title: Panic of 1873

text: From 1873 to 1896, a period sometimes referred to as the Long Depression, most European countries experienced a drastic fall in prices. Still, many corporations were able to reduce production costs and achieve better productivity rates with industrial production increasing by 40% in Britain and by over 100% in Germany. A comparison of capital formation rates in both countries helps to account for the different industrial growth rates. During the depression, the British ratio of net national capital formation to net national product fell from 11.5% to 6.0%, but the German ratio rose from 10.6% to 15.9%. During the depression, Britain took the course of static supply adjustment, but Germany stimulated effective demand and expanded industrial supply capacity by increasing and adjusting capital formation. For example, Germany dramatically increased investment of social overhead capital, such as in the management of electric power transmission lines, roads, and railroads, thereby stimulating industrial demand in that country, but similar investment stagnated or decreased in Britain. The resulting difference in capital formation accounts for the divergent levels of industrial production in the two countries and the different growth rates during and after the depression.


title: Panic of 1873

text: The discovery of large quantities of silver in the United States and several European colonies caused the panic of 1873 and thus a decline in the value of silver relative to gold, devaluing India's standard currency. This event was known as "the fall of the rupee".


title: Panic of 1873

text: In the Cape Colony, the panic caused bankruptcies, rising unemployment, a pause in public works, and a major trade slump that lasted until the discovery of gold in 1886.


title: Panic of 1873

text: In the periphery, the Ottoman Empire's economy also suffered. Rates of growth of foreign trade dropped, external terms of trade deteriorated, declining wheat prices affected peasant producers, and the establishment of European control over Ottoman finances led to large debt payments abroad. The growth rates of agricultural and aggregate production were also lower during the Long Depression than the later period.


title: Panic of 1873

text: The general demonetization and cheapening of silver caused the Latin Monetary Union in 1873 to suspend the conversion of silver to coins.


title: Panic of 1873

text: After the 1873 depression, agricultural and industrial groups lobbied for protective tariffs. Conservative politicians such as Otto von Bismarck shifted from classical liberal economic policies in the 1870s, embracing many economic interventionist policies, including high tariffs, nationalization of railroads, and compulsory social insurance. The political and economic nationalism also reduced the fortunes of the German and Canadian classical liberal parties. France, like Britain, also entered into a prolonged stagnation that extended to 1897. The French also attempted to deal with their economic problems by the implementation of tariffs. New French laws in 1880 and in 1892 imposed stiff tariffs on many agricultural and industrial imports. The U.S., still in the period after the Civil War, continued to be very protectionist.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digestion is a sequence of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. The process is used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste or to produce fuels. Much of the fermentation used industrially to produce food and drink products, as well as home fermentation, uses anaerobic digestion.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digestion occurs naturally in some soils and in lake and oceanic basin sediments, where it is usually referred to as "anaerobic activity". This is the source of marsh gas methane as discovered by Alessandro Volta in 1776.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The digestion process begins with bacterial hydrolysis of the input materials. Insoluble organic polymers, such as carbohydrates, are broken down to soluble derivatives that become available for other bacteria. Acidogenic bacteria then convert the sugars and amino acids into carbon dioxide, hydrogen, ammonia, and organic acids. In acetogenesis, bacteria convert these resulting organic acids into acetic acid, along with additional ammonia, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide amongst other compounds. Finally, methanogens convert these products to methane and carbon dioxide. The methanogenic archaea populations play an indispensable role in anaerobic wastewater treatments.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digestion is used as part of the process to treat biodegradable waste and sewage sludge. As part of an integrated waste management system, anaerobic digestion reduces the emission of landfill gas into the atmosphere. Anaerobic digesters can also be fed with purpose-grown energy crops, such as maize.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digestion is widely used as a source of renewable energy. The process produces a biogas, consisting of methane, carbon dioxide, and traces of other 'contaminant' gases. This biogas can be used directly as fuel, in combined heat and power gas engines or upgraded to natural gas-quality biomethane. The nutrient-rich digestate also produced can be used as fertilizer.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: With the re-use of waste as a resource and new technological approaches that have lowered capital costs, anaerobic digestion has in recent years received increased attention among governments in a number of countries, among these the United Kingdom (2011), Germany, Denmark (2011), and the United States.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Many microorganisms affect anaerobic digestion, including acetic acid-forming bacteria (acetogens) and methane-forming archaea (methanogens). These organisms promote a number of chemical processes in converting the biomass to biogas.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Gaseous oxygen is excluded from the reactions by physical containment. Anaerobes utilize electron acceptors from sources other than oxygen gas. These acceptors can be the organic material itself or may be supplied by inorganic oxides from within the input material. When the oxygen source in an anaerobic system is derived from the organic material itself, the 'intermediate' end products are primarily alcohols, aldehydes, and organic acids, plus carbon dioxide. In the presence of specialised methanogens, the intermediates are converted to the 'final' end products of methane, carbon dioxide, and trace levels of hydrogen sulfide. In an anaerobic system, the majority of the chemical energy contained within the starting material is released by methanogenic archaea as methane.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Populations of anaerobic microorganisms typically take a significant period of time to establish themselves to be fully effective. Therefore, common practice is to introduce anaerobic microorganisms from materials with existing populations, a process known as "seeding" the digesters, typically accomplished with the addition of sewage sludge or cattle slurry.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The four key stages of anaerobic digestion involve hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The overall process can be described by the chemical reaction, where organic material such as glucose is biochemically digested into carbon dioxide (CO) and methane (CH) by the anaerobic microorganisms.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In most cases, biomass is made up of large organic polymers. For the bacteria in anaerobic digesters to access the energy potential of the material, these chains must first be broken down into their smaller constituent parts. These constituent parts, or monomers, such as sugars, are readily available to other bacteria. The process of breaking these chains and dissolving the smaller molecules into solution is called hydrolysis. Therefore, hydrolysis of these high-molecular-weight polymeric components is the necessary first step in anaerobic digestion. Through hydrolysis the complex organic molecules are broken down into simple sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Acetate and hydrogen produced in the first stages can be used directly by methanogens. Other molecules, such as volatile fatty acids (VFAs) with a chain length greater than that of acetate must first be catabolised into compounds that can be directly used by methanogens.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The biological process of acidogenesis results in further breakdown of the remaining components by acidogenic (fermentative) bacteria. Here, VFAs are created, along with ammonia, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide, as well as other byproducts. The process of acidogenesis is similar to the way milk sours.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The third stage of anaerobic digestion is acetogenesis. Here, simple molecules created through the acidogenesis phase are further digested by acetogens to produce largely acetic acid, as well as carbon dioxide and hydrogen.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The terminal stage of anaerobic digestion is the biological process of methanogenesis. Here, methanogens use the intermediate products of the preceding stages and convert them into methane, carbon dioxide, and water. These components make up the majority of the biogas emitted from the system. Methanogenesis is sensitive to both high and low pHs and occurs between pH 6.5 and pH 8. The remaining, indigestible material the microbes cannot use and any dead bacterial remains constitute the digestate.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digesters can be designed and engineered to operate using a number of different configurations and can be categorized into batch vs. continuous process mode, mesophilic vs. thermophilic temperature conditions, high vs. low portion of solids, and single stage vs. multistage processes. Continuous process requires more complex design, but still, it may be more economical than batch process, because batch process requires more initial building money and a larger volume of the digesters (spread across several batches) to handle the same amount of waste as a continuous process digester. Higher heat energy is required in a thermophilic system compared to a mesophilic system, but the thermophilic system requires much less time and has a larger gas output capacity and higher methane gas content, so one has to consider that trade-off carefully. For solids content, low will handle up to 15% solid content. Above this level is considered high solids content and can also be known as dry digestion. In a single stage process, one reactor houses the four anaerobic digestion steps. A multistage process utilizes two or more reactors for digestion to separate the methanogenesis and hydrolysis phases.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digestion can be performed as a batch process or a continuous process. In a batch system, biomass is added to the reactor at the start of the process. The reactor is then sealed for the duration of the process. In its simplest form batch processing needs inoculation with already processed material to start the anaerobic digestion. In a typical scenario, biogas production will be formed with a normal distribution pattern over time. Operators can use this fact to determine when they believe the process of digestion of the organic matter has completed. There can be severe odour issues if a batch reactor is opened and emptied before the process is well completed. A more advanced type of batch approach has limited the odour issues by integrating anaerobic digestion with in-vessel composting. In this approach inoculation takes place through the use of recirculated degasified percolate. After anaerobic digestion has completed, the biomass is kept in the reactor which is then used for in-vessel composting before it is opened As the batch digestion is simple and requires less equipment and lower levels of design work, it is typically a cheaper form of digestion. Using more than one batch reactor at a plant can ensure constant production of biogas.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In continuous digestion processes, organic matter is constantly added (continuous complete mixed) or added in stages to the reactor (continuous plug flow; first in – first out). Here, the end products are constantly or periodically removed, resulting in constant production of biogas. A single or multiple digesters in sequence may be used. Examples of this form of anaerobic digestion include continuous stirred-tank reactors, upflow anaerobic sludge blankets, expanded granular sludge beds, and internal circulation reactors.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The two conventional operational temperature levels for anaerobic digesters determine the species of methanogens in the digesters:


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: A limit case has been reached in Bolivia, with anaerobic digestion in temperature working conditions of less than 10 °C. The anaerobic process is very slow, taking more than three times the normal mesophilic time process. In experimental work at University of Alaska Fairbanks, a 1,000-litre digester using psychrophiles harvested from "mud from a frozen lake in Alaska" has produced 200–300 litres of methane per day, about 20 to 30% of the output from digesters in warmer climates. Mesophilic species outnumber thermophiles, and they are also more tolerant to changes in environmental conditions than thermophiles. Mesophilic systems are, therefore, considered to be more stable than thermophilic digestion systems. In contrast, while thermophilic digestion systems are considered less stable, their energy input is higher, with more biogas being removed from the organic matter in an equal amount of time. The increased temperatures facilitate faster reaction rates, and thus faster gas yields. Operation at higher temperatures facilitates greater pathogen reduction of the digestate. In countries where legislation, such as the Animal By-Products Regulations in the European Union, requires digestate to meet certain levels of pathogen reduction there may be a benefit to using thermophilic temperatures instead of mesophilic.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Additional pre-treatment can be used to reduce the necessary retention time to produce biogas. For example, certain processes shred the substrates to increase the surface area or use a thermal pretreatment stage (such as pasteurisation) to significantly enhance the biogas output. The pasteurisation process can also be used to reduce the pathogenic concentration in the digestate, leaving the anaerobic digester. Pasteurisation may be achieved by heat treatment combined with maceration of the solids.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In a typical scenario, three different operational parameters are associated with the solids content of the feedstock to the digesters:


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: High solids (dry) digesters are designed to process materials with a solids content between 25 and 40%. Unlike wet digesters that process pumpable slurries, high solids (dry – stackable substrate) digesters are designed to process solid substrates without the addition of water. The primary styles of dry digesters are continuous vertical plug flow and batch tunnel horizontal digesters. Continuous vertical plug flow digesters are upright, cylindrical tanks where feedstock is continuously fed into the top of the digester, and flows downward by gravity during digestion. In batch tunnel digesters, the feedstock is deposited in tunnel-like chambers with a gas-tight door. Neither approach has mixing inside the digester. The amount of pretreatment, such as contaminant removal, depends both upon the nature of the waste streams being processed and the desired quality of the digestate. Size reduction (grinding) is beneficial in continuous vertical systems, as it accelerates digestion, while batch systems avoid grinding and instead require structure (e.g. yard waste) to reduce compaction of the stacked pile. Continuous vertical dry digesters have a smaller footprint due to the shorter effective retention time and vertical design. Wet digesters can be designed to operate in either a high-solids content, with a total suspended solids (TSS) concentration greater than ~20%, or a low-solids concentration less than ~15%.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: High solids (wet) digesters process a thick slurry that requires more energy input to move and process the feedstock. The thickness of the material may also lead to associated problems with abrasion. High solids digesters will typically have a lower land requirement due to the lower volumes associated with the moisture. High solids digesters also require correction of conventional performance calculations (e.g. gas production, retention time, kinetics, etc.) originally based on very dilute sewage digestion concepts, since larger fractions of the feedstock mass are potentially convertible to biogas.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Low solids (wet) digesters can transport material through the system using standard pumps that require significantly lower energy input. Low solids digesters require a larger amount of land than high solids due to the increased volumes associated with the increased liquid-to-feedstock ratio of the digesters. There are benefits associated with operation in a liquid environment, as it enables more thorough circulation of materials and contact between the bacteria and their food. This enables the bacteria to more readily access the substances on which they are feeding, and increases the rate of gas production.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Digestion systems can be configured with different levels of complexity. In a single-stage digestion system (one-stage), all of the biological reactions occur within a single, sealed reactor or holding tank. Using a single stage reduces construction costs, but results in less control of the reactions occurring within the system. Acidogenic bacteria, through the production of acids, reduce the pH of the tank. Methanogenic archaea, as outlined earlier, operate in a strictly defined pH range. Therefore, the biological reactions of the different species in a single-stage reactor can be in direct competition with each other. Another one-stage reaction system is an anaerobic lagoon. These lagoons are pond-like, earthen basins used for the treatment and long-term storage of manures. Here the anaerobic reactions are contained within the natural anaerobic sludge contained in the pool.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In a two-stage digestion system (multistage), different digestion vessels are optimised to bring maximum control over the bacterial communities living within the digesters. Acidogenic bacteria produce organic acids and more quickly grow and reproduce than methanogenic archaea. Methanogenic archaea require stable pH and temperature to optimise their performance.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Under typical circumstances, hydrolysis, acetogenesis, and acidogenesis occur within the first reaction vessel. The organic material is then heated to the required operational temperature (either mesophilic or thermophilic) prior to being pumped into a methanogenic reactor. The initial hydrolysis or acidogenesis tanks prior to the methanogenic reactor can provide a buffer to the rate at which feedstock is added. Some European countries require a degree of elevated heat treatment to kill harmful bacteria in the input waste. In this instance, there may be a pasteurisation or sterilisation stage prior to digestion or between the two digestion tanks. Notably, it is not possible to completely isolate the different reaction phases, and often some biogas is produced in the hydrolysis or acidogenesis tanks.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The residence time in a digester varies with the amount and type of feed material, and with the configuration of the digestion system. In a typical two-stage mesophilic digestion, residence time varies between 15 and 40 days, while for a single-stage thermophilic digestion, residence times is normally faster and takes around 14 days. The plug-flow nature of some of these systems will mean the full degradation of the material may not have been realised in this timescale. In this event, digestate exiting the system will be darker in colour and will typically have more odour.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In the case of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket digestion (UASB), hydraulic residence times can be as short as 1 hour to 1 day, and solid retention times can be up to 90 days. In this manner, a UASB system is able to separate solids and hydraulic retention times with the use of a sludge blanket. Continuous digesters have mechanical or hydraulic devices, depending on the level of solids in the material, to mix the contents, enabling the bacteria and the food to be in contact. They also allow excess material to be continuously extracted to maintain a reasonably constant volume within the digestion tanks.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The anaerobic digestion process can be inhibited by several compounds, affecting one or more of the bacterial groups responsible for the different organic matter degradation steps. The degree of the inhibition depends, among other factors, on the concentration of the inhibitor in the digester. Potential inhibitors are ammonia, sulfide, light metal ions (Na, K, Mg, Ca, Al), heavy metals, some organics (chlorophenols, halogenated aliphatics, N-substituted aromatics, long chain fatty acids), etc.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) has been shown to inhibit production of methane. Furthermore, it destabilises the microbial community, impacting the synthesis of acetic acid. Acetic acid is one of the driving forces in methane production. At an excess of 5000 mg/L TAN, pH adjustment is needed to keep the reaction stable. A TAN concentration above 1700- 1800 mg/L inhibits methane production and yield decreases at greater TAN concentrations. High TAN concentrations cause the reaction to turn acidic and lead to a domino effect of inhibition. Total ammonia nitrogen is the combination of free ammonia and ionized ammonia. TAN is produced through degrading material high in nitrogen, typically proteins and will naturally build in anaerobic digestion. This is depending on the organic feed stock fed to the system. In typical wastewater treatment practices, TAN reduction is done with via nitrification. Nitrification is an aerobic process where TAN is consumed by aerobic heterotrophic bacteria. These bacteria release nitrate and nitrite which are later converted to nitrogen gas through the denitrification process. Hydrolysis and acidogenesis can also be impacted by TAN concentration. In mesophilic conditions, inhibition for hydrolysis was found to occur at 5500 mg/L TAN, while acidogenesis inhibition occurs at 6500 mg/L TAN.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The most important initial issue when considering the application of anaerobic digestion systems is the feedstock to the process. Almost any organic material can be processed with anaerobic digestion; however, if biogas production is the aim, the level of putrescibility is the key factor in its successful application. The more putrescible (digestible) the material, the higher the gas yields possible from the system.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Feedstocks can include biodegradable waste materials, such as waste paper, grass clippings, leftover food, sewage, and animal waste. Woody wastes are the exception, because they are largely unaffected by digestion, as most anaerobes are unable to degrade lignin. Xylophagous anaerobes (lignin consumers) or high temperature pretreatment, such as pyrolysis, can be used to break lignin down. Anaerobic digesters can also be fed with specially grown energy crops, such as silage, for dedicated biogas production. In Germany and continental Europe, these facilities are referred to as "biogas" plants. A codigestion or cofermentation plant is typically an agricultural anaerobic digester that accepts two or more input materials for simultaneous digestion.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The length of time required for anaerobic digestion depends on the chemical complexity of the material. Material rich in easily digestible sugars breaks down quickly, whereas intact lignocellulosic material rich in cellulose and hemicellulose polymers can take much longer to break down. Anaerobic microorganisms are generally unable to break down lignin, the recalcitrant aromatic component of biomass.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digesters were originally designed for operation using sewage sludge and manures. Sewage and manure are not, however, the material with the most potential for anaerobic digestion, as the biodegradable material has already had much of the energy content taken out by the animals that produced it. Therefore, many digesters operate with codigestion of two or more types of feedstock. For example, in a farm-based digester that uses dairy manure as the primary feedstock, the gas production may be significantly increased by adding a second feedstock, e.g., grass and corn (typical on-farm feedstock), or various organic byproducts, such as slaughterhouse waste, fats, oils and grease from restaurants, organic household waste, etc. (typical off-site feedstock).


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Digesters processing dedicated energy crops can achieve high levels of degradation and biogas production. Slurry-only systems are generally cheaper, but generate far less energy than those using crops, such as maize and grass silage; by using a modest amount of crop material (30%), an anaerobic digestion plant can increase energy output tenfold for only three times the capital cost, relative to a slurry-only system.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: A second consideration related to the feedstock is moisture content. Drier, stackable substrates, such as food and yard waste, are suitable for digestion in tunnel-like chambers. Tunnel-style systems typically have near-zero wastewater discharge, as well, so this style of system has advantages where the discharge of digester liquids are a liability. The wetter the material, the more suitable it will be to handling with standard pumps instead of energy-intensive concrete pumps and physical means of movement. Also, the wetter the material, the more volume and area it takes up relative to the levels of gas produced. The moisture content of the target feedstock will also affect what type of system is applied to its treatment. To use a high-solids anaerobic digester for dilute feedstocks, bulking agents, such as compost, should be applied to increase the solids content of the input material. Another key consideration is the carbon:nitrogen ratio of the input material. This ratio is the balance of food a microbe requires to grow; the optimal C:N ratio is 20–30:1. Excess N can lead to ammonia inhibition of digestion.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The level of contamination of the feedstock material is a key consideration when using wet digestion or plug-flow digestion.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: If the feedstock to the digesters has significant levels of physical contaminants, such as plastic, glass, or metals, then processing to remove the contaminants will be required for the material to be used. If it is not removed, then the digesters can be blocked and will not function efficiently. This contamination issue does not occur with dry digestion or solid-state anaerobic digestion (SSAD) plants, since SSAD handles dry, stackable biomass with a high percentage of solids (40-60%) in gas-tight chambers called fermenter boxes. It is with this understanding that mechanical biological treatment plants are designed. The higher the level of pretreatment a feedstock requires, the more processing machinery will be required, and, hence, the project will have higher capital costs. National Non-Food Crops Centre.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: After sorting or screening to remove any physical contaminants from the feedstock, the material is often shredded, minced, and mechanically or hydraulically pulped to increase the surface area available to microbes in the digesters and, hence, increase the speed of digestion. The maceration of solids can be achieved by using a chopper pump to transfer the feedstock material into the airtight digester, where anaerobic treatment takes place.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Substrate composition is a major factor in determining the methane yield and methane production rates from the digestion of biomass. Techniques to determine the compositional characteristics of the feedstock are available, while parameters such as solids, elemental, and organic analyses are important for digester design and operation. Methane yield can be estimated from the elemental composition of substrate along with an estimate of its degradability (the fraction of the substrate that is converted to biogas in a reactor). In order to predict biogas composition (the relative fractions of methane and carbon dioxide) it is necessary to estimate carbon dioxide partitioning between the aqueous and gas phases, which requires additional information (reactor temperature, pH, and substrate composition) and a chemical speciation model. Direct measurements of biomethanation potential are also made using gas evolution or more recent gravimetric assays.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Using anaerobic digestion technologies can help to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in a number of key ways:


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digestion is particularly suited to organic material, and is commonly used for industrial effluent, wastewater and sewage sludge treatment. Anaerobic digestion, a simple process, can greatly reduce the amount of organic matter which might otherwise be destined to be dumped at sea, dumped in landfills, or burnt in incinerators.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Pressure from environmentally related legislation on solid waste disposal methods in developed countries has increased the application of anaerobic digestion as a process for reducing waste volumes and generating useful byproducts. It may either be used to process the source-separated fraction of municipal waste or alternatively combined with mechanical sorting systems, to process residual mixed municipal waste. These facilities are called mechanical biological treatment plants.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: If the putrescible waste processed in anaerobic digesters were disposed of in a landfill, it would break down naturally and often anaerobically. In this case, the gas will eventually escape into the atmosphere. As methane is about 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, this has significant negative environmental effects.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In countries that collect household waste, the use of local anaerobic digestion facilities can help to reduce the amount of waste that requires transportation to centralized landfill sites or incineration facilities. This reduced burden on transportation reduces carbon emissions from the collection vehicles. If localized anaerobic digestion facilities are embedded within an electrical distribution network, they can help reduce the electrical losses associated with transporting electricity over a national grid.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In developing countries, simple home and farm-based anaerobic digestion systems offer the potential for low-cost energy for cooking and lighting.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: From 1975, China and India have both had large, government-backed schemes for adaptation of small biogas plants for use in the household for cooking and lighting. At present, projects for anaerobic digestion in the developing world can gain financial support through the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism if they are able to show they provide reduced carbon emissions.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Methane and power produced in anaerobic digestion facilities can be used to replace energy derived from fossil fuels, and hence reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, because the carbon in biodegradable material is part of a carbon cycle. The carbon released into the atmosphere from the combustion of biogas has been removed by plants for them to grow in the recent past, usually within the last decade, but more typically within the last growing season. If the plants are regrown, taking the carbon out of the atmosphere once more, the system will be carbon neutral. In contrast, carbon in fossil fuels has been sequestered in the earth for many millions of years, the combustion of which increases the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Power generation through anaerobic digestors is best suited to large-scale operations, rather than small farms, as large operations have the volume of manure that is able to make the systems financially viable.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Biogas from sewage sludge treatment is sometimes used to run a gas engine to produce electrical power, some or all of which can be used to run the sewage works. Some waste heat from the engine is then used to heat the digester. The waste heat is, in general, enough to heat the digester to the required temperatures. The power potential from sewage works is limited – in the UK, there are about 80 MW total of such generation, with the potential to increase to 150 MW, which is insignificant compared to the average power demand in the UK of about 35,000 MW. The scope for biogas generation from nonsewage waste biological matter – energy crops, food waste, abattoir waste, etc. - is much higher, estimated to be capable of about 3,000 MW. Farm biogas plants using animal waste and energy crops are expected to contribute to reducing CO emissions and strengthen the grid, while providing UK farmers with additional revenues.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Some countries offer incentives in the form of, for example, feed-in tariffs for feeding electricity onto the power grid to subsidize green energy production.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In Oakland, California at the East Bay Municipal Utility District's main wastewater treatment plant (EBMUD), food waste is currently codigested with primary and secondary municipal wastewater solids and other high-strength wastes. Compared to municipal wastewater solids digestion alone, food waste codigestion has many benefits. Anaerobic digestion of food waste pulp from the EBMUD food waste process provides a higher normalized energy benefit, compared to municipal wastewater solids: 730 to 1,300 kWh per dry ton of food waste applied compared to 560 to 940 kWh per dry ton of municipal wastewater solids applied.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Biogas grid-injection is the injection of biogas into the natural gas grid. The raw biogas has to be previously upgraded to biomethane. This upgrading implies the removal of contaminants such as hydrogen sulphide or siloxanes, as well as the carbon dioxide. Several technologies are available for this purpose, the most widely implemented being pressure swing adsorption (PSA), water or amine scrubbing (absorption processes) and, in recent years, membrane separation. As an alternative, the electricity and the heat can be used for on-site generation, resulting in a reduction of losses in the transportation of energy. Typical energy losses in natural gas transmission systems range from 1–2%, whereas the current energy losses on a large electrical system range from 5–8%.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In October 2010, Didcot Sewage Works became the first in the UK to produce biomethane gas supplied to the national grid, for use in up to 200 homes in Oxfordshire. By 2017, UK electricity firm Ecotricity plan to have digester fed by locally sourced grass fueling 6000 homes


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: After upgrading with the above-mentioned technologies, the biogas (transformed into biomethane) can be used as vehicle fuel in adapted vehicles. This use is very extensive in Sweden, where over 38,600 gas vehicles exist, and 60% of the vehicle gas is biomethane generated in anaerobic digestion plants.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The solid, fibrous component of the digested material can be used as a soil conditioner to increase the organic content of soils. Digester liquor can be used as a fertiliser to supply vital nutrients to soils instead of chemical fertilisers that require large amounts of energy to produce and transport. The use of manufactured fertilisers is, therefore, more carbon-intensive than the use of anaerobic digester liquor fertiliser. In countries such as Spain, where many soils are organically depleted, the markets for the digested solids can be equally as important as the biogas.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: By using a bio-digester, which produces the bacteria required for decomposing, cooking gas is generated. The organic waste like fallen leaves, kitchen waste, food waste etc. are fed into a crusher unit, where it is mixed with a small amount of water. The mixture is then fed into the bio-digester, where the archaea decomposes it to produce cooking gas. This gas is piped to kitchen stove. A 2 cubic meter bio-digester can produce 2 cubic meters of cooking gas. This is equivalent to 1 kg of LPG. The notable advantage of using a bio-digester is the sludge which is a rich organic manure.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Biogas is the ultimate waste product of the bacteria feeding off the input biodegradable feedstock (the methanogenesis stage of anaerobic digestion is performed by archaea, a micro-organism on a distinctly different branch of the phylogenetic tree of life to bacteria), and is mostly methane and carbon dioxide, with a small amount hydrogen and trace hydrogen sulfide. (As-produced, biogas also contains water vapor, with the fractional water vapor volume a function of biogas temperature). Most of the biogas is produced during the middle of the digestion, after the bacterial population has grown, and tapers off as the putrescible material is exhausted. The gas is normally stored on top of the digester in an inflatable gas bubble or extracted and stored next to the facility in a gas holder.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The methane in biogas can be burned to produce both heat and electricity, usually with a reciprocating engine or microturbine often in a cogeneration arrangement where the electricity and waste heat generated are used to warm the digesters or to heat buildings. Excess electricity can be sold to suppliers or put into the local grid. Electricity produced by anaerobic digesters is considered to be renewable energy and may attract subsidies. Biogas does not contribute to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations because the gas is not released directly into the atmosphere and the carbon dioxide comes from an organic source with a short carbon cycle.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Biogas may require treatment or 'scrubbing' to refine it for use as a fuel. Hydrogen sulfide, a toxic product formed from sulfates in the feedstock, is released as a trace component of the biogas. National environmental enforcement agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the English and Welsh Environment Agency, put strict limits on the levels of gases containing hydrogen sulfide, and, if the levels of hydrogen sulfide in the gas are high, gas scrubbing and cleaning equipment (such as amine gas treating) will be needed to process the biogas to within regionally accepted levels. Alternatively, the addition of ferrous chloride FeCl to the digestion tanks inhibits hydrogen sulfide production.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Volatile siloxanes can also contaminate the biogas; such compounds are frequently found in household waste and wastewater. In digestion facilities accepting these materials as a component of the feedstock, low-molecular-weight siloxanes volatilise into biogas. When this gas is combusted in a gas engine, turbine, or boiler, siloxanes are converted into silicon dioxide (SiO), which deposits internally in the machine, increasing wear and tear. Practical and cost-effective technologies to remove siloxanes and other biogas contaminants are available at the present time. In certain applications, "in situ" treatment can be used to increase the methane purity by reducing the offgas carbon dioxide content, purging the majority of it in a secondary reactor.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In countries such as Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden, the methane in the biogas may be compressed for it to be used as a vehicle transportation fuel or input directly into the gas mains. In countries where the driver for the use of anaerobic digestion are renewable electricity subsidies, this route of treatment is less likely, as energy is required in this processing stage and reduces the overall levels available to sell.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Digestate is the solid remnants of the original input material to the digesters that the microbes cannot use. It also consists of the mineralised remains of the dead bacteria from within the digesters. Digestate can come in three forms: fibrous, liquor, or a sludge-based combination of the two fractions. In two-stage systems, different forms of digestate come from different digestion tanks. In single-stage digestion systems, the two fractions will be combined and, if desired, separated by further processing.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The second byproduct (acidogenic digestate) is a stable, organic material consisting largely of lignin and cellulose, but also of a variety of mineral components in a matrix of dead bacterial cells; some plastic may be present. The material resembles domestic compost and can be used as such or to make low-grade building products, such as fibreboard.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The third byproduct is a liquid (methanogenic digestate) rich in nutrients, which can be used as a fertiliser, depending on the quality of the material being digested. Levels of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) should be chemically assessed. This will depend upon the quality of the original feedstock. In the case of most clean and source-separated biodegradable waste streams, the levels of PTEs will be low. In the case of wastes originating from industry, the levels of PTEs may be higher and will need to be taken into consideration when determining a suitable end use for the material.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Digestate typically contains elements, such as lignin, that cannot be broken down by the anaerobic microorganisms. Also, the digestate may contain ammonia that is phytotoxic, and may hamper the growth of plants if it is used as a soil-improving material. For these two reasons, a maturation or composting stage may be employed after digestion. Lignin and other materials are available for degradation by aerobic microorganisms, such as fungi, helping reduce the overall volume of the material for transport. During this maturation, the ammonia will be oxidized into nitrates, improving the fertility of the material and making it more suitable as a soil improver. Large composting stages are typically used by dry anaerobic digestion technologies.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The final output from anaerobic digestion systems is water, which originates both from the moisture content of the original waste that was treated and water produced during the microbial reactions in the digestion systems. This water may be released from the dewatering of the digestate or may be implicitly separate from the digestate.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The wastewater exiting the anaerobic digestion facility will typically have elevated levels of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). These measures of the reactivity of the effluent indicate an ability to pollute. Some of this material is termed 'hard COD', meaning it cannot be accessed by the anaerobic bacteria for conversion into biogas. If this effluent were put directly into watercourses, it would negatively affect them by causing eutrophication. As such, further treatment of the wastewater is often required. This treatment will typically be an oxidation stage wherein air is passed through the water in a sequencing batch reactors or reverse osmosis unit.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: The history of anaerobic digestion is a long one, beginning as early as tenth century BCE in Assyria where biogas was used to heat bath water. Reported scientific interest in the manufacturing of gas produced by the natural decomposition of organic matter dates from the 17th century, when Robert Boyle (1627-1691) and Stephen Hales (1677-1761) noted that disturbing the sediment of streams and lakes released flammable gas. In 1778, the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), the father of electrochemistry, scientifically identified that gas as methane.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: In 1808 Sir Humphry Davy proved the presence of methane in the gases produced by cattle manure. The first known anaerobic digester was built in 1859 at a leper colony in Bombay in India. In 1895, the technology was developed in Exeter, England, where a septic tank was used to generate gas for the sewer gas destructor lamp, a type of gas lighting. Also in England, in 1904, the first dual-purpose tank for both sedimentation and sludge treatment was installed in Hampton, London.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: By the early 20th century, anaerobic digestion systems began to resemble the technology as it appears today. In 1906, Karl Imhoff created the Imhoff tank; an early form of anaerobic digester and model wastewater treatment system throughout the early 20th century. After 1920, closed tank systems began to replace the previously common use of anaerobic lagoons – covered earthen basins used to treat volatile solids. Research on anaerobic digestion began in earnest in the 1930s.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Around the time of World War I, production from biofuels slowed as petroleum production increased and its uses were identified. While fuel shortages during World War II re-popularized anaerobic digestion, interest in the technology decreased again after the war ended. Similarly, the 1970s energy crisis sparked interest in anaerobic digestion. In addition to high energy prices, factors affecting the adoption of anaerobic digestion systems include receptivity to innovation, pollution penalties, policy incentives, and the availability of subsidies and funding opportunities.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Today, anaerobic digesters are commonly found alongside farms to reduce nitrogen run-off from manure, or wastewater treatment facilities to reduce the costs of sludge disposal. Agricultural anaerobic digestion for energy production has become most popular in Germany, where there were 8,625 digesters in 2014. In the United Kingdom, there were 259 facilities by 2014, and 500 projects planned to become operational by 2019. In the United States, there were 191 operational plants across 34 states in 2012. Policy may explain why adoption rates are so different across these countries.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Feed-in tariffs in Germany were enacted in 1991, also known as FIT, providing long-term contracts compensating investments in renewable energy generation. Consequently, between 1991 and 1998 the number of anaerobic digester plants in Germany grew from 20 to 517. In the late 1990s, energy prices in Germany varied and investors became unsure of the market's potential. The German government responded by amending FIT four times between 2000 and 2011, increasing tariffs and improving the profitability of anaerobic digestion, and resulting in reliable returns for biogas production and continued high adoption rates across the country.


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: Anaerobic digesters have caused Fish kills (e.g. River Mole, Devon, River Teifi, Afon Llynfi, and loss of human life (e.g. Avonmouth explosion)


title: Anaerobic digestion

text: There have been explosions of ADs in the US (Jay, Maine Pixelle Specialty Solutions’ Androscoggin Mill; Pensacola (Cantonment) 22 January 2017 (Kamyr digester explosion); EPDM failure March 2013 Aumsville, Oregon; February 6, 1987, Pennsylvania two workers at a wastewater treatment plant were re-draining a sewage digester when an explosion lifted the 30-ton floating cover, killing both workers instantly; Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant in Springfield, Missouri), in the UK (for example at Avonmouth and at Harper Adams College, Newport, Shropshire), plus In Europe, there were about 800 accidents on biogas plants between 2005 and 2015, e.g. in France (Saint-Fargeau) (though few of them were 'serious' with direct consequences for the human population). Fortunately, according to one source, 'less than a dozen of them had consequences on humans'- for example, the incident at Rhadereistedt, Germany (4 dead).


title: Tom Ripley

text: Thomas Ripley is a fictional character in a series of crime novels by American novelist Patricia Highsmith, as well as several film adaptations. He is a career criminal, con artist, and serial killer who always gets away with his crimes. The five novels in which he appears—"The Talented Mr. Ripley", "Ripley Under Ground", "Ripley's Game", "The Boy Who Followed Ripley", and "Ripley Under Water"—were published between 1955 and 1991.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Highsmith introduced Tom Ripley in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1955) as a young man making a meager living as a con artist. The novel also supplies him with a backstory: orphaned at age five when his parents drowned, he was raised in Boston by his aunt Dottie, a cold, stingy woman who mocked him as a "sissy". As a teenager, he attempted unsuccessfully to run away from his aunt's home to New York City before finally moving there at age 20.


title: Tom Ripley

text: In "The Talented Mr. Ripley", he is paid to go to Italy by Herbert Greenleaf, a shipbuilding magnate, to convince his son Dickie (a half-remembered acquaintance) to return to New York and join the family business. Ripley befriends the younger Greenleaf and falls in love with the rich young man's indulgent, carefree lifestyle; he also becomes obsessed with Greenleaf himself. He eventually murders Greenleaf after the playboy tires of him and spurns his friendship. He then assumes Greenleaf's identity, forging the signatures on his monthly remittances from a trust fund.


title: Tom Ripley

text: He rents an apartment in Italy and revels in the good life. He also assumes Greenleaf's style and mannerisms, imitating him so well that he essentially "becomes" him. However, the charade gets him in trouble whenever he is confronted by people who know both him and Greenleaf, particularly Greenleaf's suspicious friend, Freddie Miles, whom he eventually murders.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Ripley ultimately forges Greenleaf's will, leaving himself the dead man's inheritance. The novel ends with Ripley, having narrowly evaded capture, sailing to Greece and rejoicing in his newfound wealth. However, the book's final passages hint that he will pay for his freedom with a lifetime of paranoia, as he wonders whether he is "going to see policemen waiting for him on every pier that he ever approached".


title: Tom Ripley

text: In "Ripley Under Ground" (1970), set six years later, Ripley has settled down into a life of leisure in Belle Ombre, an estate on the outskirts of the fictional village of Villeperce-sur-Seine in France, which Highsmith locates "some forty miles south of Orly", "some twelve miles" from Fontainebleau, and "seven kilometres" from Moret.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Since coming into money, Ripley has added to his fortunes by marrying Héloïse Plisson, an heiress who has suspicions about how he makes his money, but prefers not to know. He avoids direct involvement in crime as much as possible in order to preserve his shady reputation, but he still finds himself involved in criminal enterprises, often aided by Reeves Minot, a small-time fence. Ripley's criminal exploits include a long-running art forgery scam (introduced in "Ripley Under Ground" and consistently mentioned in later books), an entanglement with the Mafia (in "Ripley's Game"), and several murders. In every novel, he comes perilously close to getting caught or killed, but ultimately escapes danger.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Highsmith characterizes Ripley as a "suave, agreeable and utterly amoral" con artist and serial killer who always evades justice. "Book" magazine ranks Ripley at #60 on its list of the 100 Best Characters in Fiction since 1900.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Ripley is epicurean and sophisticated, living a life of leisure in rural France. He spends most of his time gardening, painting, or studying languages. This is financed by a stolen inheritance, a small income from the Buckmaster Gallery, and his wife's allowance from her wealthy father. He is polite, friendly, and cultured, and dislikes people who lack such qualities; when the Pritchards appear in "Ripley Under Water", their poor taste and coarse manners immediately offend him.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Ripley has been critically acclaimed for being "both a likable character and a cold-blooded killer". Sam Jordison of "The Guardian" wrote, "It is near impossible, I would say, not to root for Tom Ripley. Not to like him. Not, on some level, to want him to win. Patricia Highsmith does a fine job of ensuring he wheedles his way into our sympathies."


title: Tom Ripley

text: In his review of "Purple Noon", René Clément's 1960 adaptation of "The Talented Mr. Ripley", film critic Roger Ebert described Ripley as "a committed hedonist, devoted to great comfort, understated taste, and civilized interests. He has wonderful relationships with women, who never fully understand who or what he is. He has friendships—real ones—with many of his victims. His crimes are like moves in a chess game; he understands that as much as he may like and respect his opponents, he must end with a 'checkmate'."


title: Tom Ripley

text: While Highsmith never explicitly portrays Ripley as gay or bisexual, certain passages in the Ripley novels imply that he harbors some unacknowledged attraction towards other men. In "The Talented Mr. Ripley", he is obsessed with Dickie Greenleaf, and is jealous of Greenleaf's girlfriend Marge Sherwood to the point that he fantasizes about Greenleaf rejecting and hitting her. He is also afraid that others will think he is gay, and jokes that he wants to give up both men and women because he cannot decide which he likes more.


title: Tom Ripley

text: In "Ripley Under Ground", he recalls "turning green" during his wedding, and going impotent with laughter while having sex with Heloise during their honeymoon. In "The Boy Who Followed Ripley", he reflects that he and Heloise rarely have sex, and that frequent sexual demands on her part "really would have turned him off, maybe at once and permanently." "The Boy Who Followed Ripley", meanwhile, has been cited as portraying a homoerotic subtext between Ripley and the novel's supporting protagonist, Frank Pierson. For example, Frank sleeps in Ripley's bed without changing the sheets, and speaks of his happiness at being at Belle Ombre with "the words of a lover".


title: Tom Ripley

text: Highsmith herself was ambivalent about the subject of Ripley's sexuality. "I don't think Ripley is gay," she said in a 1988 interview with "Sight & Sound". "He appreciates good looks in other men, that's true. But he's married in later books. I'm not saying he's very strong in the sex department. But he makes it in bed with his wife."


title: Tom Ripley

text: Ripley is portrayed as devoid of conscience; in "The Boy Who Followed Ripley", he admits that he has never been seriously troubled by guilt. Though he sometimes feels "regret" about his earliest murders—he considers the murder of Dickie Greenleaf "a youthful, dreadful mistake", and that of Freddie Miles "stupid" and "unnecessary"—he cannot remember the number of his victims.


title: Tom Ripley

text: He is not without redeeming qualities, however. He feels genuine affection (if not love) for several characters throughout the series, and has his own code of ethics; in "Ripley's Game", Ripley reflects that he detests murder unless it is "absolutely necessary". He has typically been regarded as a "dapper sociopath" and an "agreeable and urbane psychopath".


title: Tom Ripley

text: In his abovementioned review of "Purple Noon", Roger Ebert wrote: "Ripley is a criminal of intelligence and cunning who gets away with murder. He's charming and literate, and a monster. It's insidious, the way Highsmith seduces us into identifying with him and sharing his selfishness; Ripley believes that getting his own way is worth whatever price anyone else might have to pay. We all have a little of that in us." In Ebert's review of the 1999 film "The Talented Mr. Ripley", he describes Ripley as "a man who is irredeemably bad, and yet charming, intelligent and thoughtful about the price he pays for his amoral lifestyle... He's a monster, but we want him to get away with it."


title: Tom Ripley

text: In his 2001 book "Malignant Self-Love: Narcissism Revisited", Sam Vaknin writes that Ripley (as portrayed in the 1999 film) meets five of the seven criteria for antisocial personality disorder, and displays narcissistic traits.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Across the five books, Ripley commits homicide nine times, and indirectly causes an additional five deaths.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Highsmith's first three Ripley novels have been adapted into films. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was filmed as "Purple Noon" (French: "Plein Soleil") in 1960, starring Alain Delon as Ripley, and under its original title in 1999, starring Matt Damon. "Ripley Under Ground" was adapted into a 2005 film, starring Barry Pepper. "Ripley's Game" was filmed in 1977 as "The American Friend", starring Dennis Hopper, and under its original title in 2002, starring John Malkovich.


title: Tom Ripley

text: The Ripley novels have also been adapted for television and radio. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was adapted for a January 1956 episode of the anthology television series "Studio One", and Jonathan Kent played Ripley in a 1982 episode of "The South Bank Show" titled "Patricia Highsmith: A Gift for Murder", dramatizing segments of "Ripley Under Ground". In 2009, BBC Radio 4 adapted all five Ripley novels with Ian Hart as Ripley.


title: Tom Ripley

text: Of the Ripley portrayals that Highsmith saw in her lifetime, she praised Delon's performance in "Purple Noon" as "excellent" and described Jonathan Kent as "perfect". She initially disliked Hopper's Ripley in "The American Friend", but changed her mind after seeing the film a second time, feeling that he had captured the essence of the character.


title: Tom Ripley

text: In Joanna Murray Smith's 2014 play, "Switzerland", Tom Ripley comes to life and visits Highsmith planning to kill her. In the 2014 Sydney Theatre Company premiere production, he was portrayed by Eamon Farren.


title: Tom Ripley

text: In 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" announced that a group of production companies were planning a television series based on the novels. The following year, "Deadline Hollywood" announced that the series will be written by Neil Cross, having been in development at Endemol Shine Studios for over a year. In 2019, the show was ordered to series at Showtime, with actor Andrew Scott playing the lead role and writer-director Steven Zaillian replacing Cross.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week ( or , ; ) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, which includes Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Lutheran traditions, Holy Week occurs the week after Lazarus Saturday and starts on the evening of Palm Sunday. In the denominations of the Western Christianity, which includes the Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Moravianism, Anglicanism, Methodism and Reformed Christianity, it begins with Palm Sunday and concludes on Easter Sunday. For all Christian traditions it is a moveable observance. In Eastern Rite Churches, Holy Week starts after 40 days of Lent and two transitional days, namely Saturday of Lazarus (Lazarus Saturday) and Palm Sunday. In the Western Christian Churches, Holy Week falls on the last week of Lent or Sixth Lent Week.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week begins with the commemoration of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus on Spy Wednesday (Holy Wednesday), climaxing with the commemoration of the Mystical or Last Supper on Maundy Thursday and the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. Holy Week concludes with Christ's rest in death and descent into Hades on Holy Saturday.


title: Holy Week

text: It is believed Jesus rested in death from the ninth hour (3 pm) on Good Friday until just before dawn on Sunday morning, the day of his resurrection from death, commonly known as Easter Sunday. This marks the beginning of the season of Eastertide, with its first week being known as Easter Week (Bright Week).


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week liturgies generally attract the largest crowds of the year. Many Christian cultures have different traditions such as special liturgies or services, floats, sculptures or live reenactments of Christ's life, his arrest and crucifixion (also called the Lord's passion, the Passion of Christ or Passion of Jesus). In Eastern Rite Churches there are also many means to commemorate the Great Feasts and emphasize the theme of resurrection. Many television stations in Anglophone countries air films related to Holy Week, such as "The Ten Commandments", "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and "The Jesus Film".


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week in the Christian year is the week immediately before Easter. The earliest allusion to the custom of marking this week as a whole with special observances is to be found in the Apostolical Constitutions (v. 18, 19), dating from the latter half of the 3rd century and 4th century. In this text, abstinence from flesh is commanded for all the days, while for the Friday and Saturday an absolute fast is commanded. Dionysius Alexandrinus in his canonical epistle (AD 260), refers to the 91 fasting days implying that the observance of them had already become an established usage in his time.


title: Holy Week

text: There is some doubt about the genuineness of an ordinance attributed to Roman Emperor Constantine, in which abstinence from public business was enforced for the seven days immediately preceding Easter Day, and also for the seven which followed it. The "Codex Theodosianus", however, is explicit in ordering that all actions at law should cease, and the doors of all courts of law be closed during those 15 days (1. ii. tit. viii.).


title: Holy Week

text: Of the particular days of the "great week" the earliest to emerge into special prominence was naturally Good Friday. Next came the "Sabbatum Magnum" ("Great Sabbath", i.e., Holy Saturday or Easter Eve) with its vigil, which in the early church was associated with an expectation that the second advent would occur on an Easter Day.


title: Holy Week

text: Other writings that refer to related traditions of the early Church include, most notably, "The Pilgrimage of Etheria" (also known as "The Pilgrimage of Egeria"), which details the whole observance of Holy Week at that time.


title: Holy Week

text: Today, in the Western Christian Church, among Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Catholics, the liturgies used for Holy Week are nearly identical.


title: Holy Week

text: In the Moravian Church, the Holy Week services (Passion Week) are extensive, as the congregation follows the life of Christ through His final week in daily services dedicated to readings from a harmony of the Gospel stories, responding to the actions in hymns, prayers and litanies, beginning on the eve of Palm Sunday and culminating in the Easter Morning or Easter Sunrise service begun by the Moravians in 1732.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, complete: Palm and Passion Sunday (Latin "Dominica in Palmis de Passione Domini"). Traditionally, Palm Sunday commemorates the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem described in all four canonical gospels. As described in the accounts, Christ's entry into Jerusalem was noted by the crowds present who shouted praises and waved palm branches. In the Roman Rite, before 1955 it was known simply as Palm Sunday, and the preceding Sunday as Passion Sunday. From 1955 to 1971 it was called Second Sunday in Passiontide or Palm Sunday. Among Lutherans and Anglicans, the day is known as the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday.


title: Holy Week

text: In many liturgical denominations, to commemorate the Messiah's entry into Jerusalem to accomplish his paschal mystery, it is customary to have a blessing of palm leaves (or other branches, for example olive branches). The blessing ceremony includes the reading of a Gospel account of how Jesus rode into Jerusalem humbly on a donkey, reminiscent of a Davidic victory procession, and how people placed palms and other branches on the ground in front of him. Immediately following this great time of celebration over the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, he begins his journey to the cross. The blessing is thus followed by a procession or solemn entrance into the church, with the participants holding the blessed branches in their hands. The Mass or liturgy of worship itself includes a reading of the Passion, the narrative of Jesus' capture, sufferings and death, as recounted in one of the Synoptic Gospels. (In the Tridentine Mass the Passion narrative read on this day is always that of St. Matthew.)


title: Holy Week

text: Before the reform of the rite by Pope Pius XII, the blessing of the palms occurred inside the church within a liturgy that followed the general outline of a Mass, with Collect, Epistle and Gospel, as far as the Sanctus. The palms were then blessed with five prayers, and a procession went out of the church and on its return included a ceremony for the reopening of the doors, which had meantime been shut. After this the normal Mass was celebrated.


title: Holy Week

text: Many churches of mainstream Christian denominations, including the Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, Moravian and Reformed traditions, distribute palm branches to their congregations during their Palm Sunday liturgies. Christians take these palms, which are often blessed by clergy, to their homes where they hang them alongside Christian art (especially crosses and crucifixes) or keep them in their Bibles or devotionals.


title: Holy Week

text: The days between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday are known as Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, and Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday). The Gospel accounts are not always clear or in agreement on the events which occurred on these days, though there are traditional observances held by some denominations to commemorate certain events from the last days of Jesus Christ's life. Among them


title: Holy Week

text: On Holy Wednesday, the story of Judas arranging his betrayal of Jesus with the chief priests is remembered; he was a spy among the disciples of Jesus (). For this reason, the day is sometimes called "Spy Wednesday". (In the Tridentine Mass the Passion according to St. Luke is read instead.) Other events connected with this date include the events at the house of Simon the Leper, especially the anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany, the events of which directly preceded the betrayal of Jesus by Judas to the Sanhedrin.


title: Holy Week

text: Tenebrae (Latin for "shadows" or "darkness") is celebrated within Western Christianity during Holy Week, especially on Spy Wednesday. Tenebrae is distinctive for its gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms is chanted or recited. Tenebrae liturgies are celebrated by some parishes of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, of the Polish National Catholic Church, of the Lutheran Churches, of the Moravian Church, of the Anglican Communion, of the Methodist Churches, and of Western Rite Orthodoxy within the Eastern Orthodox Church.


title: Holy Week

text: Maundy Thursday (also known as Holy Thursday) commemorates the Last Supper, Lent concludes and at beginning The Easter Triduum at the dusk, where Christ lays out the model for the Eucharist or Holy Communion. During the meal, Jesus predicted the events that would immediately follow, including his betrayal, the Denial of Peter, and his death and resurrection. Events of the last supper play varying roles in commemoration liturgies depending on the denomination.


title: Holy Week

text: In the Catholic Church, on this day the private celebration of Mass is forbidden. Thus, apart from the Chrism Mass for the blessing of the Holy Oils that the diocesan bishop may celebrate on the morning of Holy Thursday, but also on some other day close to Easter, the only Mass on this day is the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, which inaugurates the period of three days, known as the Easter Triduum, that includes Good Friday (seen as beginning with the liturgy of the preceding evening), Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday up to evening prayer on that day. The Chrism Mass, whose texts the Roman Missal as well as the rubrics used in the Lutheran Churches now gives under Maundy Thursday, but before the Paschal Triduum, which begins that evening, may be brought forward early in Holy Week, to facilitate participation by as many as possible of the clergy of the diocese together with the bishop. This Mass was not included in editions of the Roman Missal before the time of Pope Pius XII. In this Mass, the bishop blesses separate oils for the sick (used in Anointing of the Sick), for catechumens (used in Baptism) and chrism (used in Baptism, but especially in Confirmation and Holy Orders, as well as in rites such as the dedication of an altar and a church).


title: Holy Week

text: The Mass of the Lord's Supper commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus with his Twelve Apostles, "the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the priesthood, and the commandment of brotherly love that Jesus gave after washing the feet of his disciples."


title: Holy Week

text: All the bells of the church, including altar bells, may be rung during the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" of the Mass (the Gloria is not traditionally sung on Sundays in Lent). The bells then fall silent and the organ and other musical instruments may be used only to support the singing until the Gloria at the Easter Vigil. In some countries, children are sometimes told: "The bells have flown to Rome."


title: Holy Week

text: The Roman Missal recommends that, if considered pastorally appropriate, the priest should, immediately after the homily, celebrate the rite of washing the feet of an unspecified number of men, customarily twelve, recalling the number of the Apostles.


title: Holy Week

text: In the Catholic Church and in Anglican churches of an Anglo-Catholic churchmanship, a sufficient number of hosts are consecrated for use also in the Good Friday liturgy, and at the conclusion the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession to a place of reposition away from the main body of the church, which, if it involves an altar, is often called an "altar of repose". In some places, notably the Philippines and Malta, Catholics will travel from church to church praying at each church's altar of repose in a practice called "Visita Iglesia" or Seven Churches Visitation.


title: Holy Week

text: In Methodist and Lutheran churches, the altar has black paraments or the altar cloths are removed altogether. Methodist custom holds that apart from depictions of the Stations of the Cross, other images (such as the altar cross) continue the Lenten habitude of being veiled. At the conclusion of the Maundy Thursday liturgy in Lutheran Churches, the "lectern and pulpit are [also] left bare until Easter to symbolize the humiliation and barrenness of the cross." In the Catholic Church, the altars of the church (except the one used for altar of repose) are later stripped quite bare and, to the extent possible, crosses are removed from the church or veiled in the pre-Vatican II rite, crucifixes and statues are covered with violet covers during Passiontide, but the crucifix covers can be white instead of violet on Maundy Thursday).


title: Holy Week

text: Some Catholic parishes and Protestant churches practice the foot washing (Maundy) ceremony on Maundy Thursday.


title: Holy Week

text: Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus and his subsequent death. Commemorations of often solemn and mournful, many denominations use Good Friday to perform the Stations of the Cross, or other commemorations of the Passion, either as a self-guided time of reflection and veneration or as a procession of statues or images of the stations.


title: Holy Week

text: The evening liturgical celebration on Holy Thursday begins the first of the three days of the Easter Triduum, which continues in an atmosphere of liturgical mourning throughout the next day in spite of the name "Good" given in English to this Friday.


title: Holy Week

text: For Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican Christians, Good Friday is widely observed as a fast day. "A Handbook for the Discipline of Lent" recommends the Lutheran guideline to "Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday with only one simple meal during the day, usually without meat". Western Catholic Church practice is to have only one full meal with, if needed, two small snacks that together do not make a full meal. The Anglican Communion defines fasting more generically as: "The amount of food eaten is reduced."


title: Holy Week

text: In some countries, such as Malta, Philippines, Italy, and Spain processions with statues representing the Passion of Christ are held.


title: Holy Week

text: In some parishes of the Anglican Church, Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, and Methodist Church, the "Three Hours Devotion" is observed. This traditionally consists of a series of sermons, interspersed with singing, one on each of the Seven Last Words from the Cross, together with an introduction and a conclusion.


title: Holy Week

text: Another pious exercise carried out on Good Friday is that of the Stations of the Cross, either within the church or outside. The celebration at the Colosseum with participation by the Pope has become a traditional fixture widely covered by television.


title: Holy Week

text: The Novena to the Divine Mercy begins on that day and lasts until the Saturday before the Feast of Mercy.


title: Holy Week

text: Moravians hold a Lovefeast on Good Friday as they receive Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday. Communicants of the Moravian Church practice the Good Friday tradition of cleaning gravestones in Moravian cemeteries.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Saturday is the day between the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection. As the Sabbath day, the Gospel accounts all note that Jesus was hurriedly buried in a cave tomb after his crucifixion, with the intent to finish proper embalming and burial ceremonies on Sunday, after the Sabbath had ended, as the Sabbath day prohibitions would have prevented observant Jews from completing a proper burial. While daytime liturgies or commemorations of the day are rare in the Western tradition, after sundown on Holy Saturday is the traditional time for Easter Vigil.


title: Holy Week

text: In the Catholic tradition, Mass is not celebrated on what is liturgically Holy Saturday. The celebration of Easter begins after sundown on what, though still Saturday in the civil calendar, is liturgically Easter Sunday.


title: Holy Week

text: In some Anglican churches, including the Episcopal Church in the United States, there is provision for a simple liturgy of the word with readings commemorating the burial of Christ.


title: Holy Week

text: The tabernacle is left empty and open. The lamp or candle usually situated next to the tabernacle denoting the Presence of Christ is put out, and the remaining Eucharistic Hosts consecrated on Holy Thursday are kept elsewhere, usually the sacristy, with a lamp or candle burning before it, so that, in cases of the danger of death, they may be given as "viaticum".


title: Holy Week

text: The name of the Easter Vigil, even if the vigil is held on what on the civil calendar is still Saturday, indicates that liturgically it is already Easter, no longer part of Holy Week, but still part of the Easter Triduum.


title: Holy Week

text: In the Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, and Presbyterian traditions, the Easter Vigil, one of the longest and most solemn of liturgical liturgies, lasts up to three or four hours, consists of four parts:


title: Holy Week

text: The Liturgy begins after sundown on Holy Saturday as the crowd gathers inside the unlit church. In the darkness (often in a side chapel of the church building or, preferably, outside the church), a new fire is kindled and blessed by the priest. This new fire symbolizes the light of salvation and hope that God brought into the world through Christ's Resurrection, dispelling the darkness of sin and death. From this fire is lit the Paschal candle, symbolizing the Light of Christ. This Paschal candle will be used throughout the season of Easter, remaining in the sanctuary of the Church or near the lectern, and throughout the coming year at baptisms and funerals, reminding all that Christ is "light and life."


title: Holy Week

text: The candles of those present are lit from the Paschal candle. As this symbolic "Light of Christ" spreads throughout those gathered, the darkness is decreased. A deacon, or the priest if there is no deacon, carries the Paschal Candle at the head of the entrance procession and, at three points, stops and chants the proclamation "The Light of Christ" (until Easter 2011, the official English text was "Christ our Light"), to which the people respond "Thanks be to God." Once the procession concludes with the singing of the third proclamation, the lights throughout the church are lit, except for the altar candles. Then the deacon or a cantor chants the Exultet (also called the "Easter Proclamation"), After that, the people put aside their candles and sit down for the Liturgy of the Word.


title: Holy Week

text: The Liturgy of the Word includes between three and seven readings from the Old Testament, followed by two from the New (an Epistle and a Gospel). The Old Testament readings must include the account in Exodus 14 of the crossing of the Red Sea, seen as an antitype of baptism and Christian salvation. Each Old Testament reading is followed by a psalm or canticle (such as Exodus 15:1–18 and a prayer relating what has been read to the Mystery of Christ. After the Old Testament readings conclude, the Gloria in excelsis Deo, which has been suspended during Lent, is intoned and bells are rung.


title: Holy Week

text: A reading from the Epistle to the Romans is proclaimed. The Alleluia is sung for the first time since the beginning of Lent. The Gospel of the Resurrection then follows, along with a homily.


title: Holy Week

text: After the conclusion of the Liturgy of the Word, the water of the baptismal font is blessed and any catechumens or candidates for full communion are initiated into the church, by baptism or confirmation. After the celebration of these sacraments of initiation, the congregation renews their baptismal vows and receive the sprinkling of baptismal water. The general intercessions follow.


title: Holy Week

text: After the Liturgy of Baptism, the Liturgy of the Eucharist continues as usual. This is the first Mass of Easter Day. During the Eucharist, the newly baptised receive Holy Communion for the first time. According to the rubrics of the Missal, the Eucharist should finish before dawn.


title: Holy Week

text: Easter Day, which immediately follows Holy Week and begins with the Easter Vigil, is the great feast day and apogee of the Christian liturgical year: on this day the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated. It is the first day of the new season of the Great Fifty Days, or Eastertide, which runs from Easter Day to Pentecost Sunday. The Resurrection of Christ on Easter Day is the main reason why Christians keep every Sunday as the primary day of religious observance.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week has developed into one of Brazil's main symbols of community identity, more specifically in the southern town of Campanha. The Campanha Holy Week begins on the Monday evening with the Procession of the Deposit. The figure of Our Lord of the Stations, representing the blood-stained Jesus carrying the cross, is brought from the church in a large black box and displayed in the main square. Then it is solemnly taken to the church following a band and a procession of people. Outside the church, a sermon is delivered on the Easter story of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. After the sermon, a choir inside the open doors of the church sings the Miserere by Manoel Dias de Oliveria, while the black box is brought inside the church, and people come in to kiss the human-sized figure of Christ. Processions on Tuesday and Wednesday stop at different chapels at each of which a large painting portrays episodes of the Way of the Cross and a related hymn is sung at each. On Thursday morning the Chrism Mass is celebrated, with a blessing of the oils. Good Friday afternoon ceremonies are followed by the week's main spectacle of the Taking Down from the Cross in front of the cathedral followed by the Funeral Procession of Our Dead Lord. The drama shows Christ being taken from the cross and placed in a coffin, which is then taken around to the accompaniment of the "Song of Veronica". On Saturday morning a drama is performed by the youth. The following night, the Paschal Vigil is celebrated, and the streets are transformed into a beautiful array of intricate, colorful carpets to prepare for the following day. Easter Sunday begins before sunrise with the singing of the choir and band performances to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Bells and fireworks are followed by a Mass that ends with the "Hallelujah Chorus".


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week in Guatemala incorporates processions with images of saints carried on huge wooden platforms. The heavy "andas" are held by the locals, both men and women, who are frequently in purple robes. The procession is led by a man holding a container of incense accompanied by a small horn and flute band. Intricate carpets ("alfombras") line the streets during the week's celebration. Easter processions begin at sunrise and everyone comes to join the festivities.


title: Holy Week

text: In Amatenango, the figure of Judas, who betrayed Christ has been the main point of focus during the Mayan Holy Week. The priest calls Judas the "killer of Christ". The figure used to be beaten after the Crucifixion performance on Good Friday, but is now treated more calmly.


title: Holy Week

text: The hollyday is celebrated in Comayagua. The tradition its still practiced as the same way that was introduced in the 16th century by the Spanish conquerors. Every Holy Week people make the famous "alfombras de aserrín" or colored carpets made of wood dust that represent a scene of the life and death of Jesus Christ of the Virgin Mary and other saints or the Holy spirit.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week is also widely celebrated in Tegucigalpa following similar traditions of Comayagua, mostly in the historic center of the city, Similar to Guatemala, the Honduran Holy Week incorporates processions with images of saints carried on huge wooden platforms. In other communities as Gracias Lempira and different towns is still widely celebrated.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week is also observed in parts of Southern Italy, notably Sicily. The most famous is the Holy Week of Trapani, culminating in the Processione dei Misteri di Trapani or simply the "Misteri di Trapani" (in English the "Procession of the Mysteries of Trapani" or the "Mysteries of Trapani"), a day-long passion procession featuring twenty floats of lifelike wood, canvas and glue sculptures of individual scenes of the events of the Passion.


title: Holy Week

text: The Misteri are amongst the oldest continuously running religious events in Europe, having been played every Good Friday since before the Easter of 1612, and running for at least 16 continuous hours, but occasionally well beyond 24 hours; they are the longest religious festival in Sicily and in Italy. Similar but smaller or shorter passion processions are held in many other Sicilian cities, like Erice and Caltanissetta, but also in various Southern Italian cities, like Salerno and Taranto.


title: Holy Week

text: The Holy Week commemorations reach their paramount on Good Friday as the Catholic Church celebrates the passion of Jesus. Solemn celebrations take place in all churches together with processions in different villages around Malta and Gozo. During the celebration, the narrative of the passion is read in some localities. The Cross follows a significant Way of Jesus. Good Friday processions take place in Birgu, Bormla, Għaxaq, Luqa, Mosta, Naxxar, Paola, Qormi, Rabat, Senglea, Valletta, Żebbuġ and Żejtun. Processions in Gozo will be in Nadur, Victoria, Xagħra Xewkija, and Żebbuġ.


title: Holy Week

text: Yaqui Holy Week is both ritualistic and dramaturgic in its celebrations. The rituals date back to the early seventeenth century, at the time of pioneering Jesuit priest. The major event of the Yaqui Indians during Holy Week occurs on Wednesday evening in which people arrive at the church on horseback and begin to crawl and dance naked on the floor. Light begins to go out and people begin the whipping, screaming and crying to the sound of traditional music of sacrifice. In Tucson, dancers are used to wear dark coats and black hide masks, instead of blankets.


title: Holy Week

text: Children in white robes with blue painted faces and a dark hooded figure, symbolizing the betrayer of Christ, join the Thursday morning procession to the church. There they promise to serve God for the next three or five years, until their eyes start to bleed just like Christ's would. That night, there is a symbolic search for Jesus when the "Pharisees" visit various crosses in the streets and capture the "old man" (symbolic Jesus). On Friday


title: Holy Week

text: a member of the church who volunteers to represent Jesus is beaten and buried for two days. On Saturday, an image of Jesus' betrayer, Judas Iscariot, and takes place an apotropaic battle destroying the evil which has been accumulated in the town during the next year. Sunday celebrates the Christ's resurrection filled with beautiful flowers and fireworks, while the volunteer rises from where he was buried. A dance drama is performed enacting evil being defeated by good.


title: Holy Week

text: In the predominantly Catholic Philippines, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are national holidays; work is suspended in government offices and private businesses. Most stores are closed and most people in the cities return to their home provinces to commemorate Holy Week in their home town.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week is commemorated with street processions featuring wheeled "carrozas" or floats carrying various icons, the Way of the Cross, and a Passion play called the "Senákulo" In some communities (most famously in San Fernando, Pampanga), the processions include devotees who self-flagellate and sometimes even have themselves nailed to crosses as expressions of penance.. After 15:00 PHT on Good Friday (the time at which Jesus is traditionally believed to have died), noise is discouraged, many radio stations and television stations close down (some broadcast religious programming, with non-Catholic owned stations continuing broadcast), and the faithful are urged to keep a solemn and prayerful disposition through to Easter Sunday.


title: Holy Week

text: At Mass on Palm Sunday, Catholics carry "palaspás" or palm leaves to be blessed by the priest. Many Filipinos bring home the palm leaves after the Mass and place these above their front doors or their windows, believing that doing so can ward off evil spirits. Holy Monday marks the beginning of the "Pabasa" (Tagalog, "reading"), the marathon chanting of the Pasyón, a poem narrating Jesus Christ's life and death. The chanting, which continues day and night without interruption, lasts as long as two straight days.


title: Holy Week

text: One of the most important Holy Week traditions in the Philippines is the "Visita Iglesia" (Spanish for "church visit"). On Maundy Thursday, the faithful visit seven churches to pray the Stations of the Cross, and in the evenings, pray in front of each church's Altar of Repose.


title: Holy Week

text: The last Mass before Easter is also celebrated on Maundy Thursday, usually including a reenactment of the Washing of the Feet of the Apostles. This Mass is followed by the procession of the Blessed Sacrament to be transferred to the Altar of Repose. Good Friday in the Philippines is commemorated with street processions, the Way of the Cross, the commemoration of the Seven last words and a Passion play called the Sinakulo.


title: Holy Week

text: Easter Day is marked with joyous celebration, the first being the dawn "Salubong" rite, wherein statues of Jesus and Mary are brought in procession together to meet, imagining the first reunion of Jesus and his mother Mary after the Resurrection. This is followed by the joyous Easter Mass. Most Catholic communities across the Philippines practice this, though it is more popularly celebrated in the provinces. The rite, originally called the "encuentro", was introduced by Spanish priests during the colonial era.


title: Holy Week

text: Cartagena, Lorca, Granada, Murcia, Málaga, Seville, Valladolid, Palencia, Jerez de la Frontera, Zamora, León or Ferrol hold elaborate processions for Holy Week. A tradition dating from medieval times that has spread to other cities in Andalusia, the ""Semana Santa en Sevilla"" is notable for featuring the procession of "pasos", lifelike wood or plaster sculptures of individual scenes of the events that happened between Jesus Christ's arrest and his burial, or images of the Virgin Mary showing grief for the torture and killing of her son. Holy week processions in Seville include marching bands that escort the pasos.


title: Holy Week

text: In Málaga, the lifelike wooden or plaster sculptures are called "tronos" and they are carried through the streets by "costaleros" ( Translated literally as "sack men", because of the "costal", a sack-like cloth that they wear over their neck, to soften the burden). These pasos and tronos are physically carried on their necks or "braceros" (this name is popular in Leon). The paso can weigh up to five metric tonnes. In front of them walk the penitentes, dressed in long purple robes, often with pointed hats, followed by women in black carrying candles for up to 11 hours. The pasos are set up and maintained by "hermandades" and "cofradías", religious brotherhoods that are common to a specific area of the city, whose precede the paso dressed in Roman military costumes or penitential robes.


title: Holy Week

text: Those members who wish to do so wear these penitential robes with conical hats, or "capirotes", used to conceal the face of the wearer. These "Nazarenos" or "Papones" (this word is typical from Leon) carry processional candles, may walk the city streets barefoot, and may carry shackles and chains in their feet as penance. A brass band, marching band, a drum and bugle band, or in the cases of Cartagena and Málaga a military band (such as that of the Spanish Legion or other military units) may accompany the group, playing funeral marches, hymns or "marchas" written for the occasion.


title: Holy Week

text: Music for the Holy Week includes Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet, Responsories for Holy Week, Passion oratorios and Easter oratorios.


title: Holy Week

text: Tomás Luis de Victoria's "Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae" (1585) contains settings of 37 texts for the Catholic liturgy of the Holy Week. Carlo Gesualdo's "Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia" (1611) contains settings of all 27 Tenebrae responsories (for matins of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday), and of a few other text for use in lauds of the Holy Week. "Leçons de ténèbres" as composed by various French baroque composers were usually intended for performance during the evening of Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.


title: Holy Week

text: In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the forty days of Great Lent end on the Friday before Palm Sunday. The two days that follow, Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, form a transition to Holy Week, neither in Lent nor in Holy Week themselves, but in combination with Holy Week containing the continuing observances in preparation for Pascha (Easter), during which the faithful continue to fast.


title: Holy Week

text: Lazarus Saturday commemorates Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, just before he went to Jerusalem himself. The main themes anticipate the Resurrection of Jesus, showing him as master over death. On this day wine and oil are allowed (and, in the Russian tradition, caviar), lightening the fast by one degree. Palm Sunday is considered one of the Great Feasts of the Lord, and is celebrated with fish, wine and oil, the lightest degree of fasting, in observance of the festival. Because it is a Great Feast of the Lord, the normal resurrectional elements of the Sunday liturgies are omitted. However, some of these resurrectional elements are found in the Lazarus Saturday liturgy.


title: Holy Week

text: Holy Week is referred to as "Great and Holy Week", or "Passion Week". Since the Orthodox liturgical day starts at sunset (as it has from antiquity), Holy Monday liturgies begin Sunday evening, at the normal timing for Monday Vespers (Vespers is the first liturgy of the day). However, during Holy Week, in most parishes, many liturgy times are advanced from six to twelve hours in time and celebrated in anticipation, which permits more of the faithful to attend the most prominent liturgies. Thus, it is the matins liturgy of Great Monday that is on "Palm Sunday" evening in parish churches and often vespers is in the morning.


title: Holy Week

text: Fasting during Great and Holy Week is very strict, as in Lent at a minimum: dairy products and meat products are strictly forbidden, and on most days, no alcoholic beverages are permitted and no oil is used in cooking. Holy Friday and Holy Saturday especially may exceed Lenten norms. Those who can, including monastics, observe them as days of abstention, meaning that nothing is eaten on those days. However, fasting is always adjusted to the needs of the individual, and those who are very young, ill or elderly are not expected to fast as strictly. Those who are able may receive the blessing of their spiritual father to observe an even stricter fast, whereby they eat only two meals that week: one on Wednesday night and one after Divine Liturgy on Thursday.


title: Holy Week

text: A new liturgical day beginning at sunset, the first liturgy of each day is vespers at which stichera are chanted elaborating the theme of the new day.


title: Holy Week

text: These days' Orthros liturgies (which in parishes is performed the previous night) are often referred to as the "Bridegroom Prayer", because of their theme of Christ as the Bridegroom of the Church, a theme expressed in the troparion that is solemnly chanted during them. On these days, an icon of the "Bridegroom" is placed on an analogion in the center of the temple, portraying Jesus wearing the purple robe of mockery and crowned with a crown of thorns (see Instruments of the Passion).


title: Holy Week

text: The same theme is repeated in the exapostilarion, a hymn which occurs near the end of the liturgy. These liturgies follow much the same pattern as liturgies on weekdays of Great Lent. The liturgies are so laid out that the entire Psalter (with the exception of Kathisma XVII) is chanted on the first three days of Holy Week. The canon that is chanted on these days is a "Triode", i.e., composed of three odes instead of the usual nine, as is in other weekday liturgies in the Triodion.


title: Holy Week

text: Towards the end of the Tuesday evening Bridegroom liturgy (Orthros for Great and Holy Wednesday), the "Hymn of Kassiani" is sung. The hymn (written in the 9th century by Kassia) tells of the woman who washed Christ's feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee (). Much of the hymn is written from the perspective of the sinful woman:


title: Holy Week

text: O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins, sensing Your Divinity, takes upon herself the duty of a myrrh-bearer. With lamentations she brings you myrrh in anticipation of your entombment. "Woe to me!" she cries, "for me night has become a frenzy of licentiousness, a dark and moonless love of sin. Receive the fountain of my tears, O You who gathers into clouds the waters of the sea. Incline unto me, unto the sighings of my heart, O You who bowed the heavens by your ineffable condescension. I will wash your immaculate feet with kisses and dry them again with the tresses of my hair; those very feet at whose sound Eve hid herself from in fear when she heard You walking in Paradise in the twilight of the day. As for the multitude of my sins and the depths of Your judgements, who can search them out, O Savior of souls, my Savior? Do not disdain me Your handmaiden, O You who are boundless in mercy."


title: Holy Week

text: On vespers at the end of Monday through Wednesday is a reading from the Gospel which sets forth the new day's theme and then the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts may be celebrated.


title: Holy Week

text: The Byzantine musical composition expresses the poetry so strongly that it leaves many people in a state of prayerful tears. The Hymn can last upwards of 25 minutes and is liturgically and musically a highpoint of the entire year.


title: Holy Week

text: In many churches, especially Greek Orthodox, a liturgy of Anointing (Holy Unction) is held on Wednesday evening, following the Presanctified Liturgy. This is in commemoration of the anointing of Jesus, and a preparation of the faithful to enter with Christ into his death and Resurrection. Those who wish to receive Holy Communion on Great and Holy Thursday, are encouraged to receive the Holy Mystery of Unction.