Christian Festivals

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Christian Festivals

For a Christian, a festival is a time for celebration marked by

special event or occasion. In Christianity there is a calendar which

is made up by seasons, in which Christian festivals take place. In

each season there are a number of cycles. There are two main cycles in

the Christian calendar. One of them is the Christmas-cycle. The other

cycle is the Easter-cycle which is made up of Lent, Holy Week, Easter

and Pentecost.

In the Catholic Church the Easter cycle usually falls between March 22

and April 25. In the Easter cycle we have Lent and Holy Week. Tridium

is a big celebration in Holy week which starts with Maundy Thursday

and ends with Easter Sunday.

Lent

Lent is the period of 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Lent

involves fasting and penitence, both in preparation for Easter and as

a way of spiritually "joining" Jesus with the fasting and meditation

he did for 40 days in the wilderness. The fasting rules in the Roman

Catholic Church are not strict.

For Eastern Orthodox Christians today the rules of fasting are strict:

just one meal a day, in the evening, and no meat, fish, eggs, or

butter is permitted.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, is the first day of Holy

Week which ends with Easter the following Sunday. It commemorates

Jesus' entry into Jerusalem prior to be crucified a few days later.

Actual ceremonies typically include a procession of palm fronds which

are blessed and will later be burned. The ashes from the burnt palm

fronds are used in the next year's Ash Wednesday.

Maundy Thursday

In the Maundy Thursday mass, the clergy wash the feet...

... middle of paper ...

...urial of Jesus. Both

Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches fast on Good Friday.

Easter Sunday

For Christians, Easter can occur on any date between March 23rd and

April 26th. The actual date is set as the first Sunday after the first

full moon that occurs after March 21, one of the first days of spring.

Christians celebrate the end of death and the rebirth of life; but

instead of focusing upon nature, Christians believe that Easter marks

the day that Jesus Christ was resurrected after spending three days

dead in his tomb.

Easter retains great importance for Eastern Orthodox and Protestant

churches as well. For Eastern Orthodox Christians, there is an

important procession which symbolizes the failed search for the body

of Jesus, followed a return to the church where lit candles symbolize

Jesus' resurrection.

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