Holy Week, Day by Day

Holy Week is the last week of Lent and the oldest observance in the Christian calendar — Christians were keeping it before they were keeping Christmas.

Its shape is unusual: the week slows down as it goes. The gospels themselves do this. Mark gives sixteen chapters to three years of ministry and then devotes nearly a third of the book to seven days. The liturgy follows, until on Good Friday the pace is almost hour by hour.

The week rewards being planned for. Improvised, it slips past like any other.

Palm Sunday

The event. Jesus enters Jerusalem to acclamation, riding a donkey. The crowd spreads cloaks and branches and shouts Hosanna.

What the Church does. Palms are blessed and carried in procession. Then, in most traditions, the entire passion narrative is read — and the congregation, having just shouted Hosanna, reads aloud the part of the crowd shouting Crucify him. The liturgy puts the two in the same mouth within twenty minutes, which is the point.

Read: Matthew 21:1–11, then the passion from Matthew 26–27.

Colour: red.

Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

Quieter days, and easy to lose. The gospels place several things here: the cleansing of the temple, the cursing of the fig tree, days of teaching and argument in the temple courts, and the anointing at Bethany.

Wednesday is traditionally called Spy Wednesday — the day Judas agrees a price. In the Orthodox and older Western traditions these evenings hold Tenebrae, a service of psalms and readings during which the candles are extinguished one by one until the church is dark.

Read: Mark 11:15–19 on Monday, Mark 12:28–34 on Tuesday, Matthew 26:1–16 on Wednesday.

Maundy Thursday

The event. The last supper. Jesus washes the disciples' feet, gives the bread and cup, and goes out to Gethsemane, where he is arrested.

The name. From mandatum — commandment. "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."

What the Church does. A liturgy of the Lord's Supper, usually with the washing of feet. Afterwards the altar is stripped, bare, in silence, and in many churches a vigil is kept through the night — could ye not watch with me one hour?

This is where the Triduum begins. Liturgically, Maundy Thursday evening to Easter is a single continuous service: there is no dismissal on Thursday and none on Good Friday, because the thing has not finished.

Read: John 13:1–17 and Luke 22:39–46.

Colour: white, until the stripping.

Good Friday

The event. Trial, condemnation, the road to Golgotha, crucifixion, death, burial.

What the Church does. No Eucharist is celebrated. The liturgy is austere: the passion according to John, the great intercessions for the whole world, the veneration of the cross, and communion from what was reserved the night before. In many traditions the Three Hours are kept from noon to three.

The church is stripped. The altar is bare. Nothing is decorated.

Read: John 18–19, and Isaiah 53.

Colour: red or black.

Holy Saturday

The event. Nothing. He is in the tomb. The disciples are scattered and hiding.

What the Church does. Almost nothing, until nightfall. It is the only day of the year with no liturgy at all in the daylight hours.

This emptiness is deliberate and it is the day most often skipped — understandably, because it is the day on which there is nothing to do. But a Holy Saturday spent in the ordinary way, with the church empty and the fast still on, is what makes Easter morning mean anything. Anyone who has waited through something without knowing how it would turn out has kept a Holy Saturday.

The Easter Vigil, after dark, is the high point of the whole year: the new fire kindled outside, the paschal candle carried into a dark church, the Exsultet sung, a long sequence of readings tracing salvation history from creation, baptisms, and then the first Alleluia since the beginning of Lent, with every light in the building coming on at once.

If you keep only one service in the entire year, keep this one.

Easter Sunday

The event. The stone rolled away. The tomb empty. Mary in the garden, not recognising him, and then her name.

What the Church does. Everything the last three days withheld — the Gloria, the Alleluia, flowers, bells, white and gold.

And then it does not stop. Easter is fifty days, longer than Lent. The feast is a season, and treating it as a single Sunday inverts the whole shape of the year.

Read: John 20:1–18.

Keeping it at home

Not everyone has access to the full liturgies, and many people keep this week alone.

Decide before Palm Sunday. Write down which evenings you are keeping and what you will do. Holy Week improvised is Holy Week missed.

Read the passion in real time. The events map onto the days, and reading Thursday's passage on Thursday evening is a genuinely different experience from reading it in a block.

Keep Thursday night. Even twenty minutes — John 13, then sit with Gethsemane. Watching one hour is the invitation the text itself makes.

Keep Friday austere. Fast if you can. Work if you must, but take the hours from noon to three if there is any way to.

Do not fill Saturday. The temptation is to get ahead of it — decorating, preparing, playing the music. Let the day be empty. It has something to say that only an empty day can.

Then celebrate properly. Easter Sunday, and then fifty days. Break the fast. Do something that costs something.

Common questions

What are the days of Holy Week?

Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday), Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. The last three days before Easter — Thursday evening through Saturday — are called the Triduum and are liturgically a single continuous service.

What is the Triduum?

The three days from the evening of Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday evening. It is treated as one liturgy rather than three: the Thursday service ends without a dismissal, Good Friday's has neither greeting nor dismissal, and it concludes only at the Easter Vigil. It is the oldest and most central observance of the Christian year.

Why is it called Maundy Thursday?

From the Latin mandatum, commandment, taken from the words of Jesus at the last supper: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." The same root gives the washing of feet, the mandatum ceremony, its name.

What happens on Holy Saturday?

Liturgically, nothing during the day — it is the only day of the year with no service in daylight hours. Christ is in the tomb and the Church waits. After nightfall comes the Easter Vigil, with the new fire, the paschal candle, the readings, the baptisms and the first Alleluia since Lent began.

How can I observe Holy Week at home?

Plan it before Palm Sunday and read the passion in step with the days. Keep Thursday evening with John 13 and a period of watching, keep Good Friday austere and take the hours of noon to three if you can, and leave Holy Saturday deliberately empty rather than filling it with preparation. Then celebrate Easter properly, and for fifty days rather than one.