Holy Week

The Holy Week ( Old High German kara, action ',' grief ',' sorrow '), also quiet week, is in the church year the last week of Lent or Lent and the mourning week before Easter.

Name and duration

The name Easter is a traditional term used in German-speaking countries. In other languages ​​as well as in the Catholic liturgy is called contrast of the "Great ", or Holy Week (Latin hebdomada sancta of (Greek ἑβδομάς ), which - unlike the Holy Week - Easter itself ( ie the year beginning with the celebration of the Easter Vigil Easter Sunday ) includes.

Holy Week includes the silent days from Monday to Wednesday and the actual Kartage Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. It begins on Palm Sunday with the memory of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and reached its peak in the Triduum Sacrum on Holy Thursday is celebrated on which the Last Supper of Jesus instituting the Eucharist, in memory of the suffering and death of Jesus on Good Friday and it opens at the end of Holy Saturday at the Easter Vigil.

The Holy Week as a closed time

The Holy Week was not until the 1950s in many parts of Germany a so-called closed time, did not take place in public festivities and amusements. Today, only the Good Friday after the holiday laws of the several states a legally protected quiet day.

In many churches, restrictions apply to the Holy Week. Thus, the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland has governed that church weddings do not take place during Holy Week.

Liturgy and traditions of Holy Week

Already on 5th Sunday of Lent, the former first Sunday of the Passion actual time that crucifixes and crosses are veiled in the churches. Are triptychs triptychs and present, they are often folded and show the simple -designed rear of the wing.

At the kart Agen Karmetten be sung in the morning, especially in cathedrals and monastic churches. In some places daily devotions Stations of the Cross will take place during Holy Week. Good Friday and Holy Saturday are the only days in the church year, at which no Holy Mass is celebrated.

A centuries- old custom according mention in all the Catholic churches of mourning for the suffering and death of Jesus Christ from the Gloria of the Mass of the Lord's Supper on the evening of Holy Thursday until the Gloria at the Easter Vigil the bells (partly also the Uhrschlag ). As a replacement pickguards, ratchets, rattle and similar wood tools are used to remind the faithful to prayer and worship times ( Angelus, Liturgy of the Hours ). The altar bells are replaced by those rattling. It is still played another musical instrument, neither the organ. Instead, is sung in the church a cappella. The waiver of bell ringing and solemn organ music is also practiced in Protestant churches.

An old Catholic tradition in Austria, Baden and Bavaria is the Easter ratchets, where children, mostly altar boys go with wooden ratchets through the streets or from house to house. Klosterneuburg is known the tower ratchets. This practice is also common in the Saarland and Rhineland -Palatinate, but is referred to there as " nags ". Also in the Rhineland and in rural areas Osthessens ( Diocese of Fulda) attract children with ratchet through the village streets. Also in the Westphalian (eg Waltrop and Nottuln ) there is the so-called cents per kWh, from Holy Thursday to Holy Saturday, the with their Räppeln (ratchet ) pass through the place and the peasantry. The origins of the rattling and rattling are suspected in the period before the Christianization of Europe. Conveniently located close to the presumption, the purpose it was once, to drive out the spirits of winter with symbolic noise to welcome the spring.