Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, complete: Palm and Passion Sunday (Latin Dominica in Palmis de Passione Domini). In the Moravian Church, the Holy Week services ( Passion Week) are extensive, as the congregation follows the life of Christ through His final week in daily services dedicated to readings from a harmony of the Gospel stories, responding to the actions in hymns, prayers and litanies, beginning on the eve of Palm Sunday and culminating in the Easter Morning or Easter Sunrise service begun by the Moravians in 1732. Today, in the Western Christian Church, among Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Catholics, the liturgies used for Holy Week are nearly identical. Other writings that refer to related traditions of the early Church include, most notably, The Pilgrimage of Etheria (also known as The Pilgrimage of Egeria), which details the whole observance of Holy Week at that time. Next came the Sabbatum Magnum ("Great Sabbath", i.e., Holy Saturday or Easter Eve) with its vigil, which in the early church was associated with an expectation that the second advent would occur on an Easter Day. Of the particular days of the "great week" the earliest to emerge into special prominence was naturally Good Friday.
The Codex Theodosianus, however, is explicit in ordering that all actions at law should cease, and the doors of all courts of law be closed during those 15 days (1. There is some doubt about the genuineness of an ordinance attributed to Roman Emperor Constantine, in which abstinence from public business was enforced for the seven days immediately preceding Easter Day, and also for the seven which followed it. Dionysius Alexandrinus in his canonical epistle (AD 260), refers to the 91 fasting days implying that the observance of them had already become an established usage in his time. In this text, abstinence from flesh is commanded for all the days, while for the Friday and Saturday an absolute fast is commanded. 18, 19), dating from the latter half of the 3rd century and 4th century. The earliest allusion to the custom of marking this week as a whole with special observances is to be found in the Apostolical Constitutions (v. Holy Week in the Christian year is the week immediately before Easter. 4.1.2.2 Bright Monday in the Eastern Orthodox Church.3.3 Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Lutheran Churches.3.1.1 Great and Holy Monday through Wednesday.2.9.6 Mexico and United States: Yaqui Indians.Many television stations in Anglophone countries air films related to Holy Week, such as The Ten Commandments, The Greatest Story Ever Told and The Jesus Film. In Eastern Rite Churches there are also many means to commemorate the Great Feasts and emphasize the theme of resurrection. Many Christian cultures have different traditions such as special liturgies or services, floats, sculptures or live reenactments of Christ's life, his arrest and crucifixion (also called the Lord's passion, the Passion of Christ or Passion of Jesus). Holy Week liturgies generally attract the largest crowds of the year. This marks the beginning of the season of Eastertide, with its first week being known as Easter Week (Bright Week). It is believed Jesus rested in death from the ninth hour (3 pm) on Good Friday until just before dawn on Sunday morning, the day of his resurrection from death, commonly known as Easter Sunday. Holy Week concludes with Christ's rest in death and descent into Hades on Holy Saturday. Holy Week begins with the commemoration of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, climaxing with the commemoration of the Mystical or Last Supper on Maundy Thursday and the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. In the Western Christian Churches, Holy Week falls on the last week of Lent or Sixth Lent Week.
In Eastern Rite Churches, Holy Week starts after 40 days of Lent and two transitional days, namely Saturday of Lazarus (Lazarus Saturday) and Palm Sunday. For all Christian traditions it is a moveable observance. In the denominations of the Western Christianity, which includes the Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Moravianism, Anglicanism, Methodism and Reformed Christianity, it begins with Palm Sunday and concludes on Easter Sunday.
In Eastern Churches, which includes Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Lutheran traditions, Holy Week occurs the week after Lazarus Saturday and starts on the evening of Palm Sunday. 'Greater Week' Ancient Greek: Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, romanized: Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit.'Holy and Great Week') is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. Holy Week ( Latin: Hebdomada Sancta or Hebdomada Maior, lit.