HOLY WEEK, the week immediately preceding Easter, and specially' consecrated to the commemoration of the passion of our Redeemer. In English use, it is also called "passion week" (a name appropriated, in Roman use, to the week before Palm Sun day). This institution is of very early origin, and the natne holy week is but one of many by which its sacred character has been described. It was also called the " great week," the "silent week," the "week of the holy passion," the "vacant week," the "penitential week." In the Roman Catholic church, the special characteristics of the celebration of the holy week • are increwd solemnity and gloom, penitential rigor. and mourning. If any of the ordinary church festiVals fall therein, it Is transferred till after Easter. All instrumental music is suspended in the churches, the altars are stripped of their ornaments, the pictures and statues are veiled from public sight; manual labor. although it is no longer entirely prohibited, is by many persons volun tarily suspended; the rigor of fasting is redoubled, and alms-deeds and other works of mercy sedulously enjoined and practiced. All church services of the week, moreover, breathe the spirit of mourning; some of them being specially devoted to the commemora tion of particular scenes in the passion of our Lord. The days thus specially solem nized are Palm Sunday, Spy Wednesday, Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, Good- Friday (q.v.), Holy Saturday. Holy Thursday (called also .Maundy Thursday, from mandatum, the first word in one of the church services of the day), in the Homan Catholic church, is specially designed as a commemoration of the Last Supper, and of the institution of the Eucharist. But there are several other services annexed to the day, as the
solemn consecration of the oil or chrism used in baptism, confirmation, orders, and extreme unction, the washing of pilgrims' feet, and the tenebrie. To Holy Saturday belongs the solemn blessing of fire and of the water of the baptismal font; and from the earliest times it was set apart for the baptism of catechumens. and for the ordina tion of candidates for the ecclesiastical ministry. From the fire solemnly blessed on this day is lighted the Paschal light, which is regarded as a symbol of Christ risen from the dead. This symbolical light is kept burning during the reading of the gospel at mass throughout the interval between Easter and Pentecost. See Wetser's Kirehen Lexicon , art. " Charwoche." It must be added, however, that in many instances the primitive institution of the holy week was perverted, and that the suspension of labor, which was originally designed for purposes of devotion and recollection, was turned into an occasion of amusement not 'infrequently of a very questionable character. Such abuses are now universally discountenanced by the ecclesiastical authorities.
In the Protestant communions there is no special solemnization of the holy week, with the exception of Good Friday (q.v.), which is observed in sonic of them.