What is Maundy Thursday?
Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, at which Jesus shared a final meal with his disciples before his arrest. In Christian tradition it is the day on which he washed his disciples' feet and instituted the Eucharist. It opens the Easter Triduum, the three days of the Passion, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and in the Catholic Church the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper is the first liturgy of the Triduum. In Orthodox churches it is Great and Holy Thursday, which also commemorates the Last Supper; the main service combines Vespers with the Liturgy of Saint Basil, and in the evening the Twelve Passion Gospels are read.
The word Maundy is generally traced to the Latin mandatum, meaning commandment, from the words in John's Gospel in which Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment to love one another; another theory links it to the maund, a basket for alms. Customs include the washing of feet by bishops and priests, the stripping of altars, and the silencing of church bells after the Gloria, which in Czech, Slovak and Luxembourgish tradition are replaced by wooden rattles. In Britain the monarch gives specially minted Maundy coins to elderly people, a custom that goes back to Edward I. In Greece and Bulgaria eggs are traditionally coloured on this day.
Why it is observed
The commemoration of the Last Supper on the Thursday of Holy Week is very old, and by the early Middle Ages the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper and the washing of feet were established parts of the Holy Week liturgy in the Western church. Maundy Thursday is a public holiday in Denmark and in territories with Danish ties, including Norway and Iceland, and in many countries that were once part of the Spanish empire, which explains why the date appears in the legal calendars of those regions and of Vatican City, the seat of the Catholic Church.
How the date is set
Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter Sunday, three days before it. Its date follows the Western Easter, so it falls between 19 March and 22 April. Orthodox churches keep Great and Holy Thursday on the Orthodox calendar, with a different date in most years.
How it is observed
In the site's 2027 data Maundy Thursday (25 March) is a public holiday in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Vatican City, most of Spain, the Philippines and many Latin American countries, among them Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Paraguay, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Banks, offices and many shops close, and in Scandinavian countries it starts a five-day Easter break that is among the main travel periods of the year. In Sweden banks and many workplaces close, although it is not a statutory holiday. In other countries it is an ordinary working day, with church services in the evening. Pay and time off depend on the country and the contract.
Sources
Denmark
Faroe Islands
Iceland
Norway
Svalbard & Jan Mayen
Vatican City