I’ve never heard the term “Holy Week” actually. We celebrated Easter when was a kid, but I never even knew it was religious until IIRC some time in my early teens; it was about colored eggs, rabbits and egg hunts not religion.
Running in my first half-marathon on the day before Easter. Going to church on Easter morning. That’s about it.
I believe it’s mostly Catholic in usage. This is the week with palms given out for some reason, right?
I wouldn’t have said that Holy Week was mostly Catholic in usage–which doesn’t actually mean that you are wrong.
Yes, Palms are given out on Palm Sunday, because “we” are reenacting Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem by singing Hosanna and waving palms.
My church actually usually gives palms mostly to children and choir members.
I think Protestants use the term, too. It starts with Palm Sunday and ends on Easter, but when I was younger Easter Monday was considered a holiday of sorts, too, and there was no school.
And for Eastern Orthodox, Holy Week isn’t until next week.
The church I attend doesn’t do anything other than its regular Sunday services. The readings will include the Bible citation where multitudes come out to greet Jesus with palm fronds. Next week citations specific to Easter will be read.
For myself, my son is spending the week with his father so my time will be spent in quiet contemplation. Some of my faith and practice of it, but mostly of countless hours of soul sucking TV so I expect to end up pretty much where I started.
And on Monday the 9th I will scour the neighborhood for half priced Cadbury dark chocolate mini-eggs.
In Roman Catholic practice the palm leaves are blessed and everyone takes a few home. They are often braided into crosses and are part of a home altar until the following Lent, when they are collected and burnt, and become the ashes which mark the foreheads of the faithful on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
I’m going to Denver for Slim Cessna’s twentieth anniversary show. His shows have a certain element of tent revival, so that works, right?
Today, I’m one of the lectors at the evening mass for Palm Sunday. Next week, I’ll be going to the Easter Vigil mass, and then on Easter Sunday hosting my annual Easter dinner. I started it because I wanted to continue my Gramma’s traditional Easter recipes even though it was no longer practical to go to her house, but Gramma had 11 kids, so all of her recipes need a crowd to eat them. I’ll probably have about a dozen folks over.
I am going to unbless highways across the nation!
Hmm. Well, my husband’s birthday is 4/7, so I expect whiskey and bj’s to be involved over the weekend. Oh, and I have a dental appointment on Wednesday.
Yes, Lutherans and Episcopalians at least carry the traditions forward:
Earlier today I saw in the vicinity of the downtown public library someone I knew carrying a palm and i deduced that they had come from a nearby church community supper. The denomination was definitely Episcopalian, as I knew from previous contact with it.
Good point about Eastern Orthodox. There may be some differences in terminology, depending on the national branch, as well. As for the date variances, there are, I believe, three differences in the method of calculation of Easter/Pascha, so more often than not the date differs. I was told that about one time in four the dates concur. I once looked at a chart online and it seemed clearly to be closer to one in five times. This year it will be April 8th for Western Easter, so there will be plenty of palms, willow, or olive branches in Eastern Churches.
- True Blue Jack***
You mean you guys still haven’t fixed your calendars yet? In this modern day of iPads and what not, I would think you’d have taken care of that by now.
Anyway, having some kind of “plan” for Holy Week–aside from three or four masses–is contingent upon Holy Week being time off.
In other words, if you haven’t heard of it, just think of it as “spring break.”
Am I the first to suggest hookers and blow?
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Visakha Bucha Day’s not until June this year. 
Yes, Sunday’s Palms (often) become Wednesday’s Ashes in churches I have attended as well–United Methodist.
Of course, because heaven forbid we do anything just like the Catholics do, Catholics get a discrete thumbprint on the forehead, and we get huge ugly crosses.
And the palms which are burnt are kept by the church–not sent home with the congregation, who would be unlikely to have a home altar.
I do have a braided palm leaf on my wall, but I can’t remember how long ago I acquired it.
I’ll be spending the week getting ready for our trip to FL to see my husband’s family. My daughter the teacher has half-day on Friday, so we’ll pick her up when school’s out enroute to I-95 south. We plan to drive halfway that evening, stop for the night, and roll into Ocala around lunchtime on Saturday. I’m guessing my MIL is planning an Easter dinner on Sunday. So my Holy Week plans involve a lot of laundry, packing, and remembering to water the house plants before we leave.
Hmmm, you might want to brush your teeth then before going for the checkup.
Just sayin’. 
The Bloke and I (with my daughter and her little fella) are going camping over Easter, so last weekend we took our caravan to the campsite to make sure we would have a ‘reserved’ spot! We spent a couple of days there, but I had to be home on Mon morning for work, so I left The Bloke at the campground and came home. It’s only a 15 minute drive away!! 
He’s back there today to erect my daughter’s tent, and tomorrow afternoon we’ll all trudge down to the spot to enjoy some bucolic idyll, campfires and toasted marshmallows. Oh, and Easter eggs on Sunday. LOTS of Easter eggs.
K, this is a slight hijack & may deserve its own thread. Personally I have a sneaking suspicion that anyone who has a birthday on or near a holiday either embraces it it whole-heartedly
or hates it with the heat of 10,000 suns. +2.
I was born around Easter/Passover. Personally, I tend to hate all religions, no matter which Bunko Artist is spouting that day. I intend to spend this week mulling the consequences or age vs the alternative.
I also intend to lookup people who share my birthday & wish them a happy birthday w/o ever telling them why. None of them will ever reply or acknowledge me, so I consider it a harmless random attempt
at bringing a smile to someone somewhere in the world. It costs me nothing and is about the nicest lotto ticket I can buy with effort alone.
Maybe I’ll take my kids to Seaside & try to win them an Easter Basket on the Boardwalk.
“…I Swear, if you take just One step closer to me with that Cadbury Egg, I’ll shove it so far up you that you won’t know which part of it came from England…”