Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday (also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great and Holy Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, among other names) is the Christian holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter. It commemorates the Washing of the Feet (Maundy) and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, as described in the canonical gospels.[1]

It is the fifth day of Holy Week, preceded by Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday) and followed by Good Friday.[2] "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, or commandment, reflecting Jesus' words "I give you a new commandment."[3] The day comes always between March 19 and April 22, inclusive, and will vary according to whether the Gregorian calendar or the Julian calendar is used. Eastern churches generally use the Julian system.

Maundy Thursday initiates the Easter Triduum, the period which commemorates the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus; this period includes Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and ends on the evening of Easter.[1][4] The Mass of the Lord's Supper or service of worship is normally celebrated in the evening, when Friday begins according to Jewish tradition, as the Last Supper was held on the feast of Passover, according to the three Synoptic Gospels

Use of the names "Maundy Thursday", "Holy Thursday", and others is not evenly distributed. The generally accepted name for the day varies according to geographical area and religious affiliation. Thus, although in England "Maundy Thursday" is the normal term, the term is less commonly used in Ireland, Scotland or Canada. People may use one term in a religious context and another in the context of the civil calendar of the country in which they live.

The Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, which is the mother Church of the Anglican Communion, uses the name "Maundy Thursday" for this observance.[6] The corresponding publication of the US Episcopal Church, which is another province of the Anglican Communion, also refers to the Thursday before Easter as "Maundy Thursday".[7] Throughout the Anglican Communion, the term "Holy Thursday" is a synonym for Ascension Day.[6][8][9]

As of 2017, the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church uses the name "Holy Thursday" in its official English-language liturgical books.[10] The personal ordinariates in the Catholic Church, which have an Anglican patrimony, retain the traditional English term "Maundy Thursday", however.[11] An article in the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia used the term "Maundy Thursday",[12] and some Catholic writers use the same term either primarily,[13] or alternatively.[14] The Latin books use the name Feria quinta in Cœna Domini ("Thursday of the Supper of the Lord").

The Methodist Book of Worship for Church and Home (1965) uses the term "Maundy Thursday";[15] the Book of Worship (1992) uses the term "Holy Thursday",[16] and other official sources of the United Methodist Church use both "Maundy Thursday"[17][18] and "Holy Thursday".[19][20]

Both names are used by other Christian denominations as well, including the Lutheran Church[21][22][23] or portions of the Reformed Church.[24][25][26] The Presbyterian Church uses the term "Maundy Thursday" to refer to the holy day in its official sources.[26][27]

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the name for the holy day is, in the Byzantine Rite, "Great and Holy Thursday"[28] or "Holy Thursday",[29][30] and in Western Rite Orthodoxy "Maundy Thursday",[31][32] "Holy Thursday"[33] or both.[34] The Coptic Orthodox Church uses the term "Covenant Thursday" or "Thursday of the Covenant".[35][36][37][38][39]

In the Maronite Church[40] and the Syriac Orthodox Church,[41] the name is "Thursday of Mysteries".

"Maundy Thursday" is the official name of the day in the civil legislation of England[42] and the Philippines.[43]

The day has also been known in English as Shere Thursday (also spelled Sheer Thursday), from the word shere (meaning "clean" or "bright").[44] This name might refer to the act of cleaning, or to the fact that churches would switch liturgical colors from the dark tones of Lent, or because it was customary to shear the beard on that day,[45] or for a combination of reasons.[46] This name has cognates throughout Scandinavia, such as Danish Skærtorsdag, Swedish Skärtorsdag, Norwegian Skjærtorsdag, Faroese Skírhósdagur and Skírisdagur, and Icelandic Skírdagur.

Derivation of the name "Maundy

Maundy is the name of the Christian rite of footwashing,[47] which traditionally occurs during Maundy Thursday church services.[47] Most scholars

 agree that the English word maundy in that name for the day is derived through Middle English and Old French mandé, from the Latin mandatum (also the origin of the English word "mandate"), the first word of the phrase "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ("A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.") This statement by Jesus in the Gospel of John 13:34 by which Jesus explained to the Apostles the significance of his action of washing their feet. The phrase is used as the antiphon sung in the Roman Rite during the Maundy (Ecclesiastical Latin: "Mandatum") ceremony of the washing of the feet, which may be held during Mass or as a separate event, during which a priest or bishop (representing Christ) ceremonially washes the feet of others, typically 12 persons chosen as a cross-section of the community. In 2016, it was announced that the Roman Missal had been revised to allow women to participate as part of the 12 in the Mandatum; previously, only males partook of the rite.[48]

Others theorize that the English name "Maundy Thursday" arose from "maundsor baskets" or "maundy purses" of alms which the king of England distributed to certain poor at Whitehall before attending Mass on that day. Thus, "maund" is connected to the Latin mendicare, and French mendier, to beg.[49][50] A source from the Shepherd of the Springs, Lutheran Church likewise states that, if the name was derived from the Latin mandatum, we would call the day Mandy Thursday, or Mandate Thursday, or even Mandatum Thursday; and that the term "Maundy" comes in fact from the Latin mendicare, Old French mendier, and English maund, which as a verb means to beg and as a noun refers to a small basket held out by maunders as they maunded.[51] Other sources reject this etymology