The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-12
WEEK IN CHURCH
Tomorrow Is Palm Sunday
Among Catholics.
Holy Week Ends Lent for Con-
gregations Here.
RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD
Easter Ends Christian Period
Turnout the World.
Decoration of Eggs Signifies
Days of Modification.
RESURRECTION OF OUR LORI
BY Eleanor KIMBALL.

called Branch" Sunday, and COM
memorates the entry of our Lord into
Jerusalem when the people strewed
the way with palm branches and cried
.Hosanna!" The palm tree was COM
mon in Judea, and planted, no doubt,
everywhere by the wayside. On this
Sunday the affairs of the Roman Cath
Ole and Episcopal churches are deco
rated with palms which are blessed
and given to the faithful.
Next week yill be Holy week and
especially consecrated to the COM
memoration of the Passion of Christ.
With this week will end the forty days
of Lent. The six Sundays during this
season, beginning with the first Sun
day in Lent and ending with Palm
Sunday, while they are in Lent, are
NOS of Lent Holy week is so named
because of the anticipation of its Pas
sion and its services. Wednesday in
Holy week is called Spy Wednesday,
the old English name for the day.
which commentaries the betrayal of
Christ by Judas. Thursday in Holy
! week is called Holy Thursday or
Mandy Thursday. The origin of the
latter name is in doubt. 1t lis re-
ferred tosthe Latin dies mandati: "a
new commandment 1 give unto you,
| that you love one another" est. John
xiii-34) and hence is sometimes called
Commandment Thursday; also mande,
| a hand basket from which food was
distributed to the poor on the day
before Good Friday; and to the phrase,
| 'Accipite ct manducate." take ana
eat" occurring in the Epistle for the
day in the Episcopal and Roman Cath
| Ole churches
This day is also called Shere Thurs
day, SO called, says an old homily, for
IN old Fathers days the people would
that day 'shere' their heads and clip
Inelr boards and so make ready for
Easter Day" Some authorities con-
lecture that the name is derived from
| the word sheer, meaning purus, mum
dus, and alludes to the washing of the
| disciples feet. 1t was also the custom
on that day to wash the affairs in the
churehes. Maundy Thursday, says a
| writer in the Gentlemans magazine
for July 1873, rs the poor peoples
| Thursday, from the French maundier.
10 beg. Mandiant is at this day in
French a beggar.' The word is also
at times spelled ''Maunday."
Good Friday.
Good Friday, the Friday before
Easter, is observed in eommemora-
ton of the crucifixion of Christ. That
from very early period it was a day
OF solemn mourning, fasting and spe-
cal prayer, is apparent from the Apos-
tol1c Constitution and from Eusebius
who tells US that when Christianity
|
stantine forbade the holding of mar
kets, law courts and other public pro-
| ceedfngS upon this day. Good Friday
is legal holiday in England and Ire
| land and in number of states in the
United States, among them: Ala bama
Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Mary
| land, Minnesota, New Jersey Pennsyl-
Vania and Tennessee, and it's observ-
ance is largely increasing even among
| the non-liturgical denomination thru
out the English speaking world. A
service of modern origin on this day
in Roman Catholic and Episcopal
churches is the Three Hours Devo-
ton. consisting of addresses upon the
seven last words of Christ, prayers and
hymns and occupying the hours from
2 until 3, when He hung upon the
cross.
Hot cross buns, sold on Good Friday
in England and in some localities in
| this country, are marked with the
form of a cross, hence the name. One
authority in speaking of these Cross
buns, Saffron cakes, or Symnels in
Passion Week (two weeks before
| Easter) observes that these being.
formerly, at least, unIeavened, may
have a retrospect to the unleavened
bread of the Jews, in the same manner
as lamb at Easter to the Paschal
| Lamb" Holy Saturday was in the
earliest times set aside for the solemn
administration of baptism and orders.
Easter Sunday, April 90.
Easter, the festival of the Resurrec-
ton of our Lord, is the principal
feast of the Christian year. The
proper time for the celebration of
Easter occasioned no little con-
troversy In the second century a
dispute arose on the point between
the Eastern and the Western churches.
The great mass of the eastern Chris
tians celebrated Easter on the four
teenth day of the first Jewish month
or moon, considering it to be equiva-
lent to the Jewish Passover. The
western church celebrated it on the
Sunday after the fourteenth day. hold
ing that it was the commemorative OF
the Resurrection of Jesus The Coun-
ell of Nicaea, 1926, decided in favor
of the western church. The rule is
that Easter day is always the first
Sunday after the full moon which hap
pens upon or next after the twenty
pens upon a Sunday, Easter day will
be the following Sunday. Easter can
not come earlier than March %, and
the last time it fell upon this day was
in 1918. On the other hand Easter
cannot be later than April rs. and it
will not occur again upon this date
until 1913.
this day was held by the early
Christians to signify that the days of
modification and abstinence were
over, and festivities had taken place
and as an emblem of the resurrection
of life, certified to us by the Resur-
rection from the regions of death and
the grave.
Look for Bank Cashier.
r-fI arh1 e. III