Easter Traditions - Part 1, Holy Week

Hi everyone, well I'm back blogging again, and since it is Holy Week, I thought I would write about the customs that my family does at Easter time.



Sunday before Easter - Palm Sunday



Palm Sunday remembers the day when Jesus rode through Jerusalem on a donkey, and everyone in town laid palm leaves over the roads as the donkey walked. We celebrate Palm Sunday by taking a small branch of a tree to Mass to be blessed.



Thursday before Easter - Holy Thursday



As a child I always remember that when Holy Thursday came around, Easter was very, very near! it was like the cue to start going crazy with excitement :P Holy Thursday celebrates the Last Supper, which was when Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Jewish passover (a tradition stemming from when the Jews were slaves in Egypt). When I was younger I loved being allowed to bake bread to eat for dinner on Holy Thursday. Mummy would make up a lot of bread dough, and we were allowed to shape our own buns! I remember making snails, pots, braids, dough-people, snakes... anything we could imagine! My bread usually had to be re-shaped before putting it in the oven as I had always made some parts too thick and some parts too thin, so had to even it all out so half the bun wouldn't burn.



Yesterday Ce. baked Challah, a Jewish bread to eat with dinner (which was a very fragrant thai soup). Little Brett Lee continued the tradition of children helping with the bread making and made a few buns himself. We went to the Holy Thursday Mass at 6pm, which concluded with people sitting to pray all night if they wished.



Friday before Easter - Good Friday



Which brings me to today - Good Friday. Good Friday is the day that Jesus was crucified at the top of Golgotha (translated rougly to 'place of the skull'). Good Friday is observed by fasting, not eating any meats, and prayer. Today we go to first 'stations of the cross' which remembers Jesus' walk up to Golgotha carrying his heavy wooden cross. and then at 3pm there is the mass remembering the moment he died. After prayers etc. people all kiss a wooden cross and pray. It is very solemn moment. Good Friday is also the day people can start eating Hot Cross Buns! We make literally hundreds of Hot Cross Buns every year and I can already smell them baking in the oven here at home.. mmmmm.. Hot Cross Buns are marked with a white-paste cross across each bun, to remind people Jesus died for us.





Well, that is our Holy Week traditions.

edit: Check out these lovely videos too - I've sung both these songs in my college choir! :) I'll have to try and get the choir videos on youtube one day.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=omlBeCGLFG4 - Liberia (Be Still My Soul)

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ctQFWwK1yF4&feature=related - Bogoroditse Devo (Russian)

I will update with Easter traditions tomorow!