Easter
History of Pentecost
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF PENTECOST The Feast of Pentecost is taken from the Greek word πεντηκόστη, which means “the 50th,” referring to the fiftieth day after the Jewish Passover and the Christian Easter. In the Jewish calendar, this aligns with the harvest festival Shavuot, known as the “Feast of Weeks,” which occurs seven weeks (7 ×…
Read MoreHistory of Easter: The Players – Where are They Now?
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF EASTER: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PLAYERS AFTERWARD Podcast version ou may be asking yourself, “Self,” you ask, “where are they now?” And well you might ask. What happened to our players AFTER the events in the Easter story?
Read MoreHistory of Easter: Why Bunnies and Eggs?
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF EASTER: WHY BUNNIES AND EGGS? Podcast version he most joyous of Christian festivals and one of the first celebrated by Christians across the Roman Empire commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is set on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. Why is Easter celebrated then,…
Read MoreHistory of Easter Candy
Reading Time: 7 minutesHistory of Easter Candy Easter is the second-largest “candy holiday” of the year, after Halloween in the US. Trick-or-treating can turn a grown adult into a porch-based sugar distributor for tiny extortionists in costume. This ranking may be because Halloween retailing starts in July, aggressively elbowing the Fourth of July store displays. Easter has waited politely…
Read MoreHistory of Holy Saturday
Reading Time: 4 minutesHistory of Holy Saturday he final day of Holy Week, the last day of Lent, is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is known as Holy Saturday. In Latin, it’s Sabbatum Sanctum, but it’s also known as Great and Holy Saturday, Low Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday (in Portugal and Brazil),…
Read MoreHistory of Good Friday: the Crucifixion of Jesus
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF GOOD FRIDAY Podcast version or centuries, pilgrims have walked the Via Dolorosa, “the way of sorrow” in Jerusalem, following Jesus’s path on Good Friday. Starting at the judgment seat of Pilate at the Antonia Fortress in the eastern part of the city, immediately north of the Temple, the path follows fourteen “Stations…
Read MoreHistory of the Trial: How many did Jesus have?
Reading Time: 6 minutesTHE TRIAL OF JESUS Podcast version eginning Thursday night and extending into Friday morning of Holy Week, Jesus’s trial, which led to his crucifixion, was, in reality, a series of about half a dozen trials distributed across several locations in Jerusalem. Some of these locations are captured in the tradition of the Via Dolorosa, the…
Read MoreHistory of Maundy Thursday: Shere or Green Thursday?
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF MAUNDY THURSDAY Podcast version mid the bustle of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter, Maundy Thursday is easy to overlook. Few calendars label it, and some churches don’t observe it at all, though it may be the oldest of the Holy Week observances. It’s worth asking why and how generations of Christians…
Read MoreHistory of Holy Wednesday: Why was it called Spy Wednesday?
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF HOLY WEDNESDAY Podcast version ednesday of Passion Week – called “Passion” from the Latin passio, meaning suffering – is called Holy Wednesday. Alternatively, it is called Good Wednesday in the Western Church or Great and Holy Wednesday in the Eastern Church. It was previously called “Spy Wednesday” and focused on Judas Iscariot.…
Read MoreHistory of Herod Antipas: Why Jesus called him That Fox
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF HEROD ANTIPAS Podcast version erod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great (whom we met in the Christmas story) and Malthake. After his father died in 4 B.C., he was made tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea in the Trans-Jordan area of Israel, which he ruled as a client state of the…
Read MoreHistory of Pontius Pilate: His Background Before Good Friday
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF PONTIUS PILATE Poscast version he Roman governor who presided over Jesus’s trial and ordered his crucifixion had a complex background. The name Pontius Pilate provides two valuable clues to his background and ancestry. The family name Pontius was that of a prominent clan among the Samnites, the hill cousins of the Latin Romans. They…
Read MoreHistory of Holy Week
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF HOLY WEEK he week between Palm Sunday and Holy Saturday has traditionally been called Holy Week or Passion Week, and is considered the holiest week in the church calendar. When is it, what happens each day, and what is the role of the Paschal Triduum during Holy Week?
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