A very ignorant question.

[GentleOtter]

I am completely in the dark about the Easter traditions that many of you hold plus some of the terminology.
I was raised to follow the Church of Scotland (lapsed big time) and while Easter was celebrated, Lent etc was never really explained or indeed, celebrated.

Can anyone give me a brief explaination of the various stages that are celebrated and are they mainly a C of E practice.

Stupid question but is Easter this Sunday? It seems awfully early.

first of all is shrove tuesday when traditionally all the flour and eggs were used up in preparation for lent.

Then 'ash wednesday' which is the start of lent.

Then 6 weeks of lent. The sunday before easter sunday is palm sunday. Then you have holy week.

I think the thursday was the day Jesus was crucified and that's called Maundy Thursday. Then he rose again on the third day (sunday). Easter Sunday being the day he rose from the dead.

Is that more or less right?!

ps, I don't know what the connection between lent and easter is now that you raise the question?....

Oh I do know. I remember.

Jesus knew he was going to be crucified, so he went into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, and said 'father let this cup pass from me'.

He came out of the wilderness and he was crucified.

No - Maundy Thursday celebrates the last supper before Jesus was betrayed. He was crucified on Good Friday.

Gentle, the practice of lent is MASSIVE amongst us catholics as well as other branches of Christianity. I am Scottish, so I know what you mean about C of S - they don't really go for it in the same way as some other Christians. I'm sure there are good theological reasons for this, tied up with Calvanism, etc, but I don't know the details. Lent started on Wednesday - Ash Wednesday, when we go to mass/church if not Tim to 'get our ashes' which are smudged on our foreheads as a mark of our sins. Yes, yes, it is archaic, but hey, I love the ritualistic side of Catholocism me. It is weeks till Easter. We have 46-ish days of Leent to get through first. We are meant to abstain / fast if heavy duty. It commemorates Christ's 40 days in the wilderness.

I am going to look up a better and more detailed explaination, but hth in the mean time.

Fasting and prayer are strongly linked.

Oh thanks seeline!

I am church of Ireland which is very similar to c of E. the same in fact.

here's one

I've always thought of Lent and the whole fasting/giving things up thing as a Catholic tradition but I could be wrong. i did it (brought up Catholic)...

Easter Sun is not this Sun, no. Not til April 12 this year. Lent started on Weds and lasts for another six weeks.

Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday, which represents the day Jesus came into Jerusalem and got worshipped like a hero with folk waving palms at him.

Then you've got Spy Wednesday and Maundy Thursday (when the last supper took place etc).

Good Friday is when he was crucified and Easter Sun is when he rose from the dead.

And Bank Holiday Monday has got nothing to do with very much but it means we all get a lie in.

or this
Sorry if they are a bit 'basic', but good overviews I think.

Thank you all for your replies.
We are from the far north of Scotland and while we went to the 'Kirk' it was heavily influenced by the Free Church. They tend to be fairly extreme in their views..(understatement)

We were taught about Easter but there was very little about the importance of the various days. I am horrified to realise I know so little about it and my dd has asked me to explain everything to her.

Ah, yes, the Kirk.

"There's plenty of parties in Hell."

(not that us Catholics are any better, I must add)

Catholics often confuse Catholicism and Christianity.

The whole basis of Christianity is the crucifiction, so obviously it's not just a catholic thing!

grin nicky !

No, I didn't mean the crucifixion is just a Catholic tradition, Liffey - just the Lent and giving up stuff thing. Catholics do like a bit of suffering as I recall....

We have lent too though. The concept of fasting comes from the bible, where Jesus prayed and fasted (the forty days in the wilderness)..

I think as individuals, anglican catholics are perhaps less likely to adhere to a lenten fast, but the origins are the same.

There was a sermon in church last Sunday about considering how much we indulged ourselves unnecessarilly and how better we could use time/money. think that was the gist of it anyway.

Link doesn't work.

Bet it was fab though.

Anyone fancy some Catholic torture?

I remember my old priest describing someone he knew who was a bit, ahem, full on with the old suffering stuff as a 'religious nutter'.

Yikes, is that available to order ?!!

Gentleotter I asked the same question afew weeks ago so don't worry about feeling ignorant - that makes two of us. I don't know how to do links either but if you look back in this topic it's called Lent-can someone please explain it to me & it's where the idea of the Lent Bible Study started. I find it a wee bit strange that we don't do Lent in the CofS but there you go.

It never really dawned on me before, webstermum, that the C of S never did Lent. I have never heard of Spy Wednesday before today but will be looking through the links tonight.
I wonder why it is not a great deal to the C of S yet is hugely important to the Catholic and Anglican (?) churches?

I feel we have been denied something vitally important.

It never really dawned on me before, webstermum, that the C of S never did Lent. I have never heard of Spy Wednesday before today but will be looking through the links tonight.
I wonder why it is not a great deal to the Kirk yet is hugely important to the Catholic and Anglican (?) churches?

I feel we have been denied something vitally important.

• oops.