94 Fun Facts About Holy Week

Which day marks the beginning of Holy Week?

Palm Sunday opens Holy Week: it commemorates Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, told in all four Gospels, with crowds spreading cloaks and branches on the road.

According to the Gospels, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on which animal?

A donkey: Matthew 21 has Jesus ride a donkey's colt into Jerusalem to fulfil Zechariah 9:9, the king coming 'humble and riding on a donkey', an animal of peace rather than a warhorse.

Ashes made by burning last year's Palm Sunday fronds open which liturgical season?

Lent: the previous year's Palm Sunday fronds are burned to make the ashes imposed on Ash Wednesday, the day that opens the forty-day season of Lent.

In Russia, Ukraine and Poland, which plant stands in for palm fronds on Palm Sunday?

Pussy willow: palms do not grow that far north, so willow branches with catkins are blessed instead, and Russians call the day Willow Sunday (Verbnoye voskresenye).

Holy Wednesday is nicknamed "Spy Wednesday" because of whose actions?

Judas Iscariot: 'spy' here carries the old sense of ambush or snare, and tradition places on this day his bargain with the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16).

The Latin word behind "Maundy" in Maundy Thursday means what?

Commandment: Maundy comes from Latin mandatum, as in mandatum novum, 'a new commandment I give to you', Jesus's words at the Last Supper in John 13:34.

Which ceremony do Catholic and Lutheran parishes traditionally perform on Maundy Thursday?

Foot washing: the priest washes parishioners' feet as Jesus washed his disciples', and in 2016 the Roman Missal was revised so that women could be among those chosen.

At the Royal Maundy service, the number of people who receive Maundy money is determined by what?

The white purse holds one penny for each year of the sovereign's age; the red purse holds ordinary money in place of food and clothing.

Which Mass do a bishop and his priests usually celebrate on Maundy Thursday morning?

The Chrism Mass: the bishop consecrates the sacred chrism and blesses the oil of the sick and the oil of catechumens there, supplying his whole diocese for the year.

After the Gloria on Maundy Thursday, what happens to the church bells until the Easter Vigil?

They fall silent: bells are rung during the Gloria of the Mass of the Lord's Supper and then not again until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil; the organ likewise only supports singing meanwhile.

The Maundy Thursday evening Mass opens which liturgical period that ends on Easter Sunday evening?

The Paschal Triduum: Latin for 'three days', it runs to Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday; before 20th-century reforms its great Vigil was, oddly, held on Saturday morning.

What is the staged Passion play performed in Philippine towns during Holy Week called?

Senakulo: the Philippine Passion play, named from Spanish cenáculo (the Upper Room), dramatises Christ's trial, suffering and death on stages and streets during Holy Week.

What is stripped bare in Catholic churches after the Maundy Thursday evening Mass?

The altar: after the Mass of the Lord's Supper the altar is stripped of its cloths, candles and ornaments, and crosses are removed or veiled, leaving the church bare for Good Friday.

What does the 'Kar' in Karfreitag, the German name for Good Friday, mean?

Sorrow: Karfreitag pairs Freitag with Old High German kara, meaning mourning or lament, so the name is literally 'sorrowful Friday'; English instead calls the day Good Friday.

In Germany, Good Friday is a "silent holiday" on which many states ban which activity?

Public dancing: Germany's Tanzverbot shuts dance floors and nightclubs on Good Friday, and some states also restrict film showings and sporting events on the 'silent holiday'.

The Celebration of the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday is ideally held at what time?

3 pm: tradition makes it the ninth hour, when Jesus died; in the Philippines noise is discouraged afterwards and some radio and television stations sign off.

No Mass is said on Good Friday, so the Communion hosts given out that day were consecrated when?

The evening before: hosts consecrated at Thursday's Mass of the Lord's Supper are reserved overnight, which is why the Good Friday rite was long called the Mass of the Presanctified.

What colour vestments does a Catholic priest wear for the Good Friday liturgy?

Red: since the 1970 Roman Missal the priest wears red on Good Friday, the colour of the Passion and of martyrs; before that the Catholic colour was black.

Which Gospel's Passion narrative is sung or read at the Roman Rite Good Friday liturgy?

John: the Roman Rite Good Friday liturgy always reads John's Passion narrative (18:1-19:42), often split among several voices, after a first reading from Isaiah 52-53 on the Suffering Servant.

Which Good Friday chants have Christ ask his people, 'What have I done to you'?

The Reproaches (Latin Improperia): 'My people, what have I done to you?' is sung as the faithful come forward to venerate the unveiled cross on Good Friday.

The Stations of the Cross, prayed especially on Good Friday, consist of how many images?

Fourteen: the number was fixed in 1731 under Pope Clement XII, after earlier sets had ranged from seven to over thirty.

Where in Rome does the pope traditionally lead the Good Friday Way of the Cross?

The Colosseum: in the 18th century Benedict XIV had Stations of the Cross erected inside the arena, which he held sacred to Christian martyrs, and the pope now leads the devotion there by torchlight.

The "Three Hours Devotion" held in some churches on Good Friday is built around sermons on what?

The Seven Last Words: the Tre Ore devotion, said to have been devised by a Jesuit priest in Lima, Peru, gives one meditation to each saying during the three hours Jesus hung on the cross.

Which spiced bun is traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the UK?

Hot cross bun: the spiced, currant-studded bun scored or piped with a cross is eaten on Good Friday, the cross standing for the crucifixion.

In 1592 London restricted spiced buns to Good Friday, Christmas and which other occasion?

Burials: the 1592 decree of London's Clerk of Markets allowed spiced buns only at burials, on Good Friday and at Christmas, with offending batches forfeited to the poor.

Bach's St Matthew Passion was probably first performed on Good Friday 1727 in which city?

Leipzig: Bach probably first gave the St Matthew Passion at the Thomaskirche on Good Friday 1727, and it went largely unheard outside the city until Mendelssohn revived it in Berlin in 1829.

Which Bavarian village performs a Passion Play once a decade, fulfilling a 1633 plague vow?

Oberammergau: the play born of a plague vow was itself halted by a pandemic, when Covid pushed its 2020 season back to 2022.

What are the lifelike Passion sculptures carried through Seville during Semana Santa called?

Pasos: Seville's brotherhoods carry these sculpted Passion scenes on the shoulders of costaleros hidden beneath the float; Málaga calls its far larger versions tronos.

The tall pointed hood that hides the face of a Spanish Holy Week penitent is called what?

Capirote: the cone-shaped hood hides the penitent's face so that the act of penance stays anonymous; the hooded marchers are called nazarenos.

In Guatemala and Honduras, Holy Week streets are covered with intricate coloured carpets known as what?

Alfombras: Spanish for carpets, they are laid from dyed sawdust, flowers and pine needles along the procession routes of Antigua Guatemala and Comayagua, and the processions walk straight over them.

What is the Philippine Holy Week marathon chanting of an epic poem on Christ's life and death called?

The Pabasa: Tagalog for 'the reading', it is the unbroken chanting of the Pasyon, an epic verse life of Christ, usually kept up day and night for about three days.

Which Philippine town is famous for Good Friday devotees who are nailed to crosses?

San Fernando, in Pampanga: its San Pedro Cutud rites, in which devotees are nailed to wooden crosses on Good Friday, have drawn crowds since the early 1960s despite Church disapproval.

Holy Saturday commemorates Christ's body resting in the tomb and, in tradition, his descent to where?

Hell: the Apostles' Creed says Christ 'descended into hell', and the Harrowing of Hell tradition holds that he freed the righteous dead, Adam and Eve among them, before rising.

In the Philippines, Holy Saturday is officially named after which colour?

Black Saturday: the Philippine name for Holy Saturday, the colour marking mourning for Christ in the tomb until the Easter Vigil that night.

The Easter Vigil begins after sundown with the kindling of what?

A new fire: the Vigil opens outside the dark church with the blessing of a newly kindled fire, from which the Paschal candle is lit and carried in to the chant 'The Light of Christ'.

The Easter Proclamation chanted by the deacon at the Vigil is known by what Latin name?

Exsultet: named from its first word, 'Rejoice', the long chant is sung beside the newly lit Paschal candle and even praises the bees whose wax made it.

The grains of incense pressed into the Paschal candle stand for what?

Christ's wounds: five grains, often capped with wax 'nails', are set in a cross on the candle at the Easter Vigil, one for each of the Five Holy Wounds.

Which Old Testament reading must never be omitted from the Easter Vigil?

The crossing of the Red Sea: the Missal says Exodus 14, with its canticle from Exodus 15, must never be omitted, even when the other Old Testament readings are cut for pastoral reasons.

Which Eastern Orthodox feast falls on the Saturday before Palm Sunday?

Lazarus Saturday: it celebrates Christ raising Lazarus of Bethany (John 11), and the Lenten fast lightens so that fish roe may be eaten, with fish itself allowed on Palm Sunday.

Which 'Matins of the ...' do Orthodox churches serve on Holy Thursday evening?

Twelve Gospels: the Holy Thursday evening matins, anticipated from Great Friday, chants twelve Passion readings from the Last Supper to the burial, and a large crucifix is carried into the nave partway through.

Which embroidered cloth icon do Orthodox faithful venerate on Great Friday?

The Epitaphios: the cloth icon of the dead Christ is laid in a flower-decked bier, the kouvouklion, at Great Friday vespers and carried round the church that evening as the Trisagion is sung.

The Great Saturday fire ceremony led by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem takes place at which site?

The Holy Sepulchre: the Holy Fire is said to appear inside the Edicule, the tomb shrine, and the patriarch passes it to the crowd; the flame is then flown to Athens, Moscow and elsewhere.

Which Byzantine abbess wrote the hymn of the sinful woman sung at the Holy Tuesday evening Bridegroom service?

Kassiani: the 9th-century abbess is the only woman whose music is known in the Byzantine liturgy; chroniclers say Emperor Theophilos passed her over as a bride after a sharp reply.

Which early text describes, day by day, how Jerusalem's church kept Holy Week?

The Pilgrimage of Egeria: the Latin travel diary of a western pilgrim in Jerusalem in the 380s lay forgotten until its incomplete manuscript turned up in a library in Arezzo in 1884.

Which word of praise, unsung in Catholic worship for the six weeks before, returns at the Easter Vigil?

Alleluia: dropped since before the fast began, it returns with special solemnity after the Vigil's Epistle, just before the Gospel of the Resurrection.

According to the Gospels, what sound followed Peter's third denial of Jesus?

A rooster crowing: all four Gospels have the cock crow after Peter's third denial, as Jesus had foretold, and Mark's version (14:72) has it crow twice.

Golgotha and its Latin equivalent Calvary both mean 'place of the' what?

Skull: Aramaic Golgotha and Latin Calvaria both mean skull, and Matthew 27:33 glosses the site as 'a place called Golgotha, that is, the place of the skull'.

Which composer reportedly wrote out Allegri's Miserere from memory one Holy Week?

Mozart: visiting Rome with his father in April 1770, the 14-year-old is said to have written out the Miserere after hearing it in the Sistine Chapel; that July Clement XIV made him a Knight of the Golden Spur.

Leonardo's Last Supper covers a wall in the refectory of a convent in which city?

Milan: Leonardo painted the Last Supper around 1495-1498 on the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in tempera on dry plaster rather than true fresco, which is why it deteriorated within decades.

Which Passion relic did the Paris Fire Brigade rescue from the 2019 Notre-Dame fire?

The Crown of Thorns: members of the Paris Fire Brigade carried it out on 15 April 2019, and it returned to the restored cathedral in December 2024 in a new reliquary.

On Good Friday, Bermudians traditionally fill the sky with what?

Kites: Bermudians of all ages fly traditional hexagonal kites of sticks and coloured tissue paper on Good Friday, a custom said to symbolise Christ's rising.

The Good Friday Agreement that ended most of the Troubles in 1998 was signed in which city?

Belfast: agreed there on Good Friday, 10 April 1998, the deal is also called the Belfast Agreement and was approved in referendums north and south of the border that May.

Good Friday is not a US federal holiday, yet which institutions choose to close anyway?

The stock markets: the exchanges shut by choice while federal offices stay open, so the March 2023 jobs report came out on Good Friday with no stock trading until Monday.

In Matthew, Pilate's wife urges him to have nothing to do with Jesus because of what?

A dream: in Matthew 27:19 she sends word, 'I have suffered much today in a dream because of him'; tradition names her Procula, and the Orthodox Church venerates her as a saint.

Which hymn by Thomas Aquinas accompanies the Maundy Thursday procession to the altar of repose?

Pange Lingua: Thomas Aquinas's eucharistic hymn, written for Corpus Christi, is the chant the Missal prescribes for the Holy Thursday procession, its last two stanzas being the Tantum Ergo.

The Good Friday earthquake of 27 March 1964 struck which US state?

Alaska: the magnitude 9.2 shock, the strongest ever recorded in North America, struck Prince William Sound on Good Friday 1964, shaking for about four and a half minutes and spawning deadly tsunamis.

Until 2018, pubs in which country shut on Good Friday because selling alcohol was illegal?

Ireland: the Intoxicating Liquor (Amendment) Act 2018 ended a ban dating from 1927, so Good Friday 2018 was the first on which Irish pubs legally opened; Good Friday is not a public holiday there.

The name Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested, comes from Aramaic words meaning what?

Oil press: Gethsemane is Aramaic gat shemanim, 'oil press', fitting a grove on the Mount of Olives; Matthew and Mark call it simply a 'place', and only John mentions a garden.

Australia's Good Friday Appeal raises money for a children's hospital in which city?

Melbourne: the Good Friday Appeal, begun in 1931 by Herald newspaper staff, raises money for the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, with a telethon and tin-rattling across Victoria each Good Friday.

At 11 am on Holy Saturday, Corfiotes hurl what from their balconies onto the street?

Clay pots of water: at 11 am, as bells ring for the 'First Resurrection', Corfiotes hurl water-filled botides from windows hung with red cloth, and bystanders take shards home for luck.

Pilgrims may ascend the Scala Sancta, said to be Pilate's staircase, only how?

On their knees: the 28 marble steps, which tradition says St Helena brought to Rome, may be climbed only kneeling; they have been cased in wood since the early 1700s and were uncovered briefly in 2019.

In which city is the Holy Lance of the Holy Roman Empire's Imperial Regalia displayed?

Vienna: the Holy Lance, a Carolingian winged lance head with a gold cuff, sits with the crown and orb of the Holy Roman Empire in the Hofburg's Imperial Treasury; rival lances are kept in Rome and at Vagharshapat.

Fanesca, a soup of twelve grains and salt cod, is eaten on Good Friday in which country?

Ecuador: fanesca is the Ecuadorian Holy Week soup of twelve grains and beans, said to stand for the apostles, with salt cod for Jesus, on a base of figleaf gourd (sambo) and pumpkin.

For centuries, who has kept the keys to Jerusalem's Church of the Resurrection?

Muslim families: the Joudeh family keeps the key and the Nuseibeh family unlocks the door each day, an arrangement traditionally traced to Saladin that keeps the church's rival Christian communities on neutral ground.

Easter falls on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon on or after which fixed date?

21 March: the Church fixes the equinox at 21 March by table rather than observation, so Easter is the Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon on or after that date.

Maundy money, handed out by the British monarch, is struck in which set of denominations?

1p, 2p, 3p and 4p: Maundy money is struck in sterling silver in those four denominations, and the coins remain legal tender although recipients rarely spend them.

'My God, why have you forsaken me?', the cry from the cross in Mark, quotes which text?

Psalm 22: the cry 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani' (Mark 15:34) quotes the psalm's opening line, and bystanders mishear it as a call to Elijah.

Wagner claimed to have conceived which opera on Good Friday morning 1857 in Zürich?

Parsifal: in Mein Leben Wagner dated the opera's conception to Good Friday 1857 at the Wesendoncks' Asyl in Zürich, though he later told Cosima it had not really been Good Friday at all.

Akeldama, the Jerusalem plot bought with the betrayal money, is Aramaic for what?

Field of Blood: Matthew 27:7-8 says the priests bought the potter's field with Judas's returned silver as a burial ground for foreigners, and it took its name from that blood money.

Swedish children go door to door around Easter dressed as which folklore figures?

Witches: folklore sent them flying to Blåkulla on Maundy Thursday, so children in headscarves and painted cheeks, the påskkärringar, now swap drawings for sweets.

Which country made Good Friday a holiday in 2012 at the personal request of Benedict XVI?

Cuba: after Benedict XVI's March 2012 visit Raúl Castro declared Good Friday a holiday, first for that year and then permanently, as Fidel Castro had restored Christmas Day after John Paul II's 1998 visit.

Malchus, whose ear Peter cut off during the arrest, was the servant of which high priest?

Caiaphas: John 18:10 calls Malchus the high priest's servant and John 18:13 identifies that year's high priest as Caiaphas; only John names both Malchus and Peter, and Luke alone records the ear's healing.

Besides Matthew's hanging, which book says the betrayer 'fell headlong' and burst open?

Acts: Acts 1:18 says Judas bought a field with the money and, 'falling headlong, burst open in the middle'; the passage precedes the choice of Matthias as replacement apostle.

Caravaggio's lost Taking of Christ was recognised in 1990 in a Jesuit house in which city?

Dublin: the painting, given to the Jesuits of Leeson Street in the 1930s and labelled a Honthorst copy, was identified by the restorer Sergio Benedetti in 1990 and is on loan to the National Gallery of Ireland.

The masked Moriones of Marinduque spend Holy Week hunting which one-eyed centurion?

Longinus: the Moriones, masked as Roman soldiers in morion-style helmets, re-enact the hunt for the centurion Longinus, whose blind eye was healed by Christ's blood and who was beheaded for proclaiming the Resurrection.

Mexico City's vast Iztapalapa Passion Play traces its origin to what 19th-century event?

A cholera epidemic: by local tradition, residents promised a yearly Passion in thanks when the outbreak ended, and the cast still comes only from Iztapalapa's eight original barrios.

German police brace for an informal 'Carfreitag' each Good Friday because of what?

Illegal street racing: tuning enthusiasts turn Good Friday into 'Car-Freitag' with mass meet-ups and races, so police mount checkpoints; convicted racers can lose their licences and have their cars confiscated.

The Titulus Crucis, claimed to be the INRI panel from the cross, is kept in which city?

Rome: the Titulus Crucis is kept in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme; its Greek and Latin lines run right to left, and a 2002 radiocarbon test dated the walnut board to 980-1146.

Roughly how much myrrh and aloes is Nicodemus said to have brought for Jesus's burial?

100 pounds: John 19:39 says Nicodemus brought 'a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' (Roman litrae, roughly 33 kg), a quantity befitting a royal burial.

Greek Orthodox parishes usually hold Holy Unction on which evening of Holy Week?

Wednesday: the sacrament of Holy Unction (Euchelaion) is celebrated on Holy Wednesday evening in Greek parishes, recalling the anointing at Bethany and preparing the faithful for Communion on Holy Thursday.

Coptic Christians read which biblical book in full on the night after Good Friday?

Revelation: on 'Apocalypse Night' (Abu Ghalamsis), the vigil of Bright Saturday, Coptic churches read the whole Book of Revelation, pointing from Christ's burial ahead to his Second Coming.

Which Spanish city's canon commissioned Haydn's 1786 orchestral music for a Good Friday service?

Cádiz: Haydn wrote it for a Good Friday service in a darkened church, where the bishop preached, then knelt in prayer while each slow movement played.

The traditional Via Dolorosa begins about 200 metres inside which Old City entrance?

Lions' Gate: the traditional route starts at the Umariya school, on the site of the Antonia Fortress about 200 m inside the Lions' (St Stephen's) Gate, and winds west through the Muslim Quarter.

The sixth Station of the Cross shows which woman wiping the face of Jesus?

Veronica: her story appears in no canonical Gospel, yet legend says the cloth kept the image of Jesus's face, the relic known as the Veil of Veronica.

The Coptic Orthodox Church calls the fifth day of Holy Week by what name?

Covenant Thursday: the Coptic Church names Maundy Thursday for the new covenant Christ instituted at the Last Supper; Russians call the same day Clean Thursday and the Byzantine Rite Great and Holy Thursday.

Which US state's Good Friday holiday survived a 1999 federal appeals court challenge?

Indiana: in Bridenbaugh v. O'Bannon (1999) the Seventh Circuit upheld the state's Good Friday holiday, ruling that a state may give workers a religious holiday off if it also has a valid secular purpose.

A late venue switch put the 1724 premiere of Bach's St John Passion in which church?

St Nicholas: Bach had planned the premiere for St Thomas's, but the council moved it at the last minute, so he asked for more room in the choir loft and a repair to the harpsichord.

The pensioners who receive Maundy money from the monarch are now chosen for what?

Service to church and community: Elizabeth II decided the money should not go only to Londoners, so the service now visits a different cathedral most years to thank local pensioners.

Mark names Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross, as the father of which two men?

Alexander and Rufus: Mark 15:21 calls Simon 'the father of Alexander and Rufus', a detail suggesting Mark's readers knew the sons; Paul greets a Rufus in Romans 16:13.

Which object has stood on the same ledge of a Jerusalem church since the 1700s?

A ladder: the 'Immovable Ladder' appears in an engraving of 1728, and under the Status Quo the six denominations sharing the church must all agree before anything is moved.

Which Sicilian city carries twenty sculpted Passion groups in its Good Friday Misteri procession?

Trapani: each group was entrusted by deed to a trade guild, which promised to carry it every Good Friday, and the procession still lasts into Holy Saturday.

Which name does tradition give the penitent thief crucified beside Jesus, honoured in the Roman Martyrology on 25 March?

Dismas: the Gospels leave him nameless, and he is kept on 25 March because an old tradition held that Christ died on the anniversary of his conception.

According to the Gospels, which prisoner did the crowd ask Pilate to release instead of Jesus?

Barabbas: all four Gospels name him, and three tell of a Passover custom of freeing one prisoner; some manuscripts of Matthew even give his full name as Jesus Barabbas.

Grünewald's Isenheim Crucifixion was painted for monks who treated which disease, known as St Anthony's fire?

Ergotism: the Antonine monks of Isenheim nursed victims of ergot poisoning from tainted rye, and Grünewald gave Christ a body covered in sores like theirs; the painting is now in Colmar.