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2011 Maundy Thursday Traditions and Meaning

Tara Borge on Apr 21st, 2011

Maundy Thursday 2011 – Holy Thursday is the other term for Maundy Thursday and it has been celebrated since the earliest days of the Christian Church.
This day give respect to Jesus’ last supper with his 12 disciples. On this night , Judas betrayed Jesus for a couple gold in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Maundy Thursday was from the old Latin word for the day, “Dies Mandatum,” which means “the day of the new commandment”. Dies Mandatum refers Christ command that we should love one another and this is before Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

There were numerous traditions in many places around the world regarding Maundy Thursday. In United Kingdom, the tradition of the sovereign giving alms to the poor on this day.

In other countries, most business stop operations from Maundy Thursday to Black Saturday. In Malta, the Holy Thursday is known as Communion Thursday and the people visit seven churches and this tradition is called is-seba’ visti.

MANDATUM

The washing of the feet in the Liturgy of Holy Thursday. In the revised ritual the washing of the feet takes placed after the Gospel, which narrates the same event at the Last Supper. The men who have been chosen are led to chairs prepared for them. Then the priest goes to each man, pours water over each one's feet, and dries them. Meanwhile the choir or congregation sings a number of antiphons from the appropriate Gospel account in St. John. The ceremony is called the mandatum because it was on the occasion of washing his disciples' feet that Christ gave us the new commandment (novum mandatum) to love one another as he has loved us (John 13:4-17). (Etym. Latin mandatum, commission, order.)

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.