day. In central Europe it is the custom to eat just vegetable soup and bread at noon, and some cheese with bread in the evening. Both meals are taken standing and in silence. No noisy tasks are performed, people refrain from joking and laughing, and children abstain from their usual games.⁵⁸

In many countries, pious legends have inspired popular practices that are widely observed, mostly in a spirit of true reverence, some of which, however, have given rise to superstitions. Among farmers, Good Friday is considered a lucky day for sowing, since Christ blessed and sanctified the soil by His burial. On the other hand, craftsmen must be careful not to swing a hammer or drive a nail on the day on which Christ was nailed to the Cross; carpenters, plumbers, blacksmiths rest from their usual work. No washing is done by women, since the Lord's blood stained the linen and clothes on Good Friday. A familiar superstition is that if a woman washes on Good Friday, she will find the laundry spotted with blood, and ill luck will befall her all through the year.⁵⁹

A deeply impressive practice among the Christian Syrians and Chaldeans is the fact that they do not use their customary greeting, Shlama ("Peace be with you") on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, because Judas Iscariot saluted Christ with these very words when he betrayed Him. Instead, they substitute on these two days, as mutual greeting, the phrase "the Light of God be with your departed ones."

In many parts of Europe people who die on Good Friday are considered highly fortunate, since they are believed to share in the privilege of the Good Thief, and to be given the grace of salvation and a speedy entry into Heaven.

It was a universal custom (and still is in Catholic countries) to mark a new loaf of bread with the sign of the cross before. cutting it, in order to bless it and thank God for it. On special occasions the cross was imprinted on the loaf before baking, as | on the Christmas loaves in southern France and in Greece, the \ Kreuzstollen (cross loaf) in Germany, the cross bread of Mid-Lent among the Slavs. On Good Friday, loaves'bearing an imprinted cross (Karfreitaglaib) are eaten in Austria. In England, from the end of the fourteenth century, buns were baked with a cross marked on them. They are said to have originated at Saint Alban's Abbey in 1361, where the monks distributed them to the poor. Whatever their origin, these "hot cross buns" became a famous Good Friday feature in England and Ireland, and later in this country. They were made of spiced dough, round in shape, with a cross made of icing on the top. In recent^: times these cross buns are sold not only on Good Friday but all through Lent.

The hot cross buns were considered blessed and powerful against all kinds of sickness and dangers. Eating them on Good : Friday was said to protect your home from fire. People would keep them through the year, eating them as medicine or wearing : them as charms against disease, Hghtning, and shipwreck.⁶⁰

HOLY  SATURDAY

Names • 

The English title for the day before Easter, Holy Saturday, is a translation of its official name in the Western Church— Sabbatum Sanctum. In the Oriental Church it is called the "Sacred and Great Saturday." Most European nations use the term "holy," except in parts of eastern Europe, where the term "the Great Saturday" is in vogue. The German people say "Saturday of mourning" (Karsamstag). On the Island of Malta, where Arabic is spoken, Holy Saturday bears the name Sibt il Glorja (Saturday of Glory). The Christians in Iraq and Iran employ the popular term Sabt al-Noor (Saturday of Light).

Observance • 

Holy Saturday commemorates Christ's rest in the tomb. There is no service at all during the daylight hours, since the body of the Lord enclosed in the Sepulcher shared the fate and humiliation of human burial. As Christ rested in the grave the whole Sabbath day, so the faithful waited in prayer and fasting until the evening star announced the beginning of the Easter Vigil.

In ancient days a strict fast called the "Passion fast" was kept until the morning of Easter Sunday; not even children were dispensed from observing it.⁶¹ Both the Eastern and Western Churches called Holy Saturday the "Day of Rest of the Lord's Body in the Tomb." In the fourteenth century the original night service of the Easter Vigil was transferred to the morning of Holy Saturday, but in 1955 Pope Pius XII restored the ancient custom, and it is once more held as a Holy Saturday night service, leading directly into Easter Sunday.⁶²

In the early centuries the catechumens would assemble in the church during the afternoon, the men on one side, the women on the other. After an instruction by the bishop, the priests performed on them those rites which are still practiced in the baptism of infants and adults: the exorcism of the powers of evil, the touching of ears and nostrils as a symbol of opening their minds to the word and grace of God, and the solemn pledge of conversion. This pledge was accompanied by a dramatic gesture. Turning toward the west and pointing with the forefinger in the direction of sunset, each catechumen uttered these words, "I renounce thee, Satan, with all thy pomps and all thy works," then taming to the east and pointing likewise, they would say, "To Thee I dedicate myself, Jesus Christ, eternal and uncreated light." After this, each one recited the Creed publicly before the whole congregation; then they were dismissed to spend the last few hours before their baptism in quiet recollection and prayer.⁶³

Folklore •

On Holy Saturday there is great activity around tiie house in central Europe. Easter ham and other foods for the feast are cooked, Easter bread and pastry are baked. Many eggs are boiled and painted. The whole house is decked with flowers and finery in preparation for the great feast. In the Slavic countries, baskets of food, especially eggs, are brought to the church to be blessed by the priest on Holy Saturday afternoon. They are then taken home and eaten for breakfast on Easter Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. In many regions the priests. go from house to house on Holy Saturday to bless the Easter fare, which is neatly arranged on large tables and decorated with flowers.

An amusing custom is practiced in Poland on Holy Saturday. The boys of the villages "bury" the Lenten fare, herring and zur, in a mock funeral. The herring (a real one or a wooden image) is first executed by hanging, then a pot of zur is shattered against a rock or tree; finally the fish and the pieces of the pot are interred with glee. No longer will these tiresome dishes be eaten, at least not until next Lent.

In the Alpine provinces of Austria, Easter fires burn on mountain peaks after sunset on Holy Saturday, and bands of musicians go through the towns, playing sacred hymns.

....................

THIS  IS  ALL  BASED  UPON  A  FALSE  

FOUNDATION,  AS  JESUS  WAS  PUT  TO  

DEATH  ON  A  WEDNESDAY,  AND  WAS 

RESURRECTED  SHORTY  AFTER  SUNSET

SATURDAY  EVENING  -  THREE  DAYS

AND  THREE  NIGHT  LATER.  ALL  

EXPLAINED  IN  DETAIL  IN  MY  STUDY

CALLED  "THREE  DAYS  AND  THREE  NIGHT"

ON  MY  WEBSITE.

WE  ALSO  OF  COURSE  SEE  MANY  MAN

MADE  RITES  AND  CUSTOMS  ADDED  TO

THE  WORD  OF  GOD  -  TRADITIONS  AND  

CUSTOMS  OF  MEN,  THAT  HAVE  NO  MERIT

IN  THE  TRUE  RELIGION  OF  THE  ETERNAL

GOD  IN  HEAVEN.

Keith Hunt

CHRISTIAN  FEASTS  AND  CUSTOMS

by Francis Weiser (1952)

Easter

FEAST OF THE RESURRECTION 

The joy and exultation over this greatest of all Christian feasts is evident in the writings of the saints and Fathers from earliest times. Easter is referred to as the "peak (akropolis) of all feasts" and the "Queen of all solemnities." Saint Gregory of Nazianz (390)  wrote, "This highest Feast and greatest celebration so much surpasses not only civic holidays but also the other feast days of the Lord, that it is like the sun among stars."¹

Christian Pasch *

The feast is called "Pasch" by most nations: Greeks and Romanians (Pascha), Italians (Pasqua), Spaniards and Portuguese (Pascua), French (Pdque), Norwegians (Paskir), Danes (Paaske), Gaels (case). As stated before, this word is taken from the Greek (and Latin) pascha:, which comes from the Hebrew word pesach (passover). The Passover was celebrated by the Jews on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, which began about a week before the full moon of spring. It was instituted to commemorate the deliverance of the people of Israel the night before their departure from Egypt. The angel of God destroyed the first-born of Egypt but passed over the houses of the Israelites. It was the command of God, announced by Moses, that each Hebrew family should slay a young lamb without blemish, and sprinkle its blood on the frame of the door. In the evening the lamb was to be roasted, no bones were to be broken, and it was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs by all members of the family. According to divine ordination, this rite was to be repeated every year in a solemn ceremony on the eve of the feast, and is still celebrated by Jewish people everywhere today.² Jesus observed it for the last time on the night before He died.

There is a significant link between the Jewish Passover and the Christian Easter, because Christ died on Passover Day. It is also symbolic because the lamb that had to be sacrificed for the deliverance of Israel is considered by the Church as prophetic of Him Who is the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1, 29). Thus the name and meaning of the Hebrew Pasch was devoutly accepted into the Christian liturgy. Although the death and Resurrection of the Redeemer would have been commemorated by Christians at whatever time they might have occurred, it is of special significance that the Lord actually did die and rise during the days of the Passover celebration.

From the very first, the Resurrection of Christ was celebrated as the greatest and most important festive day of the whole year. 

(NOT  SO  AT  ALL..... THE  APOSTLES  OF  CHRIST  NEVER  WROTE  THAT  WE  SHOULD  KEEP  SUNDAY  IN  HONOR  OF  CHRIST  BEING  RAISED  ON  THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  THE  WEEK.  THERE  IS  NO  EXAMPLE  OF  OBSERVING  SUNDAY  AS  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION  DAY  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.  SUCH  LANGUAGE  AS  THE  AUHTOR  HAS  USED  HERE,  IS  THE  FIGMENT  OF  THE  IMAGINATION  OF  THE  TRADITIONS  OF  MEN - Keith Hunt)

In fact, every Sunday is a "little Easter" consecrated to the memory of the Risen Christ. In the Eastern Churches, Sunday bears the name "Resurrection" even today.³ The Council of Nicaea (325) prescribed that on Sundays and during Easter time all Christians should pray standing, never bend their knees, to indicate "that we are risen with Christ." ⁴ A relic of this custom is the practice of saying the Angelus (daily prayer commemorating the Incarnation) standing, instead of kneeling, on Sundays. At Easter time the antiphon of the Blessed Virgin, Regina caeli, laetare (Queen of Heaven, rejoice) is said standing.

In addition to this weekly celebration of Christ's resurrection, the Church has observed each year from the earliest centuries a special feast at the time of the Jewish Pasch to commemorate the anniversary of the greatest events in the Christian world. Since there is an intimate bond between the Resurrection of Christ and the sacrament of baptism, the Church united these two "resurrections" in a common ritual. It celebrates the "new life" not only of Christ as the Head, but also of His Mystical Body, His faithful followers. This is why the prayers of the liturgy in paschal week constantly reflect those two thoughts: the Resurrection of our Lord and the baptism of the faithful.⁵

Other Names • 

The English word Easter and the German Ostern come from a common origin (Eostur, Eastur, Ostara, Ostar), which to the Norsemen meant the season of the rising (growing) sun, the season of new birth. The word was used by our ancestors to designate the Feast of New Life in the spring. The same root is found in the name for the place where the sun rises (East, Ost). The word Easter, then, originally meant the celebration of the spring sun, which had its birth in the East and brought new life upon earth. This symbolism was transferred to the supernatural meaning of our Easter, to the new life of the Risen Christ, the eternal and uncreated Light.

Based on a passage in the writings of Saint Bede the Venerable (735), the term Easter has often been explained as the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess (Eostre),⁶ though no such goddess is known in the mythologies of any Germanic tribe. Modem research has made it quite clear that Saint Bede erroneously interpreted the name of the season as that of a goddess.⁷

^{(NEVERTHELESS  IT  WAS  ALL  TO  DO}

^{WITH  THE  WORSHIP  OF  THE  SUN -}

 ^{Keith Hunt)}

Some Slavic nations, such as Poland, call Easter the "Great Easter (Wielkanoc); the Ukrainians, Russians, and Serbs say the "Great Day" (Velik Den). In Hungary it is referred to as "Feast of Meat" (Husvet), because the eating of meat is resumed again after the long fast.⁸

Civic Observance • 

In medieval documents Easter is often recorded as the beginning of a new year, especially in France, where this custom prevailed until 1563. At Easter time the Roman emperors, starting with Valentinian in 367, released from prison persons who were not dangerous criminals; this practice was followed by emperors, kings, and popes all through medieval times and up to the present century.

Leading citizens in the Roman Empire imitated the clemency of the emperors at Easter time, granting freedom to slaves, forgiving enemies by ending feuds and quarrels, and discontinuing prosecutions in the courts. These customs, too, prevailed all through medieval times in the Christian countries of Europe.⁹

Easter Greeting • 

In the early centuries, the faithful embraced each other with the words "Surrexit Dominus vere" (Christ is truly risen), to which the answer was "Deo gratias" (Thanks be to God). In the Greek Church the greeting is "Christos' aneste" (Christ is risen), the answer, "Aletlws aneste" (He is truly risen). This greeting is still generally used by Russians and Ukrainians (Christos voskres. Vo istinu voskres).¹⁰

In Russia the Easter kiss was bestowed during Matins before the night Mass; people would embrace each other in the church. All through Easter week the mutual kiss and embrace were repeated not only in the homes but also on the streets, even with strangers. The Poles and western Slavs greet each other with the wish "A joyful alleluia to you!" (Wesolego AUelujd).

In medieval times, when the bishop celebrated Easter Mass in his cathedral and the clergy received Communion from his hand, the priests and ministers would Mss him on the cheek after Communion, according to the regulations.¹¹

Easter Communion • 

Another ancient rite of Easter is the solemn Easter Communion. Church law requires the reception of the Holy Eucharist at least once a year, during Easter time.

This edict dates from the fourth Council of the Lateran (1215).¹² The law was not made to inaugurate a new practice but to safeguard the minimum demands of an old tradition. In the early centuries a great deal more was expected from the faithful than Communion only once a year. The Council of Agde (506), for instance, had urged all Christians to receive at least three times a year.¹³

In the beginning, the obligation of Easter Communion had to be fulfilled on the feast day itself. However, the Church gradually extended the time of this obligation, which now officially begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Low Sunday. By provision of canon law, however, and by special indults, this period has been prolonged in most countries (usually from the first Sunday in Lent to Trinity Sunday).¹⁴

THE  EASTER VIGIL

History • 

Among early Christians, from the fourth century on, in all cities and towns the mood of quiet, somber expectancy suddenly turned into radiant exultation and joy at the sight of the first stars in the evening of Holy Saturday. Thousands of lights began to illuminate the growing darkness. The churches seemed to burst with the blaze of lamps and candles, the homes of the people shone with light, and even the streets were bright with the glow of a thousand tapers. At a time when electric lights were unknown, this tremendous annual illumination was overwhelming.¹⁵ The deep impressions it created are still reflected in the writings of the Fathers and in the text of our liturgical service. The night was called the "Mother of All Holy Vigils," 16 the "Great Service of Light" (sacrum lucernarium), the "Night of Radiant Splendor" (irradiata fulgoribus), the "Night of Illumination" (luminosa haec nox).¹⁷ We are told that Emperor Constantine (331) "transformed the night of the sacred vigil into the brilliance of day, by lighting throughout the whole city [of Milan] pillars of wax, while burning lamps illuminated every house, so that this nocturnal celebration was rendered brighter than the brightest day."¹⁸ Saint Gregory of Nyssa (394), in one of his Easter sermons, mentioned "this glowing night which links the splendor of burning lamps to the morning rays of the sun, thus producing continuous daylight without any darkness."¹⁹

Many hymns have been written in praise of this illumination on the vigil of Easter, the best known being the poem Inventor rutilis written by Prudentius (405), a layman and government official of the Roman Empire, and a great Christian poet

Eternal God, O Lord of Light, Who hast created day and night: The sun has set, and shadows deep Now over land and waters creep; But darkness must not reign today: Grant us the light of Christ, we pray.²⁰

It is difficult to picture today the solemn joy and excitement that filled the hearts of Christians in the early centuries on that night. For them the Easter Vigil was the glorious annual triumph which they celebrated together with Christ over sin, death, and the powers of evil. Their excitement was increased beyond modern comprehension by the universal belief in those days that Christ would return for the Last Judgment during one of these Easter Vigils. Nobody stayed at home, not even the little children. The multitudes crowded into the churches, and thousands thronged around the house of God, joining in prayer with those who had been fortunate enough to find places inside. Gold and silver candelabra shed their cheerful light through the open doors and windows; hundreds of lamps suspended from the ceiling illumined the church with a new splendor.²¹

The custom of spending the Easter Vigil in prayer seems to date from the time of the Apostles. Tertulhan (third century) mentions this prayer per noctem (through the night), and even earlier writings indicate the practice among the early Christians of spending the night before Easter Sunday in common prayer.²²

In later centuries the vigil service began with the lighting of the paschal candle, which from the earliest period was considered a sacred symbol of Christ's Person. The praeconia paschalia (jubilant Easter songs) which accompanied the lighting of the candle were already performed in the Roman Empire at the end of the fourth century. The earliest manuscript containing the present text of the song (Exultet) dates from the seventh or eighth century.²³ After the blessing of the candle, a prayer service was held; passages of the Bible were read (the "prophecies"), then the priests and people recited psalms, antiphons, and orations. This service lasted much longer than today, but the faithful did not mind, since they spent the whole night in church anyway.

Toward midnight the bishop and clergy went in procession to the baptismal font, a large basin built in a structure outside the church. There the baptismal water was consecrated with the prayers and ceremonies still in use today. Once more the catechumens were addressed by their spiritual shepherd. Then, divested of any ornaments or jewelry, they stepped into the "life-giving waters." The bishop, also standing in the water, baptized them one by one, first the men, then the women and children. After baptism they were anointed. Finally they put on sandals and flowing white garments of pure linen. In this attire they appeared at all services until the end of Easter week.

Long after midnight, probably at the first dawn of Easter Sunday, the vigil was concluded with the customary prayers of the litanies and celebration of the Holy Sacrifice.²⁴

^{(HOW  ALL  THIS  SEEMS  TO  BE  SO}

^{RELIGIOUS  AND  HOLY  AND  FULL  OF}

^{PIETY  -  IT  DECEIVES  NEARLY  2}

^{BILLION  CHRISTIANS  ON  EARTH  IN}

^{ONE  WAY  OR  ANOTHER  -  THE}  

^{HARLOT  MOTHER  CHURCH  AND  HER}  

^{MANY  DAUGHTERS  -  REVELATION 17 - Keith Hunt)}

This basic structure of the ancient Easter Vigil had been altered somewhat and reduced in significance through the practice of anticipating the vigil service on Holy Saturday morning in past centuries.²⁵ It was restored, however, by Pope Pius XII to its original place and character, so that once more the impressive light symbolism attains its full effect during the darkness of the night, and the faithful may take their active part in it as of old. The solemn baptism of adults is to be administered, if possible, and the Eucharistic service has again become a celebration of the very time and event of Christ's resurrection.²⁶

Our restored vigil celebration has retained some rites that were added in the course of later centuries. The most notable of them is the blessing of the Easter fire.

Easter Fire • 

The Germanic nations had a popular tradition of setting big bonfires at the beginning of spring. This custom was frowned upon by the Church because it served a pagan symbolism, and consequently was suppressed when those nations became Christian. As late as 742, the prohibition of such fires was firmly upheld.²⁷ However, Irish bishops and monks who came to the European continent in the sixth and seventh centuries brought with them an ancient rite of their own: the setting and blessing of big bonfires outside the church on Holy Saturday night. Saint Patrick himself, the Father and Founder of the Church in Ireland, had started this tradition, to supplant the Druidic pagan spring fires with a Christian and religious fire symbol of Christ, the Light of the World.²⁸

^{(SO  TAKE  WHAT  THE  PAGANS  DID  TO}

^{FALSE  GODS  AND  ADAPT  IT  TO}

^{CHRISTIANITY,  WITH  SOME  HOLY}  

^{WATER,  OR  WHATEVER  SEEMS  RIGHT}

^{AND-SO-RIGHT  TO  MEN  -  Keith Hunt)}

This Christian usage of an Easter bonfire naturally appealed to the population of the West Frankish kingdom (France), where the Irish monks established flourishing monasteries. In the East Frankish kingdom (Germany) the Easter fires remained suppressed for a long time, mostly because the missionaries of those regions had not come from Ireland, but from England, and thus did not know the custom of a Christian Easter fire. In the course of the eighth and ninth centuries, however, the custom became so popular in the whole Carolingian empire that it was eventually incorporated into the liturgy of Rome during the latter part of the ninth century.²⁹ Thus the blessing of the fire has now become the opening rite of the ceremonies on the Vigil of Easter.³⁰

Resurrection Service • 

In medieval times it was a general custom to celebrate the Elevatio (Raising) of the sacred Host or the cross from the shrine of the Sepulcher during the night of Holy Saturday or in the early morning of Easter Sunday. In many places this was done by the clergy alone. A procession would bear the Blessed Sacrament or the cross from the shrine to the main altar. A more solemn variety of this custom was the Resurrection service, widely practiced in central Europe. With the church already decorated for Easter, the priest took the Blessed Sacrament from the shrine, removed the white veil, and holding the monstrance aloft intoned the ancient antiphon "The Lord is risen, alleluia." While the faithful sang their traditional Easter songs and all the church bells rang, the procession moved from the shrine to the main altar. There the Te Deum was intoned, and a solemn benediction concluded the service.³¹

Folklore • 

Christian folklore has adorned the Easter Vigil with a wealth of interesting customs, most of them based on the joyful liturgy of the solemn service.³² In many sections of Europe the lights at the domestic shrines are extinguished before the vigil service. No fire or light is allowed anywhere in the house. The stoves, lamps, and candlesticks have been cleaned and prepared on the preceding days; now they stand ready to receive the blessed fire. Meanwhile, the boys build a pile of wooden logs in front of the church, each contributing a piece to which a strand of wire is fastened. At this pile the priest strikes the Easter fire and blesses it. As log after log begins to burn, the youngsters draw them out and rush home swinging the glowing pieces. From them the lamps and the stove are lit. Then the faggots are extinguished and put aside; pieces will be placed in the kitchen stove when storms and lightning threaten throughout the year.³³

In other places people carry the flames of the blessed fire in lanterns back to their homes. A vigil light before the crucifix is lit, and zealously guarded all through the year.

At the moment of the Gloria in the Mass, when suddenly all the bells start ringing again, the people who have to stay at home embrace and wish each other a blessed Easter.³⁴

EASTER  SUNDAY

"This is the day which the Lord has made, the Feast of Feasts,, and our Pasch: the Resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ according to the flesh." With these solemn words the official calendar of the Western Church announces the celebration of Easter Sunday. Equally solemn are the words of the calendar (Pente-costarion) of the Eastern Church: "The sacred and great Sunday of the Pasch, on which we celebrate the life-giving Resurrection of our Lord and God, the Saviour Jesus Christ."³⁵

Liturgy • 

(WHILE  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  

CHRIST  WAS  A  MAIN  PART  OF  THE

GOSPEL  WITH  THE  APOSTLES,  THERE

IS  NO  INSTRUCTION  FROM  CHRIST OR

ANY OF  HIS  FIRST  CENTURY  APOSTLES

TO  SET  ASIDE  THE  OBSERVANCE  OF

THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  THE  WEEK  OR

HOLD  ANY  FANCY  SERVICE  AS  LIKE

THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  DID

INTRODUCE  IN  THE  SECOND  CENTURY 

-  Keith Hunt)

In the Latin Church there are no special ceremonies other than the Mass itself, which is celebrated in all churches with festive splendor and great solemnity on Easter Sunday.

In the Greek Church, the solemn services in honor of Christ's resurrection begin at midnight. The priest and all the congregation, hghted candles in hand, leave the church by a side door after the Vigil of Easter. The procession walks around to the main door, which has been closed (representing the sealed tomb o£ Christ). The priest slowly makes the sign of the cross with the crucifix he holds in his right hand. At this moment the doors swing open, the people intone the hymn "Christ is risen," all the church bells start pealing, and the jubilant procession moves -into the brightly illuminated church.³⁶ The candles in the hands of the worshipers fill the building with a sea of sparkling lights. The Matins of Easter are then sung, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at which all present receive Communion, is celebrated.

After Mass the solemn Easter blessing is bestowed upon the food brought by each family. In the cities of Russia this blessing used to be held outside the church. People would pile the food on tables, around their Easter breads (Paska); each bread bore a lighted taper. The priests in their resplendent robes, accompanied by assistants, passed in procession beside the waiting multitude, blessing the food and the people as bells rang and the church choir intoned joyous Easter hymns.

Of particular historical interest in the Latin liturgy is the sequence. The sequences originated in the tenth century as Latin texts to be substituted for the long-drawn final "a" of the alleluia, which is sung at the end of the Gradual.

The sequence of Easter Sunday, Victimae Pasohali Laudes (Praise to the Paschal Victim) was written by the priest Wipo (about 1030), court chaplain of Emperor Conrad. It soon became part of the official text of the Easter Mass and is sung or recited in all Catholic churches every day during Easter Week.³⁷

The significant fact is that the Victimae Paschali was the first inspiration for the famous miracle plays that developed into a wealth of religious drama from the tenth century on. All drama performances of sacred subjects, both within and without the churches, are traced back to this Easter sequence.³⁸ The dramatic question-and-answer structure of Wipo's poem lent itself naturally to this lovely scene:

Tell us, Maria, what didst thou see on thy way? I saw the tomb of the living Christ And the glory of the Risen Lord, The angels who gave witness, The winding-sheet and the linen cloths.

Christ, my Hope, is risen!

He precedes you into Galilee. Now we truly know that Christ is risen from the dead. Thou, Victor, Saviour-King, have mercy on us.

Amen. Alleluia.

The words of Wipo's text were soon amplified by other phrases from the Bible, and the appealing play was eventually presented with appropriate devotion before the shrine of the Sepulcher on Easter Sunday morning. It was called the "Visit to the Tomb" (Visitatio sepulcri). In front of the shrine, now empty (the cross or Blessed Sacrament having been removed), the clergy played the scene of the Gospel that tells of the visit of the holy women to the tomb on Sunday morning. Two young clerics in white gowns, who sat or stood at the shrine, represented the angels and pronounced the Easter message at the end of the play: "He is not here, He is risen as He foretold. Go, tell His disciples that He is risen. Alleluia."

These liturgical Easter plays strongly appealed to the devout in medieval centuries. As time went on, various plays were written for Christmas, Epiphany, and other feast days. They all followed the structure of the Easter play inspired by the Vio-timae Pasc Jiati. A large number of these Easter plays, and later similar Christmas and Epiphany plays, are preserved in manuscripts and early prints all over Europe and in some of the museums and private collections in America.³⁹

Popular Observance • 

Special celebrations were held in most countries during the early morning hours of Easter Sunday. According to legend all running water was blessed with great powers to protect and heal.⁴⁰ In rural sections the inhabitants still perform various water rites at the dawn of the feast. In Anstria, groups of young people gather long before sunrise in meadows or on hilltops to dance traditional Easter dances and sing their ancient carols.

A universal celebration was held in the Middle Ages at the hour of sunrise. According to an old legend, the sun dances on Easter morning or makes three cheerful jumps at the moment of rising, in honor of Christ's resurrection.⁴¹The rays  of light penetrating the clouds were said to be angels dancing for joy. In Ireland and England people put a pan of water in the east window and watched the dancing sun mirrored in it.

All over Europe people would gather in open plains or on the crests of hills to watch the spectacle of sunrise-on Easter Day. The moment of daybreak was marked by the shooting of cannon and the ringing of bells. Bands and choirs used to greet the rising sun as a symbol of the Risen Christ with Easter hymns and alleluia songs. This morning salute is still performed in the Alpine regions of Austria.⁴²

On the island of Malta, a quaint custom is practiced at sunrise on Easter Day. A group of men carries a statue of the Saviour from their church to a hilltop of the neighborhood, not in slow and solemn procession, but running uphill as fast as they can, to indicate the motion of rising.

In most places the crowds prayed as the sun appeared; often this prayer service was led by the priest, and the whole group would afterward go in procession to the parish church for Easter Mass. From this medieval custom dates our modern sunrise service, held by many congregations on Easter Sunday.

(THE  SUN-RISE  SERVICE  FROM  THE 

PAGANS  WHO  WORSHIPPED  THE  SUN

AT  EASTER  TIME.....THE  COMING  OF

THE  SUN  BACK  TO  GLORY  IN  THE

SPRING.  HOW  EASY  TO  ADAPT  IT  TO

FIT  CHRISTIAN  THEOLOGY,  THOUGH

WRONG  IT  IS  THAT  JESUS  WAS  

RAISED  ON  SUNDAY  MORNING.  THE

TRUTH  IS  HE  WAS  RAISED  FROM  

THE  DEAD  SOMETIME  SHORTLY  

AFTER  SUNSET  SATURDAY  EVENING.

YES  A  FIRST  DAY  RESURRECTION  AS

GOD  BEGINS  DAYS.  ALL  THIS  IS  

PROVED  TO  YOU  IN  STUDIES  ON  MY

WEBSITE, WITH  DETAILED  RESEARCH  -  Keith Hunt)

New Clothes • 

As the newly baptized Christians in the early centuries wore white garments of new linen, so it became a tradition among all the faithful to appear in new clothes on Easter Sunday, symbolizmg the "new life" that the Lord, through His resurrection, bestowed upon all believers. This custom was widespread during medieval times, in many places a popular superstition threatened with ill luck all those who could afford to buy new clothes for Easter Sunday but refused to do so. An ancient saying in Ireland is "For Christmas, food and drink; for Easter, new clothes." This ancient tradition of new clothes is still adhered to, although its meaning and background have long since been forgotten by many.

Easter Walk • 

Another picturesque old Easter Sunday custom is the "Easter walk" through fields and open spaces after Mass. This is still held in many parts of Europe. Dressed in their finery, the men and women, especially the younger ones, march in a well-ordered parade through the town and into the open country. A decorated crucifix or, in some places, the Easter candle is borne at the head of the procession. At certain points on the route they recite prayers and sing Easter hymns, interspersed with gay chatting along the way. In some parts of Germany and Austria, groups of young farmers ride on richly decorated horses (Osterritt). After the Reformation this medieval Easter walk lost its original religious character and gradually developed into our present-day Easter parade.⁴³

On Easter Sunday open house is held in most Christian nations. Relatives, neighbors, and friends exchange visits. Easter eggs and bunnies are the order of the day, and special Easter hams are the principal dish at dinner.⁴⁴ In the rural parts of Austria, any stranger may freely enter any house on Easter Sunday; he will be welcomed by the host and may eat whatever Easter food he wishes. Among the Christians in the Near East the whole Sunday (after Mass and breakfast) is spent in visiting friends and neighbors; wine, pastry, and coffee are served, and children receive presents of eggs and sweets.

(AND  WHAT  HAS  EGGS  AND  BUNNIES

TO  DO  WITH  CHRIST  AT  HIS  

RESURRECTION  TIME?  DO  YOU  

SUPPOSE  THEY  ALSO  HAD  

SOMETHING  TO  DO  WITH  FERTILITY

RITES  OF  THE  PAGANS?  Keith Hunt)

Easter Laughter • 

On Easter Sunday afternoon most people in the villages and towns of central Europe come back to church for the solemn services of Vespers and Benediction. At the sermon that preceded this afternoon service, a quaint custom was practiced in those regions during medieval times. The priests would regale their congregations with funny stories and poems, drawing moral conclusions from these jolly tales (Ostermarlein: Easter fables).⁴⁵ The purpose of this unusual practice was to reward the faithful with something gay after the many sad and serious Lenten preachings, a purpose easily achieved as the churches rang with the loud and happy laughter of the audience (risus paschalis: Easter laughter).⁴⁶ This tradition is found as early as the thirteenth century. From the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries the custom was widespread, and a number of collections of Easter fables appeared in print.⁴⁷ The reformers violently attacked the practice as an abuse, however, and it was gradually suppressed by the Church during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Easter Bells • 

It is an ancient custom in Slavic countries (Russia, the Ukraine, Poland) to ring the church bells with short intervals all day from morning to night on Easter Sunday, reminding the faithful that it is the greatest feast of the year.⁴⁸

EASTER WEEK

Liturgy • 

In the early days of Christianity all of Easter Week was one continuous feast. Although the number of prescribed holydays differed in various provinces, most people abstained from their usual work and attended church services every day. Many went to all three services that at the time of the Roman Empire were held daily at morning, noon, and night. Priests in France used to celebrate two Masses every day during Easter Week. Indeed, a Spanish Missal of the ninth century shows three Mass texts for each day of the Easter Octave.

Gradually, however, the Church reduced obligatory attendance to four days, then, in 1094, to three. In many parts of Europe these -three days are still observed, at least as half-holydays, which means that most of the faithful, although not obliged to attend Mass, voluntarily do so, as well as abstain from work. Since 1911, even Easter Monday is no longer a holyday of obligation, though it remains a legal holiday in most European countries, both Catholic and Protestant.⁴⁹

Because those who were baptized on Holy Saturday wore new white garments, Easter Week is also called "White Week" in the Western Church and the "Week of New Garments" in the Oriental Church. During the whole week the newly baptized, in their linen dress and soft sandals, stood close to the altar at all services as a separate group within the sanctuary of the basilica. Every day the bishop would address them with special instructions after the other worshipers had left. It was the honeymoon of their new life as Christians, a week of intense happiness and spiritual joy. On the Sunday after Easter they attended Mass clothed for the last time in their white baptismal robes. At the end of the service the bishop solemnly dismissed them from the place of honor in the sanctuary, so they could mix with their families and friends in the body of the church. Later, at home, they exchanged the white garments for the ordinary dress of their station in life.⁵⁰

Emmus Walk (Monday) • 

Easter Monday was, in medieval times, and still is in many countries, a day of rest, relaxation, and special festivities. First among them is the "Emmaus walk," a custom inspired by the Gospel o£ the day (Luke 24:13-35). Families and groups of friends go on outings or long walks into the fields, forests, and mountains, hold picnics and spend the afternoon playing games, dancing, and singing.⁵¹ In Germany and Austria long ago, youngsters would gather in large meadows to play Easter games and Easter sports (Osterspiele), and also to perform ancient folk dances accompanied by the music of guitars and mandolins.⁵² The piece of land on which these Easter games took place bore the name "Easter field" (Osteranger), and many cities still have lots so called, although the custom has long since vanished. In rural regions, however, such ancient traditions have survived, and are practiced every year.

In French Canada, the Emmaus walk takes the form of a visit to the grandparents, which is faithfully adhered to by all children on Easter Monday. The Poles hold their outings and picnics in large groups; often the inhabitants of a whole town will gather in some rural "Emmaus" grove which remains the goal of their excursions for many years. The days from Holy Thursday to Easter Tuesday are observed as public holidays in Norway, and many people spend this period in skiing and other winter sports in the snowy bills. The deep tan acquired in the open air during the Easter holidays is called Paskebrun (Easter tan).

Fertility Rites (Monday and Tuesday) • 

In most countries of northern Europe, Monday and Tuesday are the traditional days of "switching" and "drenching," customs based on pre-Christian fertility rites, previously mentioned. On Monday the boys are supposed to apply this ancient rite to the girls, while on Tuesday the girls retaliate. Actually, both are now performed on Easter Monday in many places. The custom is called Gsund-schlagen (stroke of health) in Austria and southern Germany, Dyngus (ransom) in Poland, LoscoTkodas (dousing) in Hungary, and Pomlazka (willow switch) among the Czechs and Slovaks. In good-natured mischief the boys will surprise the girls with buckets or bottles of water, and douse them thoroughly, often reciting some little rhyme.⁵³

^{(YES  MORE PRE-CHRISTIAN RITES  OF}

^{THE  PAGAN  FERTILITY  WORSHIPPING}

^{BROUGHT  INTO  CHRISTIANITY -} 

^{Keith Hunt)}

Whole processions are formed by youngsters dressed in out-landish costumes who go from farm to farm and sing or recite playful ditties. At the end of their performance they suddenly splash water on their host and his family, whereupon they are given eggs, pastry, and sweets. In many places the water is merely sprinkled, instead of splashed, and in cities people have refined the ancient custom by spraying perfume at each other, with friendly wishes for good health and happiness.

The "switching" is done with gentleness. Carrying their rods of pussy willow or leaved branches, the boys go in little groups from house to house, apply the switch to all women (but never to children), and receive small presents in reward. Groups of girls carry a little tree or branch, decorated with flowers and ribbons. They make the rounds like the boys, and at every home they sing traditional songs announcing the summer and expressing good wishes for health and harvest.⁵⁴ On Quinquagesima Sunday in Norway young folks visit relatives and friends and "spank" them with the Fastelavns-ris (carnival rod), which is made of brightly colored paper strips fastened to a painted stick or handle.

A similar custom of considerable antiquity was that of "heaving," practiced in some sections of England on Easter Monday and Tuesday up through the nineteenth century. Some small villages may still do it. On Easter Monday a group of men go to each house, carrying a chair aloft, and amid much excitement and joking insist that any lady present get into the chair and be lifted up three times, demanding a forfeit in the form of a kiss. On the next day it is the girls' turn to do the same thing to the men.

(HUMMMM.....WHERE'S  ALL  THAT

IN  THE  GOSPEL  OF  CHRIST  OR

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT?  Keith Hunt)

Holy Souls (Thursday) • 

Among Slavic nations the Thursday of Easter Week is devoted in a special way to the "Easter memory" of the departed ones. The faithful go to Mass, which on this particular day is offered for the dead of the parish. Pictures of deceased relatives and friends are decorated with flowers both at home and in the cemetery (many tombstones carry images of the deceased, usually a framed photograph). No farmer would work on this day, for the memory of the holy souls demands respectful rest and quiet. According to popular superstition any man who works his farm on Easter Thursday will meet with ill luck and dire punishment.⁵⁵

^{(AGAIN....WHERE'S  ALL  THIS  IN  THE}

^{NEW  TESTAMENT?  Keith Hunt)}

Easter Pilgrimage (Fkdday) • 

Friday of Easter Week is a favorite day for devout pilgrimages (Osterwallfahrt) in many parts of Europe. Praying and singing hymns, the faithful walk many hours through fields and forests, preceded by a cross and many church banners. The goal of the pilgrimage is usually a shrine or church in some neighboring village. There they attend Mass and perform their devotions. At one of these processions, in the Austrian Tyrol, people walk ten hours each way. In some sections of Germany and Austria the farmers make their pilgrimage on horseback, accompanied by a band playing Easter hymns.⁵⁶

Low Sunday • 

The Sunday after Easter was called the "Octave of the Pasch" from the earliest centuries.⁵⁷ Later (in the seventh century) it acquired the name "Sunday in White" (Dominica in Albis) because it was the last day on which the white garments were worn by the newly baptized Christians. After attending Mass they changed from their baptismal robes to ordinary dress.⁵⁸ The popular name for this Sunday in most European countries is "The White Sunday." The English term "Low Sunday" is derived from the ancient practice of counting the octave day as belonging to the feast, so that Easter actually would last eight days including two Sundays. The primary (high) one is Easter Sunday, and the secondary (low) one the Sunday after Easter.

In the Byzantine Church, Low Sunday bears the title of "second highest" Sunday of the year (deuteroprote), or "Sunday following the Pasch" (Antipascha). From the Gospel, which tells how the Apostle Thomas touched the wounds of Christ, it is also called Sunday of the Apostle Thomas.⁵⁹

Low Sunday was for centuries, and still is in most parts of Europe, the day when children receive their first Communion. Dressed in white, they enter the church in solemn procession, holding Hghted candles. They renew their baptismal vows and assist at Mass, which usually is conducted with great solemnity. In some places a most appealing custom is observed. Each child receives first Communion with father and mother kneeling beside him, also receiving the Blessed Sacrament.

..........

WEEELLL.......IF  ALL  THIS  DOES  

NOT  BLOW  YOU  AWAY.  WE  SEE

AGAIN  A  FORM  OF  RELIGION  

MADE  UP,  ADOPTED,  ADAPTED,

TO  THE  IDEAS  OF  MEN.  BUT  

MORE  CUNNING  AND  DECEPTIVE

IS  THAT  ON  AN  OUTWARD  FORM

IT  LOOKS  VERY  RIGHTEOUS,  VERY

MUCH  FULL  OF  PIETY,  HOLINESS.

SATAN  OFTEN  COMES  AS  AN  

ANGEL  OF  LIGHT,  LOOKING  PURE.

THE  DEVIL  ALSO  OFTEN  COMES

JUST  BEING  CLOSE  TO  GOD'S  

TRUTH,  A  CLOSE  COPY.  DID  YOU

NOTICE  AN  "OCTIVE"  DAY - AN

EIGHT  DAY  TO  THE  EASTER  

WEEK - 8  IN  TOTAL. GOD'S  TRUE

 

PASSOVER  FEAST  AND  7  DAYS  OF

THE  FEAST  OF  UNLEAVENED

  

BREAD  IS  A  TOTAL  OF  8  DAYS.

THEN  YOU  SHOULD  BE  NOTICING

THE  COMPLICATED,  FULL  OF  THIS 

AND  THAT  IN  CATHOLIC  FEASTS.

BUT  AS  PAUL  SAID,  "THE  SIMPLICITY  

THAT  IS  IN  CHRIST  JESUS."

GOD'S  FESTIVALS  ARE  TODAY  

PRETTY  SIMPLE  TO  FOLLOW.

MAKE SURE YOU READ THE STUDY ABOVE—

ABOUT EASTER WINNING OUT IN BRITAIN IN AD 664

AT WHITBY. 

THE BRITISH HAD SOME TRUTH BUT HAD LOST 

MOST OF IT OVER THE CENTURIES. 

AND THEY DID NOT KNOW HOW TO ANSWER 

THE ROMAN CHURCH'S ARGUMENTS.

Keith Hunt