04-15-01
Someone recently explained to me the significance of several of the Easter-y days in relation to the Christian belief system. Well, someone told me why Good Friday is Good Friday, and that's close enough.
Apparently, Jesus died on Friday, and since he had to be buried before the Sabbath on Saturday, they stuck him in his crypt without being fancied up or gift-wrapped. On that Sunday, Mary Magdalene and some other woman, probably Jesus' Mom, Mary, went to the tomb to get him all cleaned up and prepared for burial. When they got there, the stone at the entrance had been rolled away, and Jesus wasn't there.
Now, I already knew about the crucifixion, and the whole process of sticking him in the tomb and coming back later. What I didn't know about was the purpose of his being buried asap, or how that related to "Good Friday" in general.
Where it got hazy for me is that I knew three days passed between his burial and resurrection, but I couldn't figure out where those three days went, nor how they were represented and/or celebrated. Apparently, Friday counts as day One, Saturday is day Two, and Sunday is obviously day Three.
In my world, three days count as 72 hours, or a close approximation thereof. In the biblical world, they apparently keep video store time, where three days is represented thusly:
Now I need to know the significance of Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, and the true purpose of Lent. You'd think after four years in a Catholic high school that I would already know this stuff, but not actually being Catholic, I didn't really pay attention when the priests and nuns were talking.
