On Easter Sunday, in Tudor times, the candles in the church and around the sepulchre were extinguished, and then the church lights were re-lit by the priest, from a fire. The sepulchre was opened, and Christ’s resurrection was celebrated with a special mass.
The Easter Sunday mass marked the end of Lent, a period where people’s diets were restricted, so it was only natural to celebrate it with good food. Dairy products and meat were back on the menu, and people enjoyed roasted meats like chicken, lamb and veal.
On Good Friday, I went to “La Semana Santa Viviente de Cuevas del Campo” (the living Holy Week of Cuevas de Camp), a village just over an hour away from me. Every year, on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, the villagers re-enact the Easter story, from Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the resurrection. Tim and I took our children and some friends to see it, and we’re so glad we did. It was incredibly moving and brought the Easter story to life. It ended with Jesus appearing on the hill by the empty cross and releasing a white dove. Christ is risen! Hallelujah! Happy Easter to you all!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
How good it is to find a website where we are actually allowed to talk about it!
Our church looked stunning this morning with all the white and yellow flowers, the priest in gold vestments and the altar likewise decked in gold. We still do light the new Paschal candle, with the nails driven into it symbolising the Five Wounds Of Christ, from the Easter fire. We did that last night in fact. Then from the Paschal candle all the sanctuary lamps and altar candles are relit. Today at High Mass the priest censed the Easter Garden made by the children and sprinkled it with holy water. The garden has an empty cave in it. He is not there, for He is risen, as He said he would!
Happy Easter, Jane, and thank you. I am a practising Christian and I also like the fact that Easter was important to Anne Boleyn, not only because she was living in a country where the religious calendar shaped people’s lives but also because she had a true faith.
I love hearing about different traditions around the world, so interesting.
Happy Easter, Claire! The Spanish people really know how to celebrate the Holy Week ceremonies. Here in Ireland we are more subdued, but the three days do have symbolic services, from the washing of the feet on Holy Thurday, the reading of the Passion and the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, to the the culmination on Easter Saturday night, when the Paschal Fire is lit and blessed outside the church. The Paschal Candle is lit from this fire and then the candles of the congregation. The baptismal water is blessed during Mass, and usually a baby is baptised.
Yes, I forgot to mention that we had Maundy Thursday service with washing of the feet and stripping the altar, and then on Good Friday, Stations Of The Cross in the morning and Good Friday Liturgy of the Last Hour, with Veneration of the fragment of the True Cross included, in the afternoon. In fact it seems that in England, the ceremonies have not changed all that much since the Tudor period. I am Catholic, but many Anglican churches of the more Anglo-Catholic persuasion carry out exactly the same ceremonies.
Easter Sunday was beautifully & movingly celebrated in Istanbul at the Crimean Memorial Church, amongst others, this morning. Istanbul has a mixture of faiths & I was priviledged to be able to set foot in an Armenian Church (Orthodox) on Good Friday. Work committments meant that I could not attend any Good Friday services but the caretaker allowed myself & a friend to sit & pray for as long as we needed after work. The icons on the walls & screen were like Stations of the Cross so we were able to walk our own journey. As we struggled with our rusty Greek to make sense of some of the images, it reminded me of the Reformation struggle to have the Bible translated into the vernacular for ordinary folk to understand and the importance of Anne`s contribution.
That must be Lorca, surely? I was there in Easter week once (but not on Good Friday) and the processions are quite amazing.
The Good Friday re-enactment must have been incredibly moving.
No, not Lorca, although that one is meant to be very good. This one is in Cuevas del Campo, a little village in Granada province. It was amazing.
“He is risen / He is risen indeed!” Blessings to you and yours on this day we celebrate the triumph of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! Thank you for your faithfulness as you pursue your chosen path of expertise, revealing new tidbits about the amazing person of Anne Boleyn. You are a great scholar, and I count myself very fortunate to have come across your work. Your friend in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Jeanne
I live in the most easterly town in England and as a consequence we greet the rising sun every day before anyone else in the country. On Easter Sunday the Christians of our town meet on the sea wall just before sunrise for an Easter morning celebration which is timed so that as the service comes to an end it coincides with the rising of the sun.
Of course we worship The Son not the sun, but the symbolism of the resurrection with the rising of the sun is very special.
This year we stood in a gale of wind sea spay and heavy rain, but sure enough in the final verse of the final hymn Thine be the Glory the sun broke through over the horizon..
Hello and a very Happy Easter to you all. (A bit late as my original post on Sunday vanished into cyberspace; fault on my end, sorry for delay)
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Allelulia! Allelulia!
We in our local church have the first Sunday Mass on Saturday evening and lite the fire and then the candles and then the pascal candle. The service is either at 6.30 or at midnight depending on the time of year. Normally it is a late Mass. It is lovely to see your pictures, Claire and to see the old Catholic traditions in your towns in Spain are alive and well. I would love to see a live one: I have seen one but many years ago now on Good Friday.
We have what is called a Walk of Witness on Good Friday. This is we invite everyone: whoever you are to come along and people from all the local communities and churches all gather at the library and walk from there, along the main road to the local parish church and we sing and pray and then we have tea and cake. We have at the library a garden, the Calvary and the tomb empty and many yellow flowers. The vestments were purple and on today they are golden; the colour of the Resurrection. I love the flowers; yellow and some white and some red as well. On the Whit Sunday in siz weeks time we have a walk from one Cathedral to the other. As you may know here in Liverpool we have two great Cathedrals: the Anglican One and the Catholic Metropolitan One of Christ the King. They are either end of a very long road called Hope Street in the centre of the town on the hill by the university. We have a service in one then walk to the other one for a service: banners and lots of music from all the churches in the city. It is called the Walk of Hope or Walk of Peace. Both are well attended.
We also have a sunrise service on Sunday morning which if the weather is nice on Easter Sunday and it was this year is beautiful. As I am not able to cope with many services due to ill health I watch the morning service and go to a short Eucharist later in the week. It was lovely to see the beautiful service from Leicester Cathedral as I was there last year. I also love the message of the Holy Father to the world, for peace, mercy and prayers for the suffering in the world. It is easy to celebrate Easter, but we must recall it is also about suffering for our salvation and recall those not able to be free to share in this joyful time due to illness, poverty, being restrained or who suffer persecution or the tragedy of war and loss. May the passion of Jesus bless them and enrich them in His mercy and love.
Again, Happy Easter and peace to you at this holy time. Amen.
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