Welcome to this year’s edition of the History of the Holidays. I’m Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian. From now through the Spring or vernal equinox, most of the major secular and sacred holidays are celebrated. This is a series that recounts the history behind the major American holidays, and some of the minor ones [...]
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SO WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO OLD…
This year, 2010, the joy of Easter is being shared in common on the same date among the Roman Catholics, Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian and Ethiopian Orthodox, and Protestants.
You may be asking yourself, “Self,” you ask, “where are they now?” and well you might ask. What happened to our players [...]
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GOOD FRIDAY
For centuries, pilgrims have walked the Via Dolorosa, “the way of sorrow” in Jerusalem, following the path Jesus took from the judgment seat of Pilate at the Antonia in the eastern part of the city immediately north of the Temple through several “stations of the Cross” to the ultimate location at the Church of [...]
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APRIL FOOLS’ DAY
April Fools’ Day, or All Fools’ Day, is the name given to the custom of playing practical jokes on friends on that day, or sending them on fools errands. The origin of this custom has been much disputed; it is in some way a relic of those once universal festivities held at the [...]
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Sun
THE TRIAL OF JESUS
The trial of Jesus leading up to his crucifixion was actually a series of perhaps half a dozen trials, across several locations in Jerusalem, some of which are captured in the tradition of the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrow, a series of locations that pilgrims take through the streets of modern [...]
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SANHEDRIN
The Greek word sunedrion, translated “council” is referred to in the New Testament as “the Great Law-Court”, “the Court of Seventy-One”, and “the rulers and elders and scribes.” It was the supreme theocratic court of the Jews and reflected the local autonomy which the Greek and Roman powers granted the Jewish nation. Its origin can [...]
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