Words by: Maggie Laubscher | Music by: Abby Yemm

With Palm Sunday this coming weekend, so begins Holy Week. It’s a week of mourning, as Christians journey through Jesus’ final days. In total, there are five separate days of meaning. Holy Week always runs from Palm Sunday to the day before Easter Sunday.

It’s a solemn time for Christians, though it leads to the joyous celebration of the resurrection, or Easter Sunday. It’s a time to reflect on Jesus’ suffering and death. So, it’s a lot. Below, we break down the meaning of Holy Week, including Palm Sunday and beyond.

DAY ONE: PALM SUNDAY

The Christian holiday of Palm Sunday (also called Passion Sunday) always falls on the Sunday before Easter. It celebrates Christ’s return to Jerusalem, post-solo wandering in the desert. He rides through town on a donkey to claim his royal place. The crowds greeted him warmly, holding up palm fronds and placing palms and other tree branches at his feet. It was celebratory, joyous, and all things good.

During present-day celebrations, palm fronds are often shipped in, blessed during mass, and taken home by parishioners as a remembrance of the holiday. Leftover palms are burned into ashes for the following year’s Ash Wednesday. However, palm fronds aren’t the only acceptable option. Olive branches or other greenery can be used and are just as acceptable.

The holiday’s other name, Passion Sunday, is used because the story read during the day’s ceremonial mass is the Passion story from the Bible about Jesus’ time of suffering. This reading is the main part of Palm Sunday celebrations.

DAYS 2, 3, & 4

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are seen as quieter days to prepare for the final three sacred days, or Triduum, of Holy Week.

DAY 5: HOLY THURSDAY

Holy Thursday is also named Maundy Thursday, which references the term ‘commandment’ in Latin. This day honors the famous Last Supper celebration, where Jesus issued the key commandment, ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’

Holy Thursday also includes the Chrism Mass, where sacramental oils are consecrated, and the Mass of the Lord's Supper, where oftentimes the priest washes 12 congregants' feet as Jesus washed his disciples' feet.

DAY 6: GOOD FRIDAY

Good Friday is the heaviest of Holy Week, and also its most well-known. It’s a day focused on Jesus’ crucifixion, or execution, on the cross. Many people fast and mourn on this day. Some churches also reenact Jesus’ journey to the cross.

DAY 7: HOLY SATURDAY

Holy Saturday, also called Easter Vigil, marks the end of Lent and the final day of Holy Week. Churches hold candlelit ceremonies. People prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ return. And believers hold vigil awaiting his return (the resurrection).

And what follows Holy Week? Easter Sunday and all of its springtime lightness and joy. Here’s to the lightness, Nellies.

An Abby Yemm playlist for you…

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The Meaning of Holy Week