1. On which day is it traditional to make pancakes?
Shrove
Tuesday
Pancakes were made to use up the last of the eggs and butter before the
Lenten fast. People would feast
on meat and other rich foods, hence the name
Mardi Gras - or Fat Tuesday - in French. The absence of eggs from the
fasting
diet could also have some part in the association of eggs with
Easter.
2. What are the 40 days before Easter known as?
Lent
Lent
lasts for forty days before Easter, excluding Sundays, as they are
considered to be 'festival' days. It begins on Ash
Wednesday, the day after
Shrove Tuesday. In the Catholic Church it ends on Maundy Thursday, whereas
in the Anglican
Church it ends on Easter Eve. Lent is a season of
restricting the diet, as opposed to strict fasting. Nowadays people
give up
certain foods that they enjoy; in the past they would have given up meat,
eggs, butter, fish and oil, amongst
other things. Jesus went into the
wilderness for forty days to fast and pray before beginning his ministry.
3.
What does Palm Sunday celebrate?
Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a colt or donkey
Palm Sunday (also known as
Passion Sunday) is the Sunday before Easter and
is the starting-point of the passion story. In the Revised English Bible,
Mark 11 v7, it says that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt: 'So they
brought the colt to Jesus, and when they had
spread their cloaks on it he mounted it.'
4. Jesus was crucified on Easter Sunday.
False
Jesus'
crucifixion is remembered on Good Friday; Easter Sunday celebrates
his resurrection. In England it is traditional to eat
hot cross buns on Good
Friday.
5. Easter is celebrated on the same date each year.
False
The
date of Easter Sunday is on the Sunday following the first full moon
after the spring equinox on the 21st March. (This
is calculated by the
Church, and does not always correspond with the astronomical equinox.) In
the Eastern tradition
Easter is celebrated on a different day from the
Western Christian Church, as the Eastern Church still uses the Julian
calendar.
6. For how many pieces of silver did Judas Iscariot
betray Jesus?
30
In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 26 verse 15 it describes how Judas went to
the Chief
Priests and they weighed out thirty pieces of silver for him.
Judas later realized what he had done and no longer wanted
the money, so it
was used to buy the Potter's Field (also known as the Blood Acre) where
foreigners were buried. The
thirty pieces of silver as the price on Jesus'
head had been prophesied by Jeremiah.
7. What does Gethsemane mean?
press of oils
The
Garden of Gethsemane is on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives, and
so was planted with many olive trees (It is believed
that some of those
trees still produce olives today.) and had lots of olive presses as well.
Jesus went to the Garden
of Gethsemane after singing the Passover hymns, to
pray. It was in this garden that they came to arrest him, following
Judas'
betrayal.
8. According to St John's Gospel, what colour was
the cloak that Jesus wore
when he went to the cross?
Purple
In John 19 v2 and v5 it describes the cloak
as purple; the soldiers put the
cloak on Jesus after he had been flogged, along with a crown of thorns.
Purple was
an expensive colour dye to produce, and so was only worn by those
rich enough to afford it. It is significant that Jesus
was dressed in this
royal colour at this time. The Romans chose this colour robe because they
said he claimed to be
king. This could also be a reason for the soldiers
drawing lots for Jesus' clothes after his death. In church now, purple
is
the colour of Advent and Lent, as Christians prepare for their King.
It should be noted that Matthew's Gospel
(Matthew 27:28) states that the
robe was red or scarlet.
9. Who helped Jesus carry his cross?
Simon
of Cyrene
Simon of Cyrene is named as the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15 v21),
although it is not known
who Alexander and Rufus were. As Jesus had
undergone so much suffering, he was in no fit state to carry his own cross,
so the soldiers pressed Simon of Cyrene into service. This may have been
common practice, as a huge cross would have
been very weighty for even the
strongest man.
10. Who rolled away the stone from the mouth of the
grave in which Jesus had
been placed?
an angel
Matthew 28 v2 says, "Suddenly there was a violent earthquake;
an angel of
the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone, and sat
down on it." The importance
of Easter exceeds that of Christmas in the minds
of Christians, because of the significance of the resurrection.
