Tenebrę (Latin for darkness or shadows, pronounced ten-eh-bray) is the name of the Christian church service held after nightfall during the last three days of Holy Week, during which the candles in the church are ceremoniously extinguished one by one "to signify the setting of the Sun of Justice", in the words of Pope Benedict XIV. The service is treated as a sort of funeral service or dirge, commemorating the events leading up to the death of Jesus.

In the ancient Christian tradition Tenebrae began at sundown on Holy Wednesday and continued for four days including Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. It ended at Sundown on Holy Saturday. It was held to represent the progressive events leading up to Jesus' death and entombment.

In ancient days it included many rituals such as the washing of the feet by local priests, celebrating Jesus' actions toward the disciples, the anointing with oil to celebrate that act performed by Mary Magdalena, the indulging of wine and breaking of bread in remembrance of the last supper, the passion and crucifixion of Good Friday and the entombment of Holy Saturday.

The tradition of Tenebrae is very, very ancient and is found in many other religious cultures including very ancient Pagan cultures throughout Europe. Celtic paganism held a three-day ceremony beginning at sundown on Maundy Thursday, which included celebrating a joyous feast on that evening, offered up to the god Bel (the god of light). During the feast young virgins washed the feet of their future mates and anointed them with oils. Special oil was used for the high priestess and priest since many Celtic tribes practiced a form of Wicca.

The holiday continued with the death of Bel on Friday night, his entombment on Saturday and his rising in full glory on Sunday. In fact until today many Wicca followers claim this is why Sunday is so named. (For their sun god (Bel).

In Northern Europe the holy days were the same but there the pagans claim Thursday to be Thor's Day after their god of thunder.

It should also be noted that in almost all cultures this was a feast of bringing together the clan to break bread and anoint in marriage and the blessings of their respective gods the young as well as the leadership of their religion.

The name Thursday comes from the Old English Žunresdęg, meaning the day of Žunor, commonly known in Modern English as Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Thor replaced the Roman god of thunder, Jupiter, as the namesake of the fourth day of the week after the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Roman Britain.

In French, Thursday is "Jeudi", a surviving connection between the day and the astrological energies of Jupiter. This connection links Thursday to business but also to jollity and humor.

Note: Most linguists' accord to say that "Jeudi" actually doesn't refer to the planet Jupiter: in French, the name of each day of the week corresponds to a Latin god, except Dimanche (Sunday). Jeudi is the day of Jupiter, god of the thunder, equivalent to Thor or Zeus.

In the Hindu religion, Thursday is guruvar or the Guru's day. Quakers traditionally refer to Thursday as "Fifth Day" eschewing the pagan origin of the name "Thursday".

In the Christian tradition, Holy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter - the day on which the Last Supper occurred.

In the Christian ritual following the opening, the service is divided into three sections, called "Nocturnos". In the ancient High Church Tenebrae Services these three sections include:

Nocturnos 1

1. Lectio 1

2. In Monte Oliveti

3. Tristis Est Anima Mea

4. Ecce Vidimus Cum Nocturnos 2

5. Lectio 2

6. Amicus Meus Osculi

7. Judas Mercator Pessimus

8. Unus Ex Discipulis Meis Nocturnos 3

9. Lectio 3

10. Eram Quasi Agnus Innocens

11. Una Hora Non Potuistis

12. Senoires Populi Consilium

13. Benedictus

14. Christus Factus Est

The musical scores for each section above is specific to the music of Carlo Gesualdo, (Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday), and is recognized as unmatched in emotion in later substitutions by other composers.

Carlo Gesualdo (March 8, 1566 - September 8, 1613), nephew of Saint Charles Borromeo, and grandnephew to Pope Pius IV, was the Prince of Venosa, Count of Conza, an Italian composer, and lutenist, nobleman, and notorious murderer of the late Renaissance. He is famous for his intensely expressive madrigals, which use a chromatic language not heard again until the 19th century; and he is also famous for committing what are possibly the most viscous and famous murders (Including his own wife and children), in all of musical history.

It is well known that the intensity of his music, and his relationship to Pope Pius IV greatly influenced the religious ceremonies of Holy Week.

As mentioned above in this tradition, the holy days are celebrated on Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday and is said to represent the approach to Jesus' death. It consists of the daily prayers and psalms in the Breviary from Vespers, (Evening Prayers) of eachs day; and Lauds, (Morning Prayer) of Holy Saturday. The service included psalms, hymns, choral works, and prayers, but unlike modern services did not contain a communion. Texts used within the service usually include the book of Lamentations.

Lighting is gradually reduced throughout the service, initially being fully lit (often including candles), extinguishing and reduction of light occurring throughout, and eventually ending in total darkness (thus the name of the service, "Tenebrae").

During some ancient versions of the Maundy Thursday service, the hall or church of worship is gradually stripped, which means that the decorative elements, such as any cloths on the altar or removable objects of devotion, are removed. Imagery such as icons, crucifixes, altar decorations, and other decorative but immovable objects, are covered by plain cloths or otherwise hidden in some manner. In later times the cloths became traditionally purple in color. This happens as the service progresses so that whilst at the start of the service, the place of worship is in its usual state, and at the end it becomes totally plain.

Also in some versions of the service, the elaboration of the acts of worship are reduced, usually starting with a full choir and organ, or other form of elaborate accompaniment, which is gradually reduced. At one point the choir leaves and does not return, at another the organ, or other musical accompaniment ceases. Eventually the service ends by an abrupt silence, and people traditionally leave without comment, or talking to their associates or the priesthood.

In some places the use of a "great noise" is included as part of the service. The service is not considered to have finished until everyone has left the place of worship.

The final plainness and covered objects remain so until Easter Sunday Morning when all is restored to it's original glory and color to then shine in representation of the resurrection.

In many modern day church traditions the faithful are encouraged to visit as many other churches on Maundy Thursday, praying in each even for only a short time, continue to the next. In this way they believe they share the feast with the faithful of other churches and communities.

The name "Easter" actually originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similar "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [were] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre." Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, and were celebrated in the springtime. Some were:

Aphrodite from Cyprus

Astarte, from Phoenicia

Demeter, from Mycenae

Hathor from Egypt

Ishtar from Assyria

Kali, from India

Ostara, a Norse Goddess of fertility.

An alternate explanation has been suggested. The name given by the Frankish church to Jesus' resurrection festival included the Latin word "alba" which means, "white." (This was a reference to the white robes that were worn during the festival.) "Alba" also has a second meaning: "sunrise." When the name of the festival was translated into German, the "sunrise" meaning was selected in error. This became "ostern" in German. Ostern has been proposed as the origin of the word "Easter". Sunday is named after a Pagan sun god, Solis.

Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a fictional consort (who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth). He was Attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25. "About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill ...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis ([the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection."

Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation."

Many religious historians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Others suggest that many of the events in Jesus' life that were recorded in the gospels were in reality lifted from the life of Krishna, the second person of the Hindu Trinity.

Ancient Christians had an alternate explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity. Modern-day Christians generally regard the Attis legend as being a Pagan myth of little value. They regard Jesus' death and resurrection account as being true, and unrelated to the earlier tradition.

Wiccans and other modern-day Neopagans continue to celebrate the Spring Equinox as one of their eight yearly Sabbats (holy days of celebration). Near the Mediterranean, this is a time of sprouting of the summer's crop; farther north, it is the time for seeding. Their rituals at the Spring Equinox are related primarily to the fertility of the crops and to the balance of the day and night times. Where Wiccans can safely celebrate the Sabbat out of doors without threat of religious persecution, they often incorporate a bonfire into their rituals, jumping over the dying embers is believed to assure fertility of people and crops.

History of the Maundy ceremony in England:

The present-day Maundy ceremony has evolved over the centuries and bears little relationship to the original rites to which it owes its origins. A fundamental aspect of the original Maundy service was the washing of the feet of the poor, which has its origins in Jesus' washing of the feet of the Disciples at the Last Supper. In early ceremonies, senior clergymen would wash the feet of lower clergy, while in other ceremonies, the washing would be done by someone higher up the hierarchical order.

King Edward II (1307-1327) seems to be the first English monarch to have been recorded actively taking part in the ceremony, although King John (1199-1216) is said to have taken part in a ceremony in about 1210, donating small silver coins to the poor. King Edward III (1327-1377) washed feet and gave gifts including money to the poor; the practice continued regularly, with the participation of the monarch, until 1698.

Although the monarch did not participate personally, later ceremonies continued in which a selection of people were given Maundy money consisting of silver pennies totalling, in pence, the current age of the monarch. The washing of feet ended after the 1738 ceremony, until it was re-instated in the 2003 ceremony, when it was performed by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

In 1932, King George V agreed to take part personally in the distribution of the Maundy money, while the 1936 set was distributed by King Edward VIII, although the coins bore George V's effigy. By 1953 it had become normal practice for the monarch to distribute the Maundy money, a practice which continues to this day.

Maundy coinage

Until 1820 ordinary silver coinage was used for the Maundy money, but from 1822 special coins were minted in values of 1, 2, 3, and 4 pence. Each set of Maundy money therefore contains 10 pence, and recipients would be given an appropriate number of complete sets, plus a part-set when appropriate.

The dimensions and reverse designs of the coins have not changed since 1822, although their composition has changed over the years (not necessarily in ways which would be expected):

1 penny : weight 0.5 grams, diameter 11 millimetres.

2 pence : weight 0.9 grams, diameter 13 millimetres.

3 pence : weight 1.4 grams, diameter 16 millimetres.

4 pence : weight 1.9 grams, diameter 18 millimetres.

The original composition of the coins was Sterling (0.925) silver. In common with all circulating British silver coins, the fineness was reduced to 0.500 in 1921. In 1947, silver was removed from all circulating British coins in favour of cupronickel, but it was felt to be inappropriate to strike Maundy money in such debased metal, so unusually the fineness was restored to 0.925, where it remains to the present day.

In 1971, British currency was decimalised, with 100 new pence instead of 20 shillings of 12 pence (240 pence) in a pound. The design of the Maundy money was not changed at all, so instead of being worth 1, 2, 3, or 4 old pence, the coins are now worth 1, 2, 3, or 4 new pence, each one being worth 2.4 times its former value. As there is no difference in the design or weight between pre- and post-1971 coins, it was uniquely decided to revalue all pre-decimal Maundy coins back to 1822 at the equivalent value in new pence, i.e. the face value of each coin was increased by a factor of 2.4 overnight. All Maundy coins, back to 1822, remain legal tender in Britain at their stated value in new pence.

Finally, not all Christians celebrate these holidays. According to the Rev. Richard C. Nickels of the Radio Church of God, these are pagan holidays and should not be observed by Christians He says;

Palm Sunday -- Sunday before Easter. " . . . Celebrates the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem. Holy Week begins on this day." The problem with this day is that it really occurred on a Thursday. Proof of this is found on pages 160-163 of A Harmony of the Gospels in Modern English (First Edition) by Fred Coulter.

Maundy Thursday -- Thursday before Easter. " . . . is in memory of the Last Supper of Christ with his disciples." The truth is that the 'Last Supper' was on a Tuesday evening. Good Friday -- Friday before Easter. "...commemorates the Crucifixion." The crucifixion really occurred on a Wednesday as shown in other writings.

Easter -- "First Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox."

Ascension Day -- "Forty days after Easter" always the sixth Thursday after Easter. This day celebrates "the withdrawal of Christ into Heaven, witnessed by the Apostles (Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9.)" -- Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, article "Ascension of Christ, The." This was kept "from the later years of the 4th cent." but is nowhere commanded in the Bible.

The above information was culled from:

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,

Pagan Holidays, Section Ten of Biblical Holy Days, Compiled by Richard C. Nickels,

Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions, by Professor T. W. Doane,

Pagan and Christian Creeds, by Professor Edward Carpenter

This Believing World, by Lewis Browne

Hebrew Origins, by Professor Theophile James Meek

Understanding The Bible, by Professor Stephen L. Harris

Smith's Bible Dictionary

The Masonic Bible, Orthorized King James Version (Forward by H.L. Haywood)