Easter Sunday

The Christian festival reaches its climax on Easter Day with celebration marking Jesus conquering death. Counting inclusively, as was done at the time, from Friday makes Sunday the third day. So you can say Jesus rose on the third day. The resurrection was such a stunning event that Christians held celebrations on Sundays in addition to the Jewish Sabbath, and as the church grew away from Judaism, Sunday became the regular day of worship. (although many Christians argue there is absolutely no Biblical mandate for Christians making Sunday their Sabbath, and therefore Saturday should still be observed as the Sabbath).


richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Holy Saturday

or Easter Eve -1 day before Easter Sunday

The last day of Lent. Holy Saturday is about emptiness, reflecting on the awfulness of a world without Jesus, and our need for him. It is meant to be a day of prayer.


richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Good Friday

2 days before Easter Sunday

This is the day when Christians remember Jesus dying on the cross at Calvary for our sins. But there is confusion about how Jewish times and dates were worked out, resulting in some Christians being CONVINCED he was crucified on a WEDNESDAY (also the Wild Olive website) and others ADAMENT it was a FRIDAY. Either way, traditionally, Christians think about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins on the Friday.


richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Maundy Thursday

3 days before Easter Sunday

On Maundy Thursday Christians remember Jesus washing his disciples feet. His words are recorded in John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." This gives rise to the name for the day. The Latin for 'commandment' is 'mandatum' - hence Maundy. In England on Maundy Thursday the Queen follows a very traditional role of giving Maundy coins. A complete set of Maundy money consists of a groat (4p), a threepence (3p), a half-groat (2p) and a penny (1p) - totalling 10p given to pensioners of "modest income" whoare selected for their service to "church and community". Some people believe that Lent officially ends at sundown and celebrate with Holy Communion and, often, a meal known as a 'agapé' or 'love feast'.



richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Palm Sunday

7days before Easter Sunday

The most important week in the traditional Church calendar is Holy Week. Through the week Christians recall the events that occurred in Jerusalem when Jesus entered the city, was crucified, died and then returned to life. The week starts with Palm Sunday when Christians remember Jesus entering Jerusalem and the crowds laying Palm leaves in front of him.



richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Mothers day

21 days before Easter Sunday

This is always on the fourth Sunday during Lent, and is now a day set aside to remember, thank and celebrate mothers. Origianlly, in England, it was a day for people to attend their "mother church", ie. the biggest church or cathedral in the area. The local parish church that people normally attended was known as the "daughter church".


richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Ash Wednesday

46 days before Easter Sunday


On Ash Wednesday many traditional churches have an 'Ashing service' where Ash made from the previous year's palms are sprinkled with holy water and fumigated with incense and symbolically placed on the forehead in the sign of a cross, signifying penance. It is also a reminder of our own mortality: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and of a time when people repented with ashes and wearing sackcloth.


richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

What is "The Passion"?

Easter, and the events in the life of Jesus leading up to Easter, have also been called "The Passion (of Christ)"; this is from Saint Luke's description in the Bible of the apperance of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection: "he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs" (Acts 1:3). The word "passion" was used in Latin and in old English translations of the book of Acts (originally written in Greek) whereas in modern English we would say "suffering".

richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Easter Calendar

All the other holy days of the seven weeks of Easter observances that the traditional churches still follow were made up during the fourth century AD. Some independent evangelical churches, like Richmond Park Church, choose not to stringently follow traditions that were made up by the fourth century church, but which are not spelled out in the Bible. There is nothing inherently wrong with these traditions, as they are all designed to point people in the direction of the example and life of Jesus, but neither is it compulsory to observe these created "holy days" to be a faithful Christian. However, after several decades of making a conscious effort to separate themselves from things which are merely "tradition", and not specifically Biblical, many evangelical churches are coming round to the idea that these traditional ceremonies are not without merit. Some are being re-introduced into independent churches and traditional churches, in a slightly revised fashion focusing on doing something pro-active to help others during Lent as a constructive way of not focusing on our selfs, eg the "Buy Less" "credit card".



richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Date of Easter

At a meeting of church leaders -called the Council of Nicaea- in 325 AD to try to coordinate practise it was decided that Easter was to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon that directly followed the Vernal (or Spring) Equinox. In most years this would coincide with Passover, but it would not always be so. The Eastern Churches still retained the earlier Passover practice for several centuries, and the British (Celtic) Church did not adopt the Roman calendar until Roman missionaries arrived in the sixth century.



richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

From Passover to Easter

You won't find any references about how to celebrate Easter in the Bible! The Bible only instructs us to observe communion in rememberance of Jesus death, and we don't know how the early Christians chose to commemorate the resurrection. We do know that by the second century AD some Christians were celebrating it Passover-style (mainly the Eastern church), and some celebrated on the Sunday after Passover as a distinctly seperate event (mainly the Roman church).



richmondparkchurch.org.uk an evangelical pentecostal church in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK