Today is Maundy Thursday - ROSES AND THORNS by Alejandro R. Roces

In Spanish, the day before Good Friday is called jueves santo or jueves de la cena. In English, we say Maundy Thursday. Some authorities say that the word "Maundy" was incorrectly derived from maund (a basket), because on the day before the great fast it was an ancient church custom to bring out food in maunds to give to the poor. But the more logical explanation is that the word "Maundy" was derived from the first word of the antiphon for that day which says Mandatum novum do vobis, a new commandment I give unto you (St. John XIII, 34) which starts the ceremony of the washing of the feet, an act symbolizing purification.

It was a great lesson in humility that Christ himself performed this service and so it became the custom of Popes, Catholic sovereigns and priests to wash the feet of poor people. In England, the king did the same till the time of James II.

And so, in the Philippines, to this day, there are two rituals that mark Holy Thursday – the washing of the feet of poor people and the folk re-enactment of the Last Supper, which marks the institution of the Holy Eucharist. The folk presentation of the Last Supper has really caught up with the times, for nowadays Christ and the Apostles are depicted eating hamburgers, hot dogs and drinking soft drinks.

Tomorrow will be Good Friday, the day that commemorates the passion and the death of Our Lord as depicted in the 14 Stations of the Cross. It is the only day of the year on which no Mass is celebrated. It is the saddest day of the year. This is reflected by the fact that if a person looks extremely sad, people tell him "You look like Good Friday." Many devotees go to the extreme of having themselves nailed to the cross like Christ. Black Saturday, also called the Great Sabbath is the last day of Holy Week. The Great Sabbath is followed by Easter, the Solemnity of the Resurrection of Christ. The irony is that the word "easter" comes from the Anglo-Saxon eastre, a heathen festival held at the vernal equinox in honor of the Teutonic goddess of dawn.

Holy Week is a moveable feast that follows the phases of the moon. Easter Sunday is always the Sunday after the Paschal full moon, the full moon that happens on the day of the vernal equinox. How can one locally explain that Christians celebrate the birth of Christ on a fixed day – December 25 – but his resurrecion is celebrated on different Sundays between late March and late April.

Believe it or not, there was a time when people believed that the sun danced on Easter Day. Sir John Suckling in his Ballad upon a Wedding recorded this belief:

But oh, she dances such a way,

No sun upon an Easter Day

Is half so fine a sight.

Other poets later had the courage to expose the obvious lie. Apologetically, Sir Thomas Browne wrote: "We shall not, I hope, disparage the Resurrection of our Redeemer, if we say the Sun doth not dance on Easter Day." He dismissed the whole thing as nothing more than "a tropical expression."

Holy Week has come a long way!