When is Maundy Thursday 2026? And what is the meaning behind the name?
Maundy Thursday is celebrated before Easter. On this day, Christians of the last sacrament of Jesus commemorate Jesus with his disciples before he was executed on the cross the following Good Friday.
Date: When is Maundy Thursday 2026?
Maundy Thursday is always on Thursday before Easter and 2026 on April 2.
Is Maundy Thursday a legal holiday in Germany?
An official Holiday is not the Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday is a so -called quiet day. This means that dance ban applies in Bavaria – from 2 a.m. This then turns directly into the ban on dance on Good Friday, which begins at midnight. Good Friday is also a legal holiday.
Meaning: Where does the name of Maundy Thursday come from?
The name Maundy Thursday may go back to the Middle High German Word « Greinen » (woe sues). After the last meal, Jesus is revealed by Judas. Before that, he asked his disciples to celebrate the sacrament together in the future.
However, there are other theories where the « green » could come from – for example from the custom of eating particularly green vegetables on this day, which survived Christianization as part of the fasting idea. The idea of some old natural religions that this day is particularly suitable for the first spring seed is sometimes brought into play.
What customs are there on Maundy Thursday today?
For the Christians, Maundy Thursday is an important day in the important Holy Week. According to the Catholic tradition, all the bells of the church available on Maundy Thursday are ringing at the sacrament fair on Maundy Thursday. Then they fall silent out of grief for the death of Jesus on the cross to the Easter night celebration when the resurrection of Christ is celebrated. In the vernacular, it is said that the bells flew to Rome to confess and ask for a blessing at the Holy Father.
In many communities, the custom is maintained that altar servers are pulling through the streets and calling the faithful with wooden rashes to prayer.
Even if the foot washing is only reported in the Gospel of John and this custom is no longer practiced in many communities, this symbolic act of serving and cleaning is still the official component of the Maundunct brickliturgy of the Catholic Church. The pictures of the Pope Francis, then Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio, as he was washed in a poor district in Buenos Aires, went around the world.
