Traditional Names for Holy Week Days

It’s lamentable that we (at least in America) have lost the traditional names for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Holy Week. Let’s bring them back into usage. They are as follows:

Palm Sunday – The name is obvious.
Fig Monday – The day on which Christ cursed the fig tree. Sometimes, people ate dried figs on this day to commemorate the miracle.
Spy Wednesday – The day on which Judas Iscariot met with the Jewish priests and made plans for the betrayal, hence the name “spy.”
Maundy Thursday – This one comes from the Latin Vulgate version of John 13:34 “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” In Latin, the verse begins with Mandatum novum do vobis. The word “maundy” is a corruption of “mandatum” meaning commandment.
Good Friday – Here “good” hearkens back to Middle English in which the word denotes piety or holiness.
Holy Saturday – A quiet day, the perfect Sabbath of Christ in which He descended into the limbo of Hell and delivered the saints of the Old Testament.

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