Easter week timeline
The next Holy Week will begin on April 13, 2025 with Palm Sunday and will end on April 20 with Easter Sunday. In the year 2024, Holy Week began on March 24 and ended on March 31.
Holy Week of the Catholic Church is a religious celebration that commemorates the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Sunday, covering the most important days of the liturgical year. During this week, the Catholic faithful participate in various ceremonies and rites that express our faith and devotion, as well as our gratitude and hope in the Savior.
Origin of Holy Week
Holy Week has its origins in the Jewish tradition of celebrating Passover, which remembers the liberation of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The first Christians adopted this festival as the framework to remember the events of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life, which coincided with the Jewish Passover. Thus, Holy Week became an occasion to relive and meditate on the central mysteries of the Christian faith: the love of God manifested in the giving of his Son, the redemptive sacrifice of the cross and the victory over death and sin.
Easter timeline is made up of several days, each with its own rituals and traditions. Timeline of Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday and the celebration begins with the blessing of palms and olive branches, which symbolize the triumph of Jesus upon entering Jerusalem. Holy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, where Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood. The washing of the feet is also remembered, which shows the service and humility of Jesus. On Good Friday, the passion and death of Jesus on the cross is remembered, with the Via Crucis, which represents the fourteen stations on the way to Calvary. On Holy Saturday there is silence and prayer, waiting for the resurrection of Jesus. Easter Sunday celebrates Jesus’ victory over death and Christians celebrate it on Holy Saturday night at the Easter Vigil, whose celebration lasts until the early hours of Sunday.
How is the date of Holy Week calculated?
Passion week timeline is celebrated on different dates each year, according to the lunar calendar, but always between March and April. The date of the Holy Week timeline catholic is determined according to an astronomical calculation based on the lunar calendar. The general rule is that Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, which is the Sunday before the first full moon after the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere. The spring equinox is the day when day and night are the same length, and is usually March 21. The full moon is the phase of the moon in which it is completely illuminated from the Earth, and occurs every 29 or 30 days. Therefore, the date of Holy Week can vary between March 22 and April 25.
Holy Week is celebrated around the world with various cultural and artistic manifestations, which reflect the richness and diversity of the Catholic Church. Some of the most popular expressions are processions, theatrical performances, sacred music, images and flowers. These forms of expression seek to help the faithful live with greater intensity and depth the meaning of this sacred week. Some examples are the processions of Seville, the flamenco saetas, the carved wooden steps, the capirotes and the mantillas, the carpets of flowers and sawdust, the drums and cornets, the images of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Conclusion
Holy Week is also an opportunity to renew our Christian life, following the example of Jesus. He taught us to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves, to forgive those who offend us, to serve those most in need, to pray with confidence and to trust in the will of the Father. Holy Week invites us to die to sin and to rise to a new life, full of grace and holiness.
