HOLY WEEK. The week immediately pre ceding Easter. and especially consecrated to the commemoration of the passion of Christ. In the Roman Catholic Church. the special characteris tics of the celebration of the Holy Week are in creased 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 front public sight ; manual labor, although it is no longer entirely prohibited, is by many persons voluntarily 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 spe cially devoted to the commemoration of particular scenes in the passion.
Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, and is observed by the blessing of palm branches, are car ried in the procession as they were by the people of Jerusalem on that day. Spy Wednesday is the old English name for the day which com memorates the betrayal of Christ by Judas. lloly Thursday (also called Maundy Thursday) is the commemoration of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. With this in mind, white vestments are worn at the mass (only one mass is celebrated on this day), after which the altars are solemnly stApped and washed by the clergy. (See also Eoor-WAsiiuNa.) The matins of the last three days, generally sung on the lin ceding evening (see TEN constitute an impressive service. (In Good Friday the mass is not celebrated, the day being the commemoration of the one sacrifice of the great High Priest; but a special service is held, called the 'mass of the presanctified.' ineludidg the communion of the
priest from the host reserved from the previous day on the 'altar of repose.' (For the ceremony of the 'adoration of the cross,' see Caoss.) holy Saturday was in the earliest times set aside for the solemn administration of baptism and orders; the present services of the day begin to partake of the gladness of Easter (q.v.). In the Anglican communion the observance of the week in a similar spirit is prescribed, and the Scripture selections all have a bearing upon the events com memorated. Good Friday is a legal holiday in England and Ireland, and its observance is large ly increasing. even among the non-liturgical de nominations throughout the English-speaking world.
HOLYWELL, 11611-wild. A municipal and Parliamentary borough and market-town in Flintshire, North Wales. miles northwest of Flint (Map: England, C 3). It has limestone quarries, coal and lead mines, and macrons establishments for smelting, shot, zinc, etc. There are also manufactures of cot tons, flannels. and galloons, paper. and Roman cement. Holywell owes its origin to the re nowned well of Saint Winifred, which is said to be the most copious spring in Britain. Its waters were believed to be efficacious in curing diseases, and are still resorted to by Roman Catholic pilgrims. The well is cowered by a tine Perpendicular chapel attributed to Margaret, mother of henry VII. In the vicinity are re mains of the old Saxon Abbey of Basingwerk. and in the town is Saint Buenos College for Roman Catholie priests. Population, in 1391, 2894; in I 901. 2652.