DAY 34: Holy Week

     Well, tomorrow officially starts Holy Week in the Catholic Church and in some of the other Christian Churches. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and I will be receiving blessed palm fronds at church. These fronds will be formed into a cross(see picture) and hung in my bedroom until next year.
http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/ethnic_relig/palm_wc.html
 Holy Week is the week before Christ's death and resurrection. It consists of Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Spy Wednesday, Holy (Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday (Black Sabbath, Easter Eve) and finally Easter. (http://www.thenazareneway.com/holy_week/fasting_to_feasting.htm)

     I'm sure many of you know the story of how Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem on a donkey and on a Sunday; the people laid palm fronds down before Him. Jesus was entering Jerusalem for a great feast- a celebration- Passover. (Passover goes back to the the Old Testament- Moses and the Israelites in Egypt. The week of plagues ending in the death of the Pharaoh's son and how the angel passed over the doors of those with the blood of a lamb spread across the doorway (Exodus 7-11) resulted in the celebration the Jewish people call Passover. This year Passover takes place from April 19-26.) Anyways, Jesus was entering the city on what Christians now call Palm Sunday. Thus the palm fronds at church : )
     Holy Monday and Tuesday are fairly new to me, but some theologians believe that these are the days Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple and when the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus into being blasphemous respectively. Spy Wednesday was the day Judas Iscariot became a betrayer. Holy Thursday was the Last Supper...
     And then we come to Good Friday. I used to wonder why it was called "good" if Jesus died. The answer: Jesus died and gave us our salvation. As the below website says, http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_it_called_Good_Friday_if_the_day_was_supposed_to_be_sad  it is also the day He triumphed over sin, death, and the devil. This is the day Jesus died on the cross- for you, for me, for everyone.
     Holy Saturday or Black Sabbath (black is for death and the Sabbath was, during Christ's time, on Saturday) was a day of mourning. The day after Jesus was buried and laid behind the stone. This day is often a baptismal day in Catholic and Anglican Churches. It is also sometimes called Easter Eve.

     Sunday is EASTER!!!!! and Christ rises from the dead. Enough said?


Happy Holy Week everyone and enjoy your last week of Lent!