What is Holy Saturday?
Holy Saturday is the last day of Holy Week and of Lent. It commemorates the day on which Jesus lay in the tomb, and in the Catholic Church it is a day of quiet waiting: the altar stays bare, and sacraments are very limited. The Easter Vigil is held after nightfall, with the blessing of a new fire, the lighting of the paschal candle, readings that tell the story of salvation, and the baptism of new Christians. In Catholic churches the bells and the organ, silent since the Gloria of Maundy Thursday, return during the Gloria of the vigil, and this moment is often the most dramatic of the service.
In the Orthodox churches, Holy Saturday is called Great and Holy Saturday. Its morning service is the First Resurrection, a vesperal Liturgy of Saint Basil at which Greek and Arab churches scatter bay laurel leaves as a sign of victory over death. The midnight Paschal service is the heart of the festival: worshippers carry candles, and the greeting Christ is risen is first exchanged after midnight. In many Orthodox countries, families spend the day colouring eggs, baking Easter bread and preparing food for the Easter table, so the day is busy at home, even though it is quiet in the streets.
Why it is observed
Waiting through the night before Easter is among the oldest Christian customs, and by the fourth century the Easter Vigil, with baptisms, was an established part of the liturgy. In the Western church the vigil drifted into Saturday morning by the Middle Ages. The Catholic Church restored it to the night of Holy Saturday as an experiment in 1951, and the decree Maxima Redemptionis of November 1955, effective in 1956, made the night vigil the universal norm. The Orthodox Paschal midnight service has kept the old night-time pattern. In 2027 Holy Saturday falls on 27 March in the West and on 1 May in Orthodox countries.
How the date is set
Holy Saturday is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the day before Easter. It falls between 21 March and 24 April on the Western calendar and, for Orthodox churches on the Julian calendar, between 3 April and 7 May in the civil calendar.
How it is observed
Holy Saturday is a public holiday in few countries. In the site's 2027 data it is one in Bulgaria, Georgia and Vatican City, and in several countries of Latin America and Africa, among them Belize, Botswana, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Zambia and South Sudan, as well as the Solomon Islands. Shops are often open in the morning and close early, and the evening is given to church services and preparations of Easter food. In Orthodox countries, markets for eggs, lamb and sweet bread are busy during the day. Holiday status, extra pay and substitute rules depend on the country and the contract. Where Easter is a long weekend, the Saturday is part of it.
Sources
Bulgaria
Serbia
Vatican City