tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/holy-week-37831/articlesHoly Week – The Conversation2024-03-27T12:38:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210712024-03-27T12:38:11Z2024-03-27T12:38:11ZThe roots of the Easter story: Where did Christian beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection come from?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583768/original/file-20240322-29-86j1i0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2013%2C923&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mosaic of the Resurrection in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, Lebanon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosa%C3%AFques_de_la_basilique_Saint_Paul_(Harissa)09.jpg">FredSeiller/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Easter approaches, Christians around the world begin to focus on two of the central tenets of their faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. </p>
<p>Other charismatic Jewish teachers or <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/The_Jewish_Spiritual_Heroes%2C_Volume_I%3B_The_Creators_of_the_Mishna%2C_Rabbi_Chanina_ben_Dosa?lang=bi">miracle workers</a> were active in Judea around the same time, approximately 2,000 years ago. What set Jesus apart was his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15.12-19&version=NRSVUE">followers’ belief in his resurrection</a>. For believers, this was not only a miracle, but a sign that Jesus was the long-awaited Jewish messiah, sent to save the people of Israel from their oppressors.</p>
<p>But was the idea of a resurrection itself a unique belief in first-century Israel? </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://religiousstudies.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/aaron-gale">a scholar of ancient Judaism</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/redefining-ancient-borders-9780567025210/">its connection to the early Christian movement</a>. The Christian concept of Jesus rising from the dead helped shape many of the faith’s key teachings and, ultimately, the new religion’s split from Judaism. Yet religious teachings about resurrection go back many centuries before Jesus walked the earth.</p>
<p>There are stories that likely predate early Jewish beliefs by many centuries, such as the Egyptian story of the god <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100255831">Osiris being resurrected by his wife, Isis</a>. Most relevant for Christianity, though, are Judaism’s own ideas about resurrection.</p>
<h2>‘Your dead shall live’</h2>
<p>One of the earliest written Jewish references to resurrection in the Bible is found in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+26&version=NRSVUE">Book of Isaiah</a>, which discusses a future era, perhaps a time of final judgment, in which the dead would rise and be subject to God’s ultimate justice. “Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise,” Isaiah prophesies. “Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three rows of yellowed manuscript on a scroll, with jagged edges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Great Isaiah Scroll: the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran, by the Dead Sea, which was probably written around the second century B.C.E.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Isaiah_Scroll.jpg">Ardon Bar Hama/The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Later Jewish biblical texts such as the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+12.2&version=NRSVUE">Book of Daniel</a> also referenced resurrection.</p>
<p>There were several competing Jewish sects at the time of Jesus’ life. The most prominent and influential, the Pharisees, further integrated <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2023%3A8&version=NRSVUE">the concept of resurrection</a> into Jewish thought. According to <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-2.html">the first-century historian Josephus</a>, the Pharisees believed that the soul was immortal and could be reunited with a resurrected body – ideas that would likely have made the idea of Jesus rising from the dead more acceptable to the Jews of his time.</p>
<p>Within a few centuries, the rabbis began to fuse together the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+37.1-12&version=NRSVUE">earlier biblical references to bodily resurrection</a> with the later ideas of the Pharisees. In particular, the rabbis began to discuss the concept of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.111a?lang=bi">bodily resurrection</a> and its connection to the messianic era.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Beige stone boxes sit on the ground in rows, with a building with a golden roof in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Jewish Cemetery on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Graves face the Temple Mount, where some believe that the resurrection of the dead will culminate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:121224-Jerusalem-Mount-of-Olives_(27497923512).jpg">xiquinhosilva/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Jews believed that the legitimate Messiah would be <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2011&version=NRSVUE">a descendant of the biblical King David</a> who would vanquish their enemies and <a href="https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/31-pssal-nets.pdf">restore Israel to its previous glory</a>. In the centuries following Jesus’ death, the rabbis taught that the souls of the dead <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1127503/jewish/The-Resurrection-Process.htm">would be resurrected</a> after the Messiah appeared on earth.</p>
<p>By the 500s C.E. or so, the rabbis further elaborated upon the concept. The Talmud, the most important collection of authoritative writings on Jewish law apart from the Bible itself, notes that <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1?lang=bi">one who does not believe in resurrection has no share in the “Olam Haba</a>,” the “World to Come.” The Olam Haba is the realm where these sages believed <a href="https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/25/Q2/">one’s soul eventually dwells</a> after death. Interestingly, the concept of hell itself never became ingrained within mainstream Jewish thought.</p>
<p>Even now, the concept of God giving life to the dead is affirmed every day <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/146958?lang=bi">in the Amidah</a>, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mechayeh-hameitim-rethinking-the-resurrection-blessing/">a Jewish prayer recited</a> as part of the daily morning, afternoon and evening services.</p>
<h2>Old ideas, new beliefs</h2>
<p>The fact that the first followers of Jesus were Jews likely contributed to the concept of resurrection becoming ingrained into Christian thought. Yet the Christian understanding of resurrection was taken to an unprecedented degree in the decades following Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, a Jew from Galilee, entered Jerusalem in the days before Passover. He was accused of sedition against the Roman authorities – and likely other charges, such as blasphemy – largely because he was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A12-13&version=NRSVUE">causing a disturbance</a> among the Jews getting ready to celebrate the holiday. At the time, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-pesach-history/">Passover was a pilgrimage festival</a> in which tens of thousands of Jews would travel to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>After being betrayed by one of his followers, Judas, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26.47-68&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was arrested, hastily put on trial</a> and sentenced to be crucified. The Roman authorities wished to uphold the pax Romana, or Roman peace. They feared that unrest amid a major festival could lead to a rebellion, especially given the accusation that at least some of Jesus’ followers believed him to be the “<a href="https://ehrmanblog.org/why-was-jesus-crucified/">King of the Jews</a>, as was recorded later in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A2&version=NRSVUE">Matthew’s</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15.2&version=NRSVUE">Mark’s Gospels</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Crucifixes often display the Latin abbreviation ‘INRI,’ short for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ This statue in Germany’s Ellwangen Abbey shows the abbreviation in three languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellwangen_St_Vitus_Vorhalle_Kreuzaltar_detail2.jpg">Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>According to the Gospels, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27.32-28.10&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was put to death</a> on what is now Good Friday, and rose again on the third day – which today is celebrated as Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>Jesus’ early followers believed not only that he had been resurrected, but that he was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/themovement.html">the long-awaited Jewish messiah</a>, who had fulfilled earlier <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+6.1-2&version=NRSVUE">Jewish prophecies</a>. Eventually, they also embraced the idea that he was <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/300246095">the divine Son of God</a>, although scholars still debate exactly how and when this occurred.</p>
<p>In addition, the nature of Jesus’ resurrection remains <a href="https://marcusjborg.org/posts-by-marcus/the-resurrection-of-jesus/">a source of debate</a> among theologians and scholars – such as whether followers believed his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24.36-43&version=NRSVUE">resurrected body was made of flesh and blood</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Cor+3.17-18&version=NRSVUE">or pure spirit</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the grander meaning of the resurrection, which is recorded in all <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A1-10%2CMark+16%3A1-11%2CLuke+24%3A1-12%2CJohn+20&version=NRSVUE">four canonical Gospels</a>, remains clear for many of the approximately 2 billion Christians around the world: They believe that Jesus <a href="https://www.religion-online.org/article/resurrection-faith-n-t-wright-talks-about-history-and-belief/">triumphed over death</a>, which serves as a cornerstone foundation of the Christian faith.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Gale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ideas about resurrection had been developing for centuries before Jesus’ life, but his followers took them in new directions.Aaron Gale, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259652024-03-27T12:37:57Z2024-03-27T12:37:57ZEaster 2024 in the Holy Land: a holiday marked by Palestinian Christian sorrow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584385/original/file-20240326-22-4jhbih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C51%2C5604%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus Christ.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IsraelPalestiniansEaster/d33a91bd48b94dd7b7cae10a29bdeef0/photo?Query=%20Church%20of%20the%20Holy%20Sepulchre%20easter&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=901&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=29&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, Christians from across the world visit Jerusalem for Easter week, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/following-jesuss-steps-millions-christians-via-dolorosa-walking-wrong-way">walking the Via Dolorosa</a>, the path Jesus is said to have walked on the way to his crucifixion over 2,000 years ago. Easter is the holiest of days, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Holy-Sepulchre">Church of the Holy Sepulchre</a>, the site where Jesus is believed to have died, is one of the most sacred sites for Christians.</p>
<p>But not all Christians have equal access to these sites. If you are a Christian Palestinian living in the city of Bethlehem or Ramallah hoping to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem, you have to <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240325-israel-bans-palestinian-christians-from-jerusalem-on-palm-sunday/">request permission from Israeli authorities</a> well before Christmas – without guarantee that it will be granted. Those were the rules even before Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-latest-02-28-2024-5fb126981031984395a228598fa9e4a9">launched an attack on southern Israel</a>. The Israeli response to the Hamas attack has resulted in even more <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/11/middleeast/west-bank-restrictions-violence-intl-cmd/index.html">severe restrictions on freedom of movement</a> for Palestinians in the West Bank.</p>
<p>The site where the Bible says Jesus was born, in Bethlehem, and the place he died, in Jerusalem, are only about six miles apart. Google Maps indicates the drive takes about 20 minutes but carries a warning: “<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Church+of+the+Nativity,+P635%2BP2C,+Bethlehem+Territory/Church+of+the+Holy+Sepulchre,+Jerusalem/@31.7444436,35.1267403,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x1502d87be687c8f9:0xd060c37bd524261c!2m2!1d35.2075288!2d31.7043034!1m5!1m1!1s0x150329cf1c246db5:0x2d04a75cfc390360!2m2!1d35.2296002!2d31.7784813!3e0?entry=ttu">This route may cross country borders</a>.” That is because Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, which is under Israeli military occupation, whereas <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/22/how-does-israels-occupation-of-palestine-work#:%7E:text=Israel%20occupied%20the%20West%20Bank,were%20the%20capital%20of%20Israel">Jerusalem is under direct Israeli control</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/justicestudies/about-us/directory/abusaad-roni.php">human rights scholar</a> and Christian Palestinian who grew up in Bethlehem, I have many fond memories of Easter, which is a special time of gathering and celebration for Christian Palestinians. But I also saw firsthand how the military occupation has denied Palestinians basic human rights, including religious rights.</p>
<h2>A season of celebration</h2>
<p>Traditionally, Palestinian families and friends exchange visits, offering coffee, tea and a cookie stuffed with dates called “<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/04/11/522771745/maamoul-an-ancient-cookie-that-ushers-in-easter-and-eid-in-the-middle-east">maamoul</a>,” which is made only at Easter. A favorite tradition, especially for children, is taking a colorfully dyed hard-boiled egg in one hand and cracking it against an egg held by a friend. The breaking of the egg symbolizes the rise of Jesus from the tomb, the end of sorrow and the ultimate defeat of death itself and purification of human sins.</p>
<p>For Orthodox Christians, one of the most sacred rites of the year is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Holy-Fire">Holy Fire</a>. On the day before Orthodox Easter, thousands of pilgrims and local Christian Palestinians of all denominations gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Greek and Armenian patriarchs enter the enclosure of the tomb in which Jesus was said to have been buried and pray inside. Those inside have <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IpyPCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT285&lpg=PT285&dq=%22From+the+core+of+the+very+stone+on+which+Jesus+lay+an+indefinable+light+pours+forth.+It+usually+has+a+blue+tint,+but+the+color+may+change+and+take+many+different+hues.+It+cannot+be+described+in+human+terms.+The+light+rises+out+of+the+stone+as+mist+may+rise+out+of+a+lake+%E2%80%94+it+almost+looks+as+if+the+stone+is+covered+by+a+moist+cloud,+but+it+is+light.&source=bl&ots=l47MXGss14&sig=ACfU3U3c3GuHU35fJ_j6Uxpnf8zITGO9gA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiW4d74n5KFAxVGCTQIHUNrAgsQ6AF6BAhKEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false">reported</a> that a blue light rises from the stone where Jesus lay, and forms into a flame. The patriarch lights candles from the flame, passing the fire from candle to candle among the thousands assembled in the church. </p>
<p>That same day, delegations representing Eastern Orthodox countries carry the flame in lanterns to their home countries via <a href="https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/aircraft-fleet-brings-easter-holy-fire-to-orthodox-communities">chartered planes</a> to be presented in cathedrals in time for the Easter service. Palestinians also carry the flame using lanterns to homes and churches in the West Bank.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Christians celebrate the Holy Fire under Israeli restrictions in 2023.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Deep roots in the Holy Land</h2>
<p>Palestinian Christians <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/Sociology-of-early-Palestinian-Christianity/oclc/3609025">trace their ancestry</a> to the time of Jesus and Christianity’s founding in the region. Many <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9781">churches and monasteries</a> flourished in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other Palestinian towns under Byzantine and Roman rule. Throughout this period and into the modern day, Christians, Muslims and Jews <a href="https://www.iis.ac.uk/learning-centre/scholarly-contributions/academic-articles/muslim-jews-and-christians-relations-and-interactions/">lived side by side in the region</a>. </p>
<p>With the Islamic conquest in the seventh century, the <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/decline-of-eastern-christianity-under-islam-from-jihad-to-dhimmitude-seventh-twentieth-century/oclc/33276531">majority of Christians gradually converted to Islam</a>. However, the remaining Christian minority persisted in practicing their religion and traditions, including through the rule of the Ottoman empire, from 1516 to 1922, and to the present day.</p>
<p>The establishment of Israel in 1948 led to the expulsion of <a href="http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=17079">750,000 Palestinians, over 80% of the population</a>, which is referred to by Palestinians as the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-at-75-palestinians-struggle-to-get-recognition-for-their-catastrophe-204782">nakba,” or the catastrophe</a>. Hundreds of thousands became refugees throughout the world, including many Christians.</p>
<p>Christians accounted for about <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-204267/">10% of the population in 1920</a> but <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/#people-and-society">constitute just 1% to 2.5%</a> of Palestinians in the West Bank as of 2024, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25112">because of emigration</a>. Christians in the West Bank belong to multiple denominations, including Greek Orthodox, Catholic and various Protestant denominations.</p>
<p>Thousands of Palestinians rely on the pilgrims and tourists who come to Bethlehem every year for their livelihoods. Two million people visit Bethlehem annually, and more than <a href="https://www.bethlehem-city.org/en/the-city-economy">20% of local workers are employed in tourism</a>. Another important local industry is carved olive wood handicrafts. In 2004, the mayor of Beit Jala, which borders the city of Bethlehem, estimated <a href="https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/Beth_Rep_Dec04.pdf">200 families in the area</a> made their living from carving olive wood. Christians around the world have <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/christmas-journey-olive-orchard-nativity-180326957.html">olive wood nativity sets</a> or crosses carved by Palestinian artisans, a tradition that has been passed down through generations.</p>
<h2>Impact of the occupation</h2>
<p>The neighborhoods of the occupied West Bank have been fragmented by the building of over 145 illegal Israeli settlements. Both Christian and Muslim Palestinians face huge barriers to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jsa.2019.0003">accessing holy sites in Jerusalem</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men wearing long green garbs walk in a procession and one in the center holds a tall crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584391/original/file-20240326-22-le7r64.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Israeli policeman stands guard during a March 1997 procession of Franciscan monks led by traditionally dressed guards coming out of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MIDEASTJERUSALEMEASTER/95dacad9cce0da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=%20bethlehem%20holy%20week%20guards&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=733&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=0&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Peter Dejong</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bethlehem is encircled by several Jewish-only settlements, as well as the <a href="https://pij.org/articles/1042/the-impact-of-the-separation-wall-on-jerusalem">separation wall</a> built in the 2000s, which snakes around and across the city. Across the West Bank, over 500 checkpoints and bypass roads designed to connect settlements have been built on Palestinian lands for the exclusive use of settlers. As of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-02-02/israeli-settler-population-west-bank-surpasses-500000">Jan. 1, 2023</a>, there were over half a million settlers in the West Bank and another 200,000 in East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The highways and bypass roads cut through the middle of towns and separate families. It is a system that former <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2007.tb01647.x">President Jimmy Carter</a> and numerous human rights groups have described as “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-jerusalem-israel-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-83b44a2f6b2b3581d857f57fb6960115">apartheid</a>.” This system severely restricts freedom of movement and separates students from schools, patients from hospitals, farmers from their lands and worshipers from their churches or mosques. </p>
<p>Additionally, Palestinians have a different license plate color on their cars. They can’t use their vehicles to access <a href="https://apnews.com/article/a0c47ad493fb4b31a444bfe432194f2e">private roads</a>, which restricts their access to Jerusalem or Israel.</p>
<p>Going far beyond separate roads, Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to a separate legal system – a military judicial system – whereas Israeli settlers living in the West Bank have a civilian court system. This <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/">system</a> allows indefinite detention of Palestinians without charge or trial based on secret evidence. All of these restrictions on freedom of movement disrupt the ability of Palestinians of all faiths to visit holy sites and gather for religious observances.</p>
<h2>Prayers for peace</h2>
<p>The barriers to celebrating Easter, especially this year, are not just physical but emotional and spiritual. </p>
<p>As of March 25, 2024, the number of <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/health-ministry-in-hamas-run-gaza-says-war-death-toll-at-32-333-fd31aa61">Gazans killed in the war had surpassed 32,000</a> – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234159514/gaza-death-toll-30000-palestinians-israel-hamas-war">70% of them women and children</a>, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/22/israel-arrested-over-7350-west-bank-palestinians-since-war-on-gaza-began">arrested 7,350 people in the West Bank</a>, with over 9,000 currently in detention, up from 5,200 who were in Israeli prisons before Oct. 7, 2023. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/palestinian-christians-and-muslims-have-lived-together-in-the-region-for-centuries-and-several-were-killed-recently-while-sheltering-in-the-historic-church-of-saint-porphyrius-216335">Israel bombed the world’s third oldest church</a>, St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, in Gaza in October 2023, killing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/20/gaza-church-strike-saint-porphyrius/">18 of the more than 400 people</a> sheltering there.</p>
<p>Christian Palestinians in the West Bank <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/15/bethlehem-cancels-christmas-display-martyrs-israel-hamas/">suspended celebrations</a> for Christmas in 2023 in hopes of bringing more attention to the death and suffering in Gaza. But the situation has only worsened. An estimated <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/unrwa-situation-report-82-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem-all-information-22-24-february-2024-valid-24-february-2024-2230-enar">1.7 million Gazans</a> – over 75% of the population – had been displaced as of March 2024, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/middleeast/famine-northern-gaza-starvation-ipc-report-intl-hnk/index.html">half of them on the verge of famine</a>.</p>
<p>Many Palestinians have long turned to their faith to endure the occupation and have found <a href="https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.70464">solace in prayer</a>. That faith has allowed many to hold on to the hope that the occupation will end and the Holy Land will be the place of peace and coexistence that it once was. Perhaps that is when, for many, Easter celebrations will be truly joyful again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roni Abusaad, PhD does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Christian Palestinian human rights scholar who grew up in Bethlehem writes about the special time of Easter, but also about the restrictions on Palestinian Christians.Roni Abusaad, PhD, Lecturer, San José State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2265722024-03-26T17:02:09Z2024-03-26T17:02:09ZExtinguishing lights and a great big bang: the ancient sights and sounds of the pre-Easter tenebrae service<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584208/original/file-20240325-18-saxwku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The crucifixion of Christ inside Chester Cathedral.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chester-cheshire-england-uk-26-march-2433472355">PhotoFires|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Easter is a time of mixed emotions. According to <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/media/press-releases/church-attendance-rises-second-year-running">Church of England figures</a>, up to a million people will go to church on Easter Sunday to celebrate the joy and hope of the resurrection of Christ. But in the three days before that, churchgoers in many traditions come face to face with the darkest moments of the Christian story: <a href="https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-our-collection/highlights/context/subjects/judas">the betrayal</a> Jesus faced at the hands of Judas Iscariot, his death on the cross and his burial.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A priest extinguishes a candle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A symbolic darkening.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/25389408003/in/photolist-EFzmrR-qYG4Vv-rsNXi9-rD326R-qYJtLH-rCVpZw-rCVwuq-rBaqre-rD2YZB-rCU4QJ-rVq5Li-rBaCTZ-rVnevu-rVnbds-rVn54J-rCVt5u-rCU9Bh-qYutdC-qYGikB-rVpYFH-rVpZK6-9XFueb-rVuA3a-6dSFu4-rCUe3m-qYuwAu-rVuvSM-EFzmxT-SxBjRf-rCuHh7-7qWKHW-e6w8nR-7QK7Y4-e6FJya-rVsi1e-TNcwt5-5rUMHg-9AJeZS-TNcwqu-7Q8vmN-7QNq9G-4zM5yA-buGoW5-ngK9DK-ngK8v2-2gC1u1M-rUWund-rUZgjH-qYgu1p-nivvzB">Lawrence OP|Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among the lesser known rituals of this pre-Easter period is an ancient exploration of darkness itself, known as <em>tenebrae</em>. Originally, this service took place late at night or early in the morning on the last three days of Holy Week, leading up to Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday).</p>
<p>For at least 1,200 years, the defining feature of tenebrae services has been the gradual <a href="https://alcuinclub.org.uk/product/175/">extinguishing of lights</a>. Enclosed in an increasingly darkened church, worshippers are reminded of the three days Jesus spent in the tomb following his death. </p>
<p>My research <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/music/research/research-projects/music-in-the-shadows.aspx">shows</a> that in the past it was actually quite common for worshippers to attend church in the middle of the night. Before electric light, sunset forced most daily activities to cease. Long winter nights afforded plenty of time both to sleep and to pray. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white nitrate negative image of a church service in 1941." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A tenebrae service on Spy Wednesday at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/matpc.21011/">Matson photograph collection|LOC</a></span>
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<h2>Darker than dark</h2>
<p>Since medieval times, the tenebrae ritual has had the feel of a funeral. It features <a href="https://archive.org/details/liberusualismiss00cath/page/302/mode/2up?view=theater">dirge-like chanting</a>, <a href="https://www.liturgies.net/Lent/Tenebrae.htm">doleful texts</a> and a pointed avoidance of ornament. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A large standing candelabra." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Antoni Gaudi’s tenebrae hearse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:(Barcelona)_Tenebrae_Candelabra_-_Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD_-_Museums_of_the_Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia.jpg">Didier Descouens|Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Latin verb <em>tenebrare</em> means “to darken” and this is probably the origin of the ritual’s name. A symbolic number of candles or lamps – historically this varied between five and 72, but is now most often 15 – is lit at the beginning of the service, and then, for each successive chant, reading or verse, one light is extinguished. </p>
<p>These are often placed on what is known as a “hearse” – a triangular or pyramidal frame that would also be placed above a coffin or tomb. (Only in the 17th century would this word be borrowed to describe a funeral vehicle.) By the end of the service, a single light remains, barely enough to see by. </p>
<p>The effect is hugely dramatic. There have been different interpretations of the ritual through the ages.</p>
<p>In his ninth-century commentary <a href="https://documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0776-0852__Symphosius_Amalarius__Liber_De_Ordine_Antiphonarii__MLT.pdf.html">On the Ordering of the Antiphoner</a>, the Frankish bishop Amalar of Metz understood the extinguishing of candles to represent the “the extinction of joy” brought about by Jesus’s crucifixion. Others saw a representation of the biblical figures and saints who had died bearing witness to this story, or a depiction of the waning light of Jesus the metaphorical sun.</p>
<p>Art objects have also provided layers of meaning. Standing some 25 feet tall, the giant <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/75710752@N04/8758144549">16th-century tenebrae candelabra</a> of Seville Cathedral is comprised of a metal hearse topped with 15 candles and as many carved figures.</p>
<p>As each candle is extinguished, a person seems to disappear, as if the faith of Christians is draining away. Similar objects are found in many Catholic churches, including the one designed by Antoni Gaudi for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. </p>
<p>Some medieval churches used a hand-shaped snuffer made of wax to put out the candles. Signifying the hand of Judas, this underlined the theme of betrayal.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4TFAR6oTz8s?wmode=transparent&start=57" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>At the end of tenebrae, the final light is customarily hidden. In the eery, disorienting darkness that ensues, there is a long tradition of a loud sudden noise being made. This bang or clatter is known as the <em>strepitus</em>. People <a href="https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/282/tenebrae-best-ways-to-make-the-strepitus/">might</a> slam a door, bang a book, stamp their feet or use percussive instruments. </p>
<p>The strepitus is thought to represent the confusion or shock the disciples experienced after Jesus died, or the earthquake that followed the crucifixion. Like many aspects of ancient ritual, though, the strepitus was probably functional in origin.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-easter">By definition</a>, the days around Easter always enjoy the light of the moon. But finding your way out of an unlit church can be a struggle. It seems the original purpose of the sound, then, was to signal to the sacristan (the warden in charge of the church building and its contents) to reveal the hidden candle again, so that everyone could safely return home.</p>
<p>Inevitably, sometimes things got out of hand. In his Latin <a href="https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503044033-1">commentary on the liturgy</a>, the 13th-century French bishop <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/thib14180">Guillaume Durand of Mende</a> described a form of tenebrae service that ended with shouting, wailing and a “commotion of the people” as congregants enacted both the disciples’ grief and the ironic cheers of Jesus’s enemies. One 19th-century author <a href="https://archive.org/details/ancientenglishho00feas/page/90/mode/2up">reported</a> a volley of musket-fire being used for the strepitus in Seville.</p>
<p>Today, the sounds of tenebrae are much more respectable. Performances by the eponymous, Grammy-nominated choir, Tenebrae, make a feature of candlelight and ancient church spaces. </p>
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<p>The ritual has also inspired countless famous classical works. The 16th-century English royal composer Thomas Tallis crafted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de_OPTtfZdw">sensuous vocal setting</a> of tenebrae readings from the Old Testament’s Book of Lamentations. </p>
<p>In 1585, his younger Spanish contemporary Tomás Luis de Victoria published almost three hours’ worth of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/4up2bNlUkQvQhPFAwsWhM1?utm_source=generator">tenebrae polyphony</a>. A more operatic style appears in François Couperin’s exquisitely anguished <a href="https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W7081_120622">Leçons de ténèbres</a>, composed around 1710.</p>
<p>More recent examples include Stravinsky’s angular and unrelenting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpOOgOeab0">Threni</a>, a concert work from 1958, and Poulenc’s lesser-known <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZCnnK7bvfc">Seven Tenebrae Responsories</a>, commissioned by Leonard Bernstein in 1961. </p>
<p>Among the many cherished settings of one medieval Tenebrae text, O vos omnes (a Latin adaptation of Lamentations 1:12-18), is a version by Spanish and Puerto Rican composer Pablo Casals. Written in 1932, it is still widely performed today. </p>
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<p>Casals was a <a href="https://www.paucasals.org/en/pablo-casals-and-the-united-nations/">peace activist</a> as well as a cellist. His simple, heartfelt strains transform <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations+1.18&version=NIV">the words of the prophet Jeremiah</a> into an impassioned plea for our troubled times: “Listen, all you peoples; look on my suffering.” </p>
<p>On Easter Sunday, many Christians will return from church having received a vital injection of hope for the world. But the tenebrae tradition, which some will also experience this week, has a useful role too. It helps us to come to terms with darkness in human history, and to find beauty even when it seems that hope itself is being extinguished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Parkes receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>The ancient tenebrae tradition brings churchgoers face to face with the darkest moments of the Christian story.Henry Parkes, Associate Professor, Department of Music, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262932024-03-26T12:41:28Z2024-03-26T12:41:28ZAn annual pilgrimage during Holy Week brings thousands of believers to Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico, where they pray for healing and protection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583549/original/file-20240321-30-z27kej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C4%2C2968%2C2182&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of Catholics travel by foot to Santuario de Chimayo, in northern New Mexico, during an annual Good Friday pilgrimage.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CatholicPilgrimageNewMexico/27b7d518d220496e8911f7b0c20bf07d/photo?Query=Chimay%C3%B3%20New%20Mexico%20pilgrimage&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=14&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Morgan Lee</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For decades, the people of northern New Mexico have marked the Christian observance of Good Friday with a walking pilgrimage to the Santuario de Chimayó in the village of Chimayó, New Mexico.</p>
<p>Referring to themselves as <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/hispano-music-and-culture-from-the-northern-rio-grande/articles-and-essays/nuevo-mexicanos-of-the-upper-rio-grande-culture-history-and-society/english/">Hispanos</a>, or Nuevomexicanos, they have lived in the region for generations, tracing their descent from Spanish colonists who arrived to New Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries. Nuevomexicanos’ Catholicism developed at the far northern frontier of the Spanish Empire; a scarcity of priests led to the flourishing of many popular devotions in New Mexico, including the pilgrimage to Chimayó. </p>
<p>Built in the early 1800s, the santuario is a small church, built of adobe bricks, with a unique feature: In a little room adjacent to the church’s central worship space, there is a hole in the floor, the “pocito,” filled with the sandy earth of the area. </p>
<p>For at least 200 years, Nuevomexicano Catholics have used dirt from the pocito for its purported miraculous healing qualities. They rub it on their aches and pains, they hold it to focus their prayers, and, historically, ingested it. </p>
<p>In 2015, I participated in the annual pilgrimage as part of the research for <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479884278/the-healing-power-of-the-santuario-de-chimayo/">my book</a>, “The Healing Power of the Santuario de Chimayó: America’s Miraculous Church.” The santuario’s story is not merely a curiosity but also a significant part of the shifting identity of the U.S. Catholic Church, which is on the verge of becoming <a href="https://vencuentro.org/consultation-report/">majority-Latino</a>.</p>
<h2>Legendary origins of santuario’s holy dirt</h2>
<p>The source of the pocito dirt’s power for Hispano pilgrims is linked to two images of Christ.</p>
<p>The first is a large crucifix called the Señor de Esquipulas, or Lord of Esquipulas. Named for a famous and much older <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803268432/">Guatemalan Christ</a> figure also known as the Señor de Esquipulas, the crucifix lies at the heart of the most common origin story for the santuario’s holy dirt. </p>
<p>The legend goes that in 1810, a Chimayó community leader and landowner named Bernardo Abeyta witnessed light coming out of the ground in one of his fields. Upon examination, he is said to have discovered the crucifix partially buried in the soil. He dug it up and brought it to the nearest church at the time, some 8 miles away. </p>
<p>The crucifix, however, is believed to have returned on its own to the hole in Abeyta’s field. Given this sign, Abeyta sought and received permission to build a chapel around the hole, a chapel today known as the Santuario de Chimayó.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A brightly painted church altar with Jesus on the cross." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interior view of Santuario de Chimayo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.66247/">Carol M Highsmith/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Señor de Esquipulas crucifix hangs on the main altar screen in the santuario, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has promoted the story of its miraculous provenance. </p>
<p>A second Christ image, however, is by far the more popular among Hispano pilgrims. The <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/9780826347107/crossing-borders-with-the-santo-ninyo-de-atocha/">Santo Niño de Atocha</a> is a depiction of the Christ child dressed as a medieval pilgrim and is popular throughout northern Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region. A statue of the Holy Child is ensconced in the santuario in a room adjacent to the pocito.</p>
<p>For pilgrims, a visit to the santuario typically includes time in prayer in front of the Holy Child, where they ask for healing and protection for themselves, their children and other loved ones. They take home dirt from the pocito as a reminder and vehicle of Christ’s power to answer their prayers.</p>
<h2>The annual pilgrimage</h2>
<p>Hispano residents in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado made pilgrimages to the santuario for healing throughout the 19th century, but the massive walking pilgrimage during Holy Week, culminating on Good Friday, did not begin until after World War II. </p>
<p>Hundreds of members of New Mexico’s 200th Coast Artillery had endured the 1942 <a href="https://historyinsantafe.com/200th-coast-artillery-bataan-death-march/#:%7E:text=New%20Mexico's%20Veteran's%20Administration%20is,joined%2075%2C000%20prisoners%20of%20war">Bataan Death March</a>, in which thousands of U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to walk for miles through the Philippines. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161130144025/http://www.bataanmuseum.com/bataanhistory/">Many died</a> from either torture or exhaustion.</p>
<p>Upon returning home, Nuevomexicano survivors organized a walking pilgrimage to the santuario in 1946 to commemorate their suffering and to mourn their lost comrades. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/el_santuario_de_chimayo.html">This pilgrimage</a> soon evolved into an annual observance not only for veterans but also for Hispano Catholics in general.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lrI7QxKpGHQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The pilgrimage of Santuario de Chimayo.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the santuario throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during Holy Week – the week before the celebration of Easter – is the high point. Good Friday, the day on which Christians believe that Jesus was crucified and died, attracts approximately <a href="https://stateecu.com/a-guide-to-holy-week-pilgrimages-to-el-santuario-de-chimayo/">30,000 walking pilgrims</a>, some coming from as far away as Albuquerque, 90 miles away. Others choose shorter routes, including a popular 9-mile walk from the nearby town of Española. </p>
<h2>Latino Catholics</h2>
<p>The santuario’s popularity continues to rise along with the numbers of Latino Catholics in the U.S.</p>
<p>The demographic shift in the U.S. Catholic Church toward a <a href="https://vencuentro.org/consultation-report/">Latino majority</a> is well underway. <a href="https://theology.nd.edu/people/timothy-matovina/">Timothy Matovina</a>, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, writes in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691163574/latino-catholicism">his book</a>, “Latino Catholicism: Tranformation in America’s Largest Church,” that Latinos represent one-third of all U.S. Catholics and make up more than half of the U.S. Catholic population under the age of 25.</p>
<p>He also notes that, because of Latino population growth, the proportion of Catholics in California and Texas has increased since 1990, while the proportion in Massachusetts and New York has dropped. This demographic shift means devotional sites, like the santuario, that have Latino Catholic origins and immense popularity can expect to grow in importance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Hendrickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Santuario de Chimayó throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during the week before the celebration of Easter is the high point.Brett Hendrickson, Professor of Religious Studies, Lafayette College Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028852023-04-05T13:50:59Z2023-04-05T13:50:59ZFrom goddesses and rabbits to theology and ‘Superstar’: 4 essential reads on Easter’s surprisingly complicated history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518873/original/file-20230401-28-6yu9j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C1%2C1020%2C806&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How did commemorating the Resurrection get tangled up with rabbits and eggs?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/1960s-1970s-two-ceramic-easter-rabbit-figurines-and-news-photo/1062095384?adppopup=true">H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What’s Easter about? In some ways, the answer is pretty simple: Jesus Christ, and Christians’ belief that he rose from the dead.</p>
<p>In other ways, though, the springtime holiday is far from straightforward. How did rabbits get involved? Where did the name “Easter” come from – and why is the English word different from the way many other cultures refer to the holy day? Even theologically, exactly what the Resurrection means is not universally agreed upon.</p>
<p>Here are four articles that delve into Easter’s history, its significance – and what a rock ‘n’ roll Broadway show has to do with it.</p>
<h2>1. Picking the date</h2>
<p>First things first: Easter is what’s called a “movable feast,” a holiday whose exact date changes year to year. In the Northern Hemisphere it falls soon after the spring equinox, as the world comes back into bloom – a fitting time to celebrate rebirth.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-easter-is-called-easter-and-other-little-known-facts-about-the-holiday-75025">Easter’s dating</a> “goes back to the complicated origins of this holiday and how it has evolved over the centuries,” wrote <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/rs/faculty/bl23254">Brent Landau</a>, a religious studies scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. Similar to Christmas and Halloween celebrations today, Easter blends together elements from Christian and non-Christian traditions.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518876/original/file-20230401-2142-d46dfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older photo of a church full of worshippers, most of the women in fancy hats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518876/original/file-20230401-2142-d46dfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518876/original/file-20230401-2142-d46dfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518876/original/file-20230401-2142-d46dfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518876/original/file-20230401-2142-d46dfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518876/original/file-20230401-2142-d46dfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518876/original/file-20230401-2142-d46dfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518876/original/file-20230401-2142-d46dfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fantastic hats: One more Easter tradition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/worshipers-look-on-during-easter-services-at-saint-louis-news-photo/80351247?adppopup=true">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The name “Easter” itself seems linked to a pre-Christian goddess named Eostre in what is now England; she was celebrated in springtime. And in fact, in most languages, the word for the holiday is related to Passover, since the Gospels say Jesus traveled to Jerusalem <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2014&version=NIV">to celebrate the Jewish festival</a> in the days leading up to his crucifixion.</p>
<p>But “celebrating” Easter, per se, wasn’t always in fashion with Christians. For the Puritans, Landau explained, these holidays were regarded as too tainted by merrymaking and un-Christian influences. As 19th-century American culture embraced the idea of childhood as a special time in life, though – not just preparation for adulthood – both Christmas and Easter became popular occasions to spend time with family.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-easter-is-called-easter-and-other-little-known-facts-about-the-holiday-75025">Why Easter is called Easter, and other little-known facts about the holiday</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Holy hares</h2>
<p>The Easter bunny’s bio starts long before the 1800s, though. Rabbits’ and hares’ famous fertility has made them symbols of rebirth <a href="https://theconversation.com/sacred-hares-banished-winter-witches-and-pagan-worship-the-roots-of-easter-bunny-traditions-are-ancient-180484">for thousands of years</a>. Some were ritually buried alongside people during the Neolithic age, for example.</p>
<p>Of course, that fecundity also makes them symbols of sex, as anyone who’s seen the Playboy logo is aware. “In the Classical Greek tradition, hares were sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love,” explained folklorist <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1012737">Tok Thompson</a>, a professor at USC Dornsife. The goddess’s son Eros was also depicted carrying a hare “as a symbol of unquenchable desire,” and even the Virgin Mary is often painted with a rabbit, to symbolize how she overcame desire.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting depicting a young woman handing baby Jesus to Virgin Mary, who puts one hand around him, while holding a hare with the other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458014/original/file-20220413-26-khhsks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Madonna of the Rabbit,’ a painting from 1530, depicting the Virgin Mary with a rabbit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Tizian_018.jpg">A painting by artist Titian (1490-1576), Louvre Museum, Paris.</a></span>
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<p>Modern-day Easter bunny traditions stem from folk traditions in Germany and England, and there is evidence that the goddess Eostre’s symbol was the hare as well.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sacred-hares-banished-winter-witches-and-pagan-worship-the-roots-of-easter-bunny-traditions-are-ancient-180484">Sacred hares, banished winter witches and pagan worship – the roots of Easter Bunny traditions are ancient</a>
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</p>
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<h2>3. Victory over death</h2>
<p>Holy Week, the series of events in Christian churches that lead up to Easter, traces Jesus’ final days before death and resurrection, <a href="https://theconversation.com/holy-week-starts-off-with-lots-of-palms-but-palm-sundays-donkey-is-just-as-important-to-the-story-202692">including Palm Sunday</a> and the Last Supper. Easter Sunday itself is the climax of the story: his triumph over death.</p>
<p>“As a Baptist minister and theologian myself, I believe it is important to understand how Christians more generally, and Baptists in particular, <a href="https://theconversation.com/christians-hold-many-views-on-jesus-resurrection-a-theologian-explains-the-differing-views-among-baptists-181386">hold differing views</a> on the meaning of the resurrection,” wrote <a href="https://religionlab.virginia.edu/people/jason-oliver-evans/">Jason Oliver Evans</a>, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518874/original/file-20230401-18-etlsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A blue and gold painting showing Jesus with a large halo around his head and one woman on each side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518874/original/file-20230401-18-etlsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518874/original/file-20230401-18-etlsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518874/original/file-20230401-18-etlsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518874/original/file-20230401-18-etlsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518874/original/file-20230401-18-etlsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518874/original/file-20230401-18-etlsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518874/original/file-20230401-18-etlsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Resurrection’ by Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel, 1887.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-resurrection-1887-found-in-the-collection-of-museum-of-news-photo/600028067?adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Over the centuries, Evans wrote, Christians have had “passionate debates over this central doctrine of Christian faith” and what it means for Jesus’ followers – such as whether his body was literally raised from the dead.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/christians-hold-many-views-on-jesus-resurrection-a-theologian-explains-the-differing-views-among-baptists-181386">Christians hold many views on Jesus' resurrection – a theologian explains the differing views among Baptists</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>4. Superstar</h2>
<p>There are many ways to share the story of Holy Week – and one of the most controversial ones debuted on Broadway in 1971.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/best-easter-pageant-ever-half-a-century-of-jesus-christ-superstar-180628">Jesus Christ Superstar</a>,” the rock musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, struck some Christians as blasphemous with its modern-day telling of the Passion and “Jesus is cool” ethos. Then there’s the show’s ending, which cuts off after the crucifixion – cutting out the Resurrection, and its theological message, entirely.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518867/original/file-20230401-28-se4i4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man playing Jesus in a play in front of a cross." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518867/original/file-20230401-28-se4i4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518867/original/file-20230401-28-se4i4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518867/original/file-20230401-28-se4i4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518867/original/file-20230401-28-se4i4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518867/original/file-20230401-28-se4i4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518867/original/file-20230401-28-se4i4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518867/original/file-20230401-28-se4i4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ has always had ardent fans and fierce critics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jesus-christ-superstar-in-z%C3%BCrich-1992-news-photo/1173983488?adppopup=true">Blick/RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Half a century later, though, “Superstar” raises fewer eyebrows – a reflection of changes in U.S. culture and Christianity, wrote <a href="https://theatredance.ku.edu/people/henry-bial">Henry Bial</a>, a theater professor at the University of Kansas. Maybe that shouldn’t be such a shock: As he pointed out, theater and drama have always been entwined with Bible stories.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/best-easter-pageant-ever-half-a-century-of-jesus-christ-superstar-180628">Best Easter pageant ever? Half a century of 'Jesus Christ Superstar'</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202885/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Like Halloween and Christmas, today’s Easter traditions are a blend of Christian and non-Christian influences.Molly Jackson, Religion and Ethics EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2026922023-03-31T12:22:48Z2023-03-31T12:22:48ZHoly Week starts off with lots of palms – but Palm Sunday’s donkey is just as important to the story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518538/original/file-20230330-24-xdhqmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C4%2C1014%2C677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man chooses a palm cross to buy on Palm Sunday near a church in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-chooses-a-palm-cross-to-buy-during-palm-sunday-near-a-news-photo/1239899434?adppopup=true">Javier Campos/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the Catholic Church and many other Christian denominations, the Sunday before Easter marks the beginning of the most important week of the year – “Holy Week,” when Christians reflect on central mysteries of their faith: Christ’s Last Supper, crucifixion and resurrection from the dead.</p>
<p>Palm Sunday commemorates the story of Jesus’ <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+12&version=NRSVCE">triumphal entry into Jerusalem</a> shortly before the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to the Christian Gospels, people lined the streets to greet him, waving palm branches and shouting words of praise.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">a specialist in Catholic liturgy and ritual</a>, I think it’s clear that the deeper meaning of this Sunday is rooted in humility, rather than worldly veneration.</p>
<p>Humble service to others is a theme that runs through the New Testament. As the apostle Paul stressed, Christians believe that Jesus, the son of a carpenter, was also the son of God, who “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%202&version=NRSVCE">emptied himself</a>” of his divinity to become fully human. Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels praise “the meek, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A5&version=NRSVCE">for they will inherit the earth</a>,” and he proclaims that “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2020&version=NRSVCE">whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant</a>.”</p>
<p>Modern Catholic teachings describe humility as grounded in an understanding of <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=34023">one’s true relationship with God</a>, one’s own gifts, and an openness to appreciating the talents of others.</p>
<h2>Double symbols</h2>
<p>Each of the four Gospels, the biblical books about Jesus’ life, describe him entering Jerusalem to prepare to celebrate Passover days before being betrayed, arrested, tried and sentenced to a criminal’s death by crucifixion. Each one explicitly says that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2012&version=NRSVCE">he rode into the city</a> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021&version=NRSVCE">on a donkey</a> or <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2011&version=NRSVCE">a colt</a>. Throughout the Bible, however, <a href="https://bibleapps.com/c/colt.htm">the word meaning “colt”</a> is used almost exclusively for young donkeys, not horses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518539/original/file-20230330-1159-hbo8ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people, some of them holding tall palm branches, walk through a narrow street in an ancient city." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518539/original/file-20230330-1159-hbo8ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518539/original/file-20230330-1159-hbo8ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518539/original/file-20230330-1159-hbo8ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518539/original/file-20230330-1159-hbo8ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518539/original/file-20230330-1159-hbo8ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518539/original/file-20230330-1159-hbo8ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518539/original/file-20230330-1159-hbo8ye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">People take part in the Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem on April 10, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-take-part-in-the-palm-sunday-procession-in-jerusalem-news-photo/1239896869?adppopup=true">Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>This image brings to mind a line from the Book of Zechariah in the Jewish scriptures: The prophet describes a victorious king who enters Jerusalem “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zechariah+9%3A9&version=NIV">lowly and riding on a donkey</a>, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”</p>
<p>In Judaism, this passage from Zechariah is taken to <a href="https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/messiahs-donkey-of-a-thousand-colors/">refer to the Messiah</a>, a spiritual king who would peacefully redeem Israel. <a href="https://blog.israelbiblicalstudies.com/holy-land-studies/1450-2/">The donkey itself</a> is also interpreted as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ani1010056">a sign of humility</a>. </p>
<p>In Christianity, <a href="https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/193175.pdf">this animal</a> becomes almost a symbol of Christ himself, given how it patiently suffers and bears others’ burdens. Horses, on the other hand, tend to be associated with royalty, power and war.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the palm branch had been <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/261788?seq=2%5D">associated with triumph and victory</a> for hundreds of years before Christ. Winners of athletic contests, victorious generals and triumphant kings would be awarded or welcomed with <a href="https://www.miamiarch.org/CatholicDiocese.php?op=Article_16786764332354">waving palm branches</a>, a sign of jubilation.</p>
<p>These Gospel narratives left Christians throughout the centuries with two important images for Palm Sunday, the procession with palm branches and the donkey: one associated with triumphant victory, and the other with quiet humility. </p>
<h2>Historical development</h2>
<p>The earliest evidence for a Palm Sunday procession comes from a late fourth-century religious woman named Egeria, who recorded <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/E8445/The-Pilgrimage-of-Egeria">her experiences on a pilgrimage</a> to the Holy Land for her community in Spain. </p>
<p>While in Jerusalem, she describes assembly for prayer on the Mount of Olives in the early afternoon of Palm Sunday. This is a significant location just outside the city, where Christians believe that Jesus <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24%3A3-5&version=NRSVCE">taught disciples</a>, prayed in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2026%3A36-46&version=NRSVCE">the garden of Gethsemane</a> at its base, and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%201&version=NRSVCE">ascended into heaven</a>.</p>
<p>Afterward, the group processed down to <a href="https://faith.nd.edu/s/1210/faith/interior.aspx?sid=1210&gid=609&pgid=32745#:%7E:text=The%20Church%20of%20the%20Holy,on%20which%20Jesus%20was%20crucified">the Anastasis</a>, the church in Jerusalem marking the place <a href="https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/holy-apostles/iconography/eastern-dome-with-depiction-of-the-anastasis">believed to be Jesus’ tomb</a>, for evening prayer. Among the crowd were children <a href="https://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Emikef/durham/egetra.html">waving palms</a> and olive branches.</p>
<p>Medieval Christian worship books from the 10th and 11th centuries show that a ritual procession outside churches became a standard feature of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vRLJKonMfwQC&pg=PA237&lpg=PA237&dq=holy+week+joanne+pierce&source=bl&ots=UUvVjvd6Ab&sig=ACfU3U02BjuDgEVqV1QhS51pr5TFpZfWig&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOs5qK_f39AhXZKFkFHbr6Bak4ChDoAXoECAMQAw#v=snippet&q=palm%20sunday%20&f=false">Palm Sunday celebrations</a> in Western Christianity. In many parts of Europe, <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11432b.htm">other spring flowers or budding branches</a> might be used alongside palm or olive branches, and the Sunday could also be referred to as Flower or Willow Sunday.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518542/original/file-20230330-16-bwdl3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men in hats stand around a saddled donkey outside a small building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518542/original/file-20230330-16-bwdl3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518542/original/file-20230330-16-bwdl3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518542/original/file-20230330-16-bwdl3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518542/original/file-20230330-16-bwdl3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518542/original/file-20230330-16-bwdl3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518542/original/file-20230330-16-bwdl3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518542/original/file-20230330-16-bwdl3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A member of a Christian brotherhood pets the donkey Rito, who will carry an image of Jesus during a Palm Sunday procession in Guatemala City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/member-of-the-sagrado-corazon-de-jesus-brotherhood-pets-the-news-photo/98100628?adppopup=true">Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Christ could be represented in the procession in numerous ways, such as the presence of the bishop or saints’ relics. In some areas, a carved figure of Christ seated on a donkey, <a href="https://www.medieval.eu/the-hope-was-to-achieve-absolution-for-ones-sins-by-pulling-the-wooden-animal-along-palmesels-were-life-size-wooden-statues-showing-the-donkey-which-jesus-rode-in-his-triumphant-entry-into-j/">called a Palmesel</a> or “palm donkey,” could be pulled in front of the crowd.</p>
<p>During the mass after the procession, clergy would read a Gospel account of Christ’s crucifixion and death, traditionally from <a href="https://lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/HolyWk/APalmSun_RCL.html">the Book of Matthew</a>; today, Catholics use versions from other gospels as well. The reading would usually be chanted, with different voices taking the parts of the narrator, Christ, and other speakers, especially the crowd of people described as witnessing his trial, with the congregation still holding their palm branches.</p>
<p>Even today, in the contemporary Catholic calendar, the full title of this first Sunday of Holy Week is <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040223.cfm">Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion</a>.</p>
<h2>Lasting symbols</h2>
<p>Centuries of theological and artistic reflection have shaped today’s Catholic approach to Holy Week specifically, and to the concept of holiness in general. </p>
<p>The image of the quiet, patient, and unassuming donkey has communicated humility in art and in practice. <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-ox-an-ass-a-dragon-sorry-there-were-no-animals-in-the-bibles-nativity-scene-89202">No animals are mentioned</a> in the descriptions of the birth of Jesus in the canonical gospels officially included in the Bible. However, other early Christian texts refer to a donkey at the manger or Mary seated on a donkey as she travels with Joseph. Medieval artists also depicted <a href="https://www.christianiconography.info/nativity.html">the nativity scene</a> with both an ox and an ass in attendance, and <a href="https://www.christianiconography.info/flightIntoEgypt.html">Mary riding on a donkey</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518543/original/file-20230330-26-eaheme.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting shows a male saint with a halo holding a cup with a small dragon in it and a palm leaf." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518543/original/file-20230330-26-eaheme.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518543/original/file-20230330-26-eaheme.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518543/original/file-20230330-26-eaheme.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518543/original/file-20230330-26-eaheme.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518543/original/file-20230330-26-eaheme.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518543/original/file-20230330-26-eaheme.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518543/original/file-20230330-26-eaheme.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A painting of Saint John the Evangelist holding a palm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cristobal Llorens/Museu de Belles Arts de Valencia via Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The palm also came to be a wider symbol. Early saints <a href="https://aleteia.org/2020/10/16/how-to-recognize-the-symbols-of-martyrdom-in-art/">who had died as martyrs</a> – that is, who died rather than renounce their Christian faith – came to be pictured standing by a palm tree. More commonly, they were shown <a href="https://www.christianiconography.info/palmCrown.html">holding a palm branch</a>, signifying their victory over death: Having given up their earthly lives to follow Christ, they were now united with him in Paradise. Martyrs are also frequently depicted with the instruments of their torture, helping worshippers to identify and venerate them.</p>
<p>All of these images are rooted in the narrative of Palm Sunday, with its image of Jesus, the carpenter’s son, riding on an ordinary donkey, yet acclaimed for a moment as though he were a worldly king. A similar paradox is at the heart of Christian teachings: that although Jesus Christ willingly died on a criminal’s cross, doing so was a victory over sin and death.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Donkeys and palm leaves are both associated with Christianity’s Palm Sunday – but their symbolism couldn’t be more different.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1579282021-03-31T12:16:17Z2021-03-31T12:16:17ZWhy parts of Good Friday worship have been controversial<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392369/original/file-20210329-17-a9elte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C5211%2C3338&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People visiting a Christ sculpture at the Santa Maria Magdalena Church during the Holy Week in Granada, Spain.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-visiting-a-christ-sculpture-at-the-santa-maria-news-photo/1232006648?adppopup=true">Álex Cámara/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Churches around the world will be holding services for their three most important days during this Holy Week: Holy Thursday, sometimes called Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. </p>
<p>Easter <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p122a5p2.htm">commemorates Christ’s resurrection from the dead</a>, the fundamental belief of Christianity. It is the earliest and most central of all Christian holidays, more ancient than Christmas. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-84">scholar in medieval Christian liturgy</a>, I know that historically <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-good-friday-was-dangerous-for-jews-in-the-middle-ages-and-how-that-changed-114896">the most controversial</a> of these three holy days has been the worship service for Good Friday, which focuses on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.</p>
<p>Two parts of the contemporary Good Friday worship service could be misunderstood as implicitly anti-Semitic or racist. Both are derived from the medieval Good Friday liturgy that Catholics and some other Christian churches continue to use in a modified form today.</p>
<p>These are the <a href="https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/GoodFriday-Intercessions.html">solemn orations</a> and the veneration of the cross.</p>
<h2>Prayer and anti-Semitism</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/GoodFriday-Intercessions.html">solemn orations</a> are formal prayers offered by the assembled local community for the wider church, for example, for the pope. These orations also include other prayers for members of different religions, and for other needs of the world. </p>
<p>One of these prayers is offered “for the Jewish people.” </p>
<p>For centuries, this prayer was worded in a way <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-good-friday-was-dangerous-for-jews-in-the-middle-ages-and-how-that-changed-114896">to imply an anti-Semitic meaning</a>, referring to the Jews as “perfidis,” meaning “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ReCp978iiA8C&printsec=frontcover&hl=en#v=onepage&q=perfidus&f=false">treacherous” or “unfaithful</a>.” </p>
<p>However, the Catholic Church made important changes in the 20th century. In 1959, Pope John XXIII dropped the word “perfidis” entirely from the Latin prayer in the all-Latin Roman missal. This missal, an official liturgical book containing the readings and prayers for the celebration of Mass and Holy Week, is used by Catholics all over the world. However, when the next edition of the Latin Roman missal was published in 1962, the text of the prayer still mentioned the “<a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/texts/cjrelations/topics/1962_missal.htm">conversion” of the Jews and referred to their “blindness</a>.”</p>
<p>The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, a major meeting of all Catholic bishops worldwide held between 1962 and 1965, mandated the reform of Catholic life and practice in a number of ways. Open discussion with members of other Christian denominations, as well as other non-Christian religions, <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/texts/cjrelations/resources/documents/catholic/Nostra_Aetate.htm">was encouraged</a>, and a <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/texts/center/conferences/Bea_Centre_C-J_Relations_04-05/Mejia.htm">Vatican commission</a> on Catholic interaction with Jews was established in the early 1970s. </p>
<p>Vatican II also called for a renewal of Catholic worship. The revised liturgy was to be celebrated not just in Latin, but also in local vernacular languages, including English. The first English Roman missal <a href="https://www.archbalt.org/a-brief-history-of-the-development-of-the-roman-missal-from-vatican-ii-to-the-today/">was published in 1974</a>. Today, these post-Vatican religious rituals are known as the “<a href="https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/extraordinary-form">ordinary form</a>” of the Roman rite.</p>
<p>The completely reworded prayer text reflected the renewed understanding of the relationship between Catholics and Jews mandated by Vatican II and supported by decades of interreligious dialogue. For example, in 2015 the Vatican commission <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=11101">released a document</a> clarifying the relationship between Catholicism and Judaism as one of “rich complementarity,” putting an end to organized efforts to convert Jews and strongly condemning anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>However, another important development took place in 2007. More than 40 years after Vatican II, Pope Benedict XVI allowed a <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/motu_proprio/documents/hf_ben-xvi_motu-proprio_20070707_summorum-pontificum.html">wider use of the pre-Vatican II missal of 1962</a>, known as the “<a href="https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/extraordinary-form">extraordinary form</a>.” </p>
<p>At first, this pre-Vatican II missal retained the potentially offensive wording of the prayer for the Jews. </p>
<p>The prayer was <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/2008/documents/rc_seg-st_20080204_nota-missale-romanum_en.html">quickly reworded</a>, but it <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope_benedict_xvi_issues_new_good_friday_prayer_for_the_jews">does still ask</a> that their hearts be “illuminated” to “recognize Jesus Christ.”</p>
<p>Although the extraordinary form is used only by small groups of traditionalist Catholics, <a href="https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2016/01/18/controversy-over-good-friday-prayer-flares-up-again/">the text of this prayer continues to trouble many</a>. </p>
<p>In 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwiz, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/01/20/pope-francis-i-will-never-grow-tired-condemning-every-form-anti-semitism">repeated the vehement Catholic rejection of anti-Semitism</a>. While the pope has not revoked the use of the extraordinary form, in 2020 he ordered a review of its use by <a href="https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/12819/pope-orders-review-of-old-rite-">surveying the Catholic bishops</a> of the world.</p>
<h2>The cross and what it symbolizes</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392574/original/file-20210330-13-a9rp75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The ceremony of the veneration of the cross, Cathedral of San Giusto, Italy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392574/original/file-20210330-13-a9rp75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392574/original/file-20210330-13-a9rp75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392574/original/file-20210330-13-a9rp75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392574/original/file-20210330-13-a9rp75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392574/original/file-20210330-13-a9rp75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392574/original/file-20210330-13-a9rp75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392574/original/file-20210330-13-a9rp75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The veneration of the cross is celebrated on Good Friday the Cathedral of San Giusto in Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-veneration-of-the-cross-is-celebrated-on-good-friday-in-news-photo/1209597653?adppopup=true">Jacopo Landi/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There has been similar sensitivity about another part of the Catholic Good Friday tradition: the ritual veneration of the cross.</p>
<p>The earliest evidence of a Good Friday procession by lay people to venerate the cross on Good Friday comes from fourth-century Jerusalem. Catholics would proceed one by one to venerate what was believed to be a piece of the actual wooden cross used to crucify Jesus, and honor it with a reverent touch or kiss. </p>
<p>So sacred was this cross fragment that it was <a href="http://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Emikef/durham/egetra.html">heavily guarded by the clergy</a> during the procession in case someone might try to bite off a sliver to keep for themselves, as was rumored to have happened during a past Good Friday service.</p>
<p>During the medieval period, this veneration rite, elaborated by additional prayers and chant, spread widely across Western Europe. Blessed by priests or bishops, ordinary wooden crosses or crucifixes depicting Christ nailed to the cross took the place of fragments of the “true cross” itself. Catholics venerated the cross on both Good Friday and other feast days.</p>
<p>In this part of the Good Friday liturgy, controversy centers around the physical symbol of the cross and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-history-of-the-cross-and-its-many-meanings-over-the-centuries-123316">layers of meaning it has communicated</a> in the past and today. Ultimately, to Catholics and other Christians, it represents Christ’s unselfish sacrificing of his life to save others, an example <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-the-cross-reminds-us-of-the-sacrifices-of-the-christian-life-82862">to be followed by Christians</a> in different ways during their lives. </p>
<p>Historically, however, the cross has also been held up in Western Christianity as a rallying point for violence against groups that were deemed by the church and secular authorities to threaten the safety of Christians and the security of Christian societies. </p>
<p>From the late 11th through 13th centuries, soldiers would “take the cross” and <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/crusades-complete-history">join crusades against these real and perceived threats</a>, whether these opponents were Western Christian heretics, Jewish communities, Muslim armies, or the Greek orthodox Byzantine Empire. Other religious wars in the 14th through 16th centuries continued in this “crusading” spirit.</p>
<p>From the 19th century on, Americans and other English speakers use the term “crusade” for any effort to promote a specific idea or movement, often one based on a moral ideal. Examples in the United States include the 19th-century antislavery abolitionist movement and the civil rights movement of the 20th century.</p>
<p>But today certain “ideals” have been rejected by the wider culture. </p>
<p>Contemporary alt-right groups use what has been called the “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/charlottesville-videos/">Deus vult” cross</a>. The words “Deus vult” mean “God wills (it),” a rallying cry for medieval Christian armies seeking to take control of the Holy Land from Muslims. These groups today view themselves as modern crusaders <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/correct-latin-for-deus-lo-volt-119454">fighting against Islam</a>.</p>
<p>Some white supremacy groups <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/celtic-cross">use versions of the cross</a><br>
as symbols of protest or provocation. The Celtic cross, a compact cross within a circle, is a common example. And a full-sized wooden cross was carried by at least one protester <a href="https://source.wustl.edu/2021/01/scholars-of-religion-and-politics-respond-to-the-capitol-insurrection/">during the Capitol insurrection in January 2021</a>.</p>
<p>Prayers and symbols have the power to bind people together in a common purpose and identity. But without understanding their context, it is all too easy to manipulate them in support of dated or limited political and social agendas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157928/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prayers and symbols have the power to bind people together, writes a religion scholar, and so it is important to understand the history and context of Good Friday prayers.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156752019-04-18T15:48:16Z2019-04-18T15:48:16ZPassion play: the often fraught history of the theatre and Christianity<p>During Holy Week – the run-up to Easter – theatrical versions of religious narratives abound. Across the world, countless church groups present Easter plays, people join processions and stage tableaux – and since 2010, and come rain or shine, a troupe called the <a href="https://www.wintershall.org.uk/passion-jesus-london">Wintershall Players</a> have enacted the Passion of Christ on Good Friday in London’s Trafalgar Square.</p>
<p>Led by professional actor <a href="https://londonist.com/london/features/londonist-interviews-jesus-well-the-guy-who-plays-him-at-easter">James Burke-Dunsmore</a>, this otherwise amateur company performs in a marked-off area with the audience on all four sides, while the action is relayed in close-up on a nearby screen. The performance is also streamed live via Facebook, and last year attracted extensive commentary, including bemused internet surfers asking: “Where is this?”</p>
<p>Given the pouring rain, Jesus praying in Aramaic, the lions on Nelson’s Column, Pilate on horseback and emergency services sirens wailing in the background, “Where is this?” seemed a very reasonable question to pose.</p>
<p>But just over 100 years ago, the Wintershall Players could not have performed in the UK at all, let alone in Trafalgar Square – because representing the Holy Family dramatically was illegal. At a time when the <a href="https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/home">Oberammergau Passion Play</a> tourist trade was cranking up in Germany, staging a nativity story in a church in Britain was liable to be banned by the theatrical censor, the Lord Chamberlain. </p>
<h2>Looking for God</h2>
<p>Theatre and Christianity have often had a strange and volatile relationship. Christians have picketed theatres, called for the censorship of plays that offended them – and even attempted to ban the art form altogether. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ss6DwclMUmc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Yet it is worth asking whether the influence of Christianity on theatre goes beyond religious plays or religious objections to them. The Passion cycle has at its centre a vulnerable, suffering hero who doubts himself but resolves to persist. And the medieval mystery plays, performed for the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/corpuschristi.shtml">festival of Corpus Christi</a> (literally “the body of Christ”), show a critical development in character complexity that the Elizabethans called “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2870530">personation</a>”.</p>
<p>Did Christianity supply Western theatre with a significant part of its sense of inner life, of subjectivity, of character and tragic depth? This suggestion runs counter to literary critic George Steiner’s argument in <a href="https://headlong.co.uk/ideas/tragedy-now/">The Death of Tragedy (1961)</a> that “tragic forms are Hellenic” and alien to what he called “the Judaic sense of the world”. For Steiner: “the Judaic spirit is vehement in its conviction that the order of the universe and of man’s estate is accessible to reason”. By contrast, the tragic protagonist “is broken by forces which can neither be fully understood nor overcome by rational prudence”. </p>
<p>This distinction is too sharp to fit the diverse legacy of world playwriting. In addition, Christian beliefs of “soul” imbue theatre with a different spiritual aura than that to be found in Greek tragedy, but one that is no less compelling and majestic. In fact, the passion of the Passion cycle has been one of Christianity’s most successful exports, bequeathing to drama an innovative ethical agency.</p>
<p>This agency is the difference between the crypto-Christian protagonist (think Hamlet, Willard White in Breaking Bad, or Paul in Simon Stephens’ Birdlands) and the gods and heroes of ancient Greece and Rome (every Marvel superhero movie you have ever seen). The former get to choose their fate rather than simply discover it. The act of choosing, the “either/or” decision, lies at heart of Christian-influenced drama.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270021/original/file-20190418-28119-uaa2lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270021/original/file-20190418-28119-uaa2lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270021/original/file-20190418-28119-uaa2lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270021/original/file-20190418-28119-uaa2lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270021/original/file-20190418-28119-uaa2lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270021/original/file-20190418-28119-uaa2lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270021/original/file-20190418-28119-uaa2lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=680&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ecce Homo: Paolo Veronese’s picture of Christ being mocked.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The words that Pilate uses to point to Jesus’s suffering – “Ecce Homo” (literally, “behold the man”) – offer an entry point for this idea of dramatic character. The crypto-Christian protagonists suffer, but their suffering is active, intelligent, because they choose it. In short, it is purposeful and redemptive.</p>
<p>In England, religious drama focused around the Passion was suppressed only in the 1570s. The Coventry Mystery plays were last performed in 1579, when Shakespeare was 15 years old. His fellow Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe was also 15 that year, and it seems entirely plausible that the two dramatists who did most to develop the modern sense of stage character – look at the difference between Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus – would have seen and responded to Mystery plays. Ben Jonson, born in 1572, and with a different (and flatter) sense of character psychology, probably did not.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/book-review-the-shape-of-things-past-a-history-of-civilizations-by-fernand-braudel-trs-richard-mayne-1427319.html">History of Civilizations</a>, the French historian Fernand Braudel argues that the disappearance of religious conviction from the secular West in the 19th century marked the success of Christianity – its absorption into more general beliefs and feelings. As a result, it is worth reflecting on how influential the Passion cycle has been, not only in its biblical content, but in its impact on the development of dramatic character.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Schafer is the author of the recently published 'Theatre & Christianity' </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Meyrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Was Jesus Christ the first male lead in the history of modern theatre?Elizabeth Schafer, Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies, Royal Holloway University of LondonJulian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1155212019-04-17T15:20:43Z2019-04-17T15:20:43ZEaster: what the Catholic Church teaches about bread and wine and Christ’s flesh and blood<p>On the Thursday before Easter, more than two billion Christians worldwide observe the Eucharist, a special ritual that commemorates the Last Supper – a meal hosted by Jesus Christ for his friends 2,000 years ago, the night before he was arrested and crucified. During the meal, according to the Gospels, Christ said to his gathered disciples, that – like the bread broken and wine poured out – his body would be broken and his blood poured out for the sake of his people. Jesus invited his followers to enact this meal whenever they gathered to remember his sacrifice. </p>
<p>This early Christian practice assumed importance and has come to symbolise the core message of Christianity – that Christ sacrificed himself for the sake of humanity. </p>
<p>As a theological dogma, the Roman Catholic Church affirms that when the priest consecrates the bread broken and wine shared during the Eucharist ceases to be bread and wine and becomes the real presence of Christ. This is known as “Transubstantiation” within the Roman Catholic Church – affirmed by <a href="https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct13.html">the following statement</a> from the Council of Trent in the 1560s</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By the consecration of the bread and of the wine, a conversion is made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood; which conversion is, by the holy Catholic Church, suitably and properly called Transubstantiation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But over 2,000 years of church history, this doctrine has been at the centre of several schisms. Most of the Protestant churches reject the doctrine of Transubstantiation but retain some understanding of the Eucharist as an occasion where Christ’s presence becomes real and tangible along with the bread and wine – but not actual flesh and blood. Meanwhile, most Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians consider the Eucharist simply as memorial meal or an opportunity to experience spiritual communion with Christ. </p>
<p>The official line of the Roman Catholic Church is that majority of Catholics, subscribe – in principle at least – to the view of Transubstantiation as a core doctrinal teaching. But, most recently, <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey-who-knows-what-about-religion/#Christianity">PEW research findings</a> published in 2010 suggested that about 52% of all respondents thought that bread and wine used for Communion are symbols. This raises doubts as to whether even Catholics really believe in the bread and wine really becoming the body and blood of Jesus – let alone understand the doctrine. Transubstantiation as a philosophical concept has also been under close scrutiny for many centuries.</p>
<p>On the back of these observations let me offer two thoughts. Firstly, due to the significant <a href="https://cara.georgetown.edu/sacramentsreport.pdf%20and%20https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/why-arent-more-millennials-in-the-pews-lets-ask-them/32413">decline in religious adherence</a> among millennials, the grasp and relevance of this central Catholic teaching is becoming seemingly less relevant. Even among those who attend the church either regularly or less frequently, there is lack of clear understanding on the teaching of the church regarding Transubstantiation. </p>
<p>This could be partly to do with the general change in social worldview and the shift towards a greater understanding of science and embrace of technological innovation. Much of the Western world, particularly Europe and America, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/benedict-eucharist">has become far more secular</a> – something that is reflected in falling religious adherence.</p>
<p>But with the shifting of global Christian populations – and the <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/">rise of South America, Asia and Africa as centres of Roman Catholicism</a> – issues about belief and practice are addressed from a deep-rooted pre-Christian religious and cultural perspective. From my ongoing anthropological research in these contexts, it seems clear that the way belief is conceived among Christian communities is not based on discussion around essence and substance (as in philosophical or theological) rather on a more personal encounter with the divine through rituals performed within a community of believers. So, congregations give importance to the communal dimension of the Eucharist as a memorial ritual where one can encounter Christ.</p>
<h2>Ecumenical move</h2>
<p>Pope Francis I – unlike his predecessors – has <a href="https://adoremus.org/2014/04/15/Pope-Francis-on-the-Eucharist/">not directly advocated the doctrine of Transubstantiation</a>. Keeping to his South American theological roots, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/holy-communion-unites-us-to-christ-francis-says-62873">has called</a> for Catholics to consider the Eucharist as an encounter with Christ – an occasion where Christ makes himself available to the community through an act of remembrance. Its an opportunity to <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-let-yourself-be-transformed-by-the-eucharist-61965">be transformed</a> to carry out the work of Christ. The focus here is not on dogma but the action that flows from it. This is very different from the <a href="https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/01/10/in-the-pope-francis-era-the-eucharist-defines-doctrinal-tussles/">hard-core theological dogma</a> of the Roman Catholic Church. </p>
<p>This is very much in line with Pope Francis’s ecumenical and inter-religious initiatives over the past five years. He has <a href="https://adoremus.org/2014/04/15/Pope-Francis-on-the-Eucharist/">consistently spoken</a> about Holy Communion as a “sacrament” – emphasising the communal element rather than the mystery.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Eucharist is the summit of God’s saving action: the Lord Jesus, by becoming bread broken for us, pours upon us all of His mercy and His love, so as to renew our hearts, our lives, and our way of relating with Him and with the brethren.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Through this teaching in the 2014 Encyclical, Pope Francis has departed from the traditional line of who can receive or participate in Eucharist and <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia_en.pdf">called for</a> a more inclusive openness to our understanding and practice of Eucharist (including non-Catholics to be able to take communion), and not to make it into an exclusive practice.</p>
<p>This approach has been popular among Catholics however upsetting the traditionalist Catholics, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/benedict-eucharist">including the previous pope</a>, Benedict.</p>
<p>The debate around Transubstantiation within the Roman Catholic Church will no doubt continue – but by signalling that he is willing to welcome anyone and share the Eucharist with others, Pope Francis may have charted a different path by opening up the Eucharist to non-Catholics and those who have been traditionally excluded. He is clearly moving away from the idea of the Eucharist as a directly “supernatural” experience and more towards a unifying sacrament.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anderson Jeremiah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Francis is gradually moving the Catholic Church away from the traditional idea of bread and wine turning into flash and blood.Anderson Jeremiah, Lecturer in the department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1121202019-03-05T11:39:10Z2019-03-05T11:39:10Z4 things to know about Ash Wednesday<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317178/original/file-20200225-24694-14wwai8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C77%2C3087%2C1932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ash Wednesday ritual at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 6, 2019</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Ash-Wednesday-Minnesota/2e17a928452a40de88f459c4d3def8f4/13/0">P Photo/Jim Mone)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus is a pivotal event commemorated each year during a season of preparation called Lent and a season of celebration called Easter. </p>
<p>The day that begins the Lenten season is called Ash Wednesday. Here are four things to know about it.</p>
<h2>1. Origin of the tradition of using ashes</h2>
<p>On Ash Wednesday, many Christians have ashes put on their forehead – a practice that has been going on for about a thousand years. </p>
<p>In the earliest Christian centuries – from A.D. 200 to 500 – those guilty of serious sins such as murder, adultery or apostasy, a public renunciation of one’s faith, <a href="http://www.liguori.org/doorstothesacred.html">were excluded</a> for a time from the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Rediscovering_the_Eucharist.html?id=vc_1JdfS5lwC">Eucharist</a>, a sacred ceremony celebrating communion with Jesus and with one another. </p>
<p>During that time they did acts of penance, like extra praying and fasting, and lying “<a href="http://www.paulistpress.com/Products/0150-5/28-tertullian.aspx">in sackcloth and ashes</a>,” as an outward action expressing interior sorrow and repentance. </p>
<p>The customary time to welcome them back to the Eucharist was at the end of Lent, during Holy Week.</p>
<p>But Christians believe that all people are sinners, each in his or her own way. So as centuries went on, the church’s public prayer at the beginning of Lent <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/E6279/Advent-to-Pentecost">added a phrase</a>, “Let us change our garments to sackcloth and ashes,” as a way to call the whole community, not just the most serious sinners, to repentance. </p>
<p>Around the 10th century, the practice arose of acting out those words about ashes by actually marking the foreheads of those taking part in the ritual. The practice caught on and spread, and in 1091 <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/1366/The-Church-at-Prayer-Volume-IV">Pope Urban II decreed</a> that “on Ash Wednesday everyone, clergy and laity, men and women, will receive ashes.” It’s been going on ever since. </p>
<h2>2. Words used when applying ashes</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/E6279/Advent-to-Pentecost">12th-century missal</a>, a ritual book with instructions on how to celebrate the Eucharist, indicates the words used when putting ashes on the forehead were: “Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The phrase echoes <a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/niv/genesis/3/">God’s words of reproach</a> after Adam, according to the narrative in the Bible, disobeyed <a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/niv/genesis/2/">God’s command</a> not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.</p>
<p>This phrase was the only one used on Ash Wednesday until the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. At that time <a href="https://store.usccb.org/roman-missal-p/7-192.htm">a second phrase</a> came into use, also biblical but from the New Testament: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” These were <a href="https://www.biblica.com/bible/niv/mark/1/">Jesus’s words</a> at the beginning of his public ministry, that is, when he began teaching and healing among the people.</p>
<p>Each phrase in its own way serves the purpose of calling the faithful to live their Christian lives more deeply. The words from Genesis remind Christians that life is short and death imminent, urging focus on what is essential. The words of Jesus are a direct call to follow him by turning away from sin and doing what he says. </p>
<h2>3. Two traditions for the day before</h2>
<p>Two quite different traditions developed for the day leading up to Ash Wednesday.</p>
<p>One might be called a tradition of indulgence. Christians would eat more than usual, either as a final binge before a season of fasting or to empty the house of foods typically given up during Lent. Those foods were chiefly meat, but depending on culture and custom, also <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/5525/The-New-Dictionary-Of-Catholic-Spirituality">milk and eggs</a> and even sweets and other forms of dessert food. This tradition gave rise to the name “Mardi Gras,” or Fat Tuesday.</p>
<p>The other tradition was more sober: namely, the practice of confessing one’s sins to a priest and receiving a penance appropriate for those sins, a penance that would be carried out during Lent. This tradition gave rise to the name “<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13763a.htm">Shrove Tuesday</a>,” from the verb “to shrive,” meaning to hear a confession and impose a penance. </p>
<p>In either case, on the next day, Ash Wednesday, Christians dive right into Lenten practice by both eating less food overall and avoiding some foods altogether. </p>
<h2>4. Ash Wednesday has inspired poetry</h2>
<p>In 1930s England, when Christianity was losing ground among the intelligentia, T.S. Eliot’s poem “Ash Wednesday” <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Eliot_and_his_age.html?id=O65aAAAAMAAJ">reaffirmed traditional Christian faith</a> and worship. In one section of the poem, Eliot wrote about the enduring power of God’s “silent Word” in the world:</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.
</code></pre>
<p><em>Ellen Garmann, Associate Director of Campus Ministry for Liturgy at University of Dayton, contributed to this piece.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Johnston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The day that begins the Lenten season is called Ash Wednesday. Here’s why it holds deep religious significance for Christians.William Johnston, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/762232017-04-13T16:32:13Z2017-04-13T16:32:13ZUnder the hoods: the brotherhoods (and sisterhoods) of Spain’s Holy Week<p>“Spain is different!”. Napoleon took this view after his defeat by Spanish guerrilla warfare tactics. Generalissimo Franco’s government later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/apr/01/spain-different-no-more">made use of this slogan</a> to promote Spain’s unique appeal to international tourists. The success of this tourism campaign is evident today: in 2016 Spain welcomed <a href="https://www.thelocal.es/20170109/spain-had-a-record-year-for-tourists-in-2016">75m tourists</a>. Once an isolated peninsula on the edge of the European continent, Spain now ranks as the third most visited country in the world. </p>
<p>Foreign visitors spent <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2017/01/12/spain-again-gains-tourism-record-visitor-numbers-up-by-99-percent-in-2016">€77 billion last year</a> enjoying the country’s climate, food and cultural attractions. And one of the big ones is Easter – when Spain highlights a different approach to religious celebrations with colourful and macabre street processions.</p>
<p>The Spanish turn the streets into an improvised stage to dramatise Christ’s death and resurrection during Holy Week. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/mar/25/holy-week-celebrations-around-the-world-in-pictures">Striking pictures</a> of medieval figures in candlelit processions are published daily around the world. These pictures emphasise Spain’s distinctive identity. Parish groups, <em>cofradías</em> (fraternities), spend months on charity work and fundraising to stage the elaborate processions. </p>
<p>The parade of the Christ and the Virgin Mary statues circle through the community to celebrate the celestial glory of these figures that glide majestically above the crowds. On Spanish streets, everyone takes part in the drama – a moving chorus that brings together the musicians, players, bands and strolling audience.</p>
<p>What interests me is the social affiliation of these traditional groups; the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2016-03-24/holy-week-in-spain-semana-santa-in-the-town-of-zamora">bands of brothers</a>. My <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1076780">research into identity</a> reveals the psychological power of belonging to social groups. What is a celebration without the people? Local town halls stop traffic to enjoy each <em>cofradías</em>’s procession. In Seville, 60 parish groups take part in processions and published maps schedule the float departure times and street crossings.</p>
<p>The sumptuous floats with their sculptures of religious figures are followed by penitent sinners in monastic robes and pointed conical hoods that reach upwards for divine grace. <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/celebrate-easter-the-spanish-way-1.72819921">Medieval hoods</a> concealed the face and identity under the hood. In this way, individuals seeking repentance in public could remain anonymous. Across Spain’s diverse regions these processions bring the social community together. In Easter week, even the capital Madrid stops for the communal plays.</p>
<h2>Super teams</h2>
<p>The brotherhoods demonstrate that collaboration, training and disciplined team work achieve remarkable performances. The fraternities display exceptional group cohesion that aligns with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLw4vDveH-s">research analysis</a> of the critical elements of super teams. First, the brotherhoods come together in their dedication to the rituals of Holy Week, <em>Semana Santa</em> – and they share a compelling purpose. Some members have waited 15 years to attain the revered honour of carrying the processional float. </p>
<p>The participants are skillful team members who adjust to each other’s strength, stamina and pace – this takes preparation and rigorous practice to build group cohesion. Members train together persistently for hours carrying concrete blocks to simulate the strain of carrying such heavy weights. Musicians and drummers put in hours of rehearsal to be able to march in step. A team leader directs a strict regimental formation to ensure a dignified progress. The choreography of a procession is a difficult balance for members manoeuvring through the cobbled streets alongside the eager crowds.</p>
<p>Over the centuries, the brotherhoods have had to change. Some groups date from the 14th century yet gradually over the past 30 years have widened participation to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/world/europe/21iht-seville21.html">include women</a> who now represent 40% of the membership. New groups have started up and women, celebrities, and children have joined the ranks.</p>
<h2>Laying ghosts to rest</h2>
<p>These processions demonstrate a profoundly social sense of identity. Passion plays inspire a shared emotional response of applause, sentimental cries, prayers and chants. The processions are rooted in biblical stories, spiritual hopes and imaginary force. Despite the solemnity of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ3pCxHkPuI">religious spectacle</a>, the Spanish enjoy these fantastical rituals with great exuberance. In Jerez de la Frontera, I was amused to watch penitents remove their tall purple hoods to light a cigarette, check their mobile phones, or sip a glass of wine. Meanwhile, children devoured sweet marzipan versions of miniature penitents.</p>
<p>Spain is proud of these <a href="https://spainattractions.es/easter-spain/">cultural traditions</a>. The drama is alive, in motion and passionate, bringing together into a choral spectacle the bands, the penitents and the audience. The street is an improvised contemporary stage that knits together individual participants as a collective social group.</p>
<p>After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain shifted at remarkable speed from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy. This political transition was achieved through an agreement to forget the wrongs on both sides. The writer Giles Tremlett in his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/mar/25/featuresreviews.guardianreview9">book</a> The Ghosts of Spain reflects:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Spain was unique. It had to find its own way. And it did so by smothering the past. Many of those who would lead <em>la Transición</em> had anyway, Francoist pasts. It was better to cover their personal stories, too, with a cloak of silence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, the personal stories of group members are veiled as they cast long shadows processing through the night. To a curious observer, the sight of a white-cloaked spectre is ambivalent – a visual reference to Spain’s dark past. Ghosts of the Spanish Inquisition, ghosts of the Jews expelled from Al Andalus, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/books/21grim.html">ghosts of the Civil War</a>.</p>
<p>But at Easter these troublesome layers of past divisions and contradictions are temporarily hidden – shrouded under the social sharing of celebration. A social affirmation of identity rooted in a deep cultural heritage. The Spanish way to mark Easter is social – through collective participation that bolsters a sense of self. Yes, Spain is a part of the European community – and still proud to be different.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Mackay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The rituals of Semana Santa during Easter Week bring Spain together and allow people to exorcise the country’s ghosts.Margaret Mackay, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.