Although with significant differences,
Jews and Christians will celebrate Easter these days
.
The Jewish community will evoke from the evening of this Wednesday and for eight days in the Diaspora (seven in Israel) the exodus and the liberation of the Jewish people some 3,200 years ago.
While the Christian community will commemorate the resurrection of Christ on Sunday after having remembered in the last seven days his passion and death within the framework of Holy Week.
“The Jewish Passover or Pesaj is
the oldest Jewish holiday
since the first Pesaj was celebrated in the Egypt of the pharaohs.
and the oldest religious celebration of Western culture”, says Mario Cohen Mario Eduardo Cohen, president of the Center for Research and Diffusion of Culture.
It is one of the most colorful celebrations and in which the Jewish home is the central protagonist.
The
central ceremony is homely
and consists of a double family festive dinner (the first and second day) that has an established order or Seder.
It is a celebration full of symbolism and highlights the requirement to eat matzah (unleavened bread) to comply with the Biblical precept that says "you shall eat unleavened bread seven days" (Ex. XII-15).
Because of the haste to leave Egypt,
there was no time for the bread to rise
.
It is around the home table in the celebration of Pesach that in the beginning the father says to his son, regarding the matzah: "This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in Egypt."
And the child asks: "Why is this night different from the others?", "Why tonight we don't eat bread, but only matzah (from slavery)?"
His father replied: "Because we were servants of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out from there with a firm hand and an outstretched arm."
And he adds with a sense of solidarity: "Anyone who is hungry come and celebrate with us."
Holy Week religious agenda
For its part, the Catholic Church commemorated last Sunday, called Palm Sunday, the
triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
amidst the waving of palms.
This Thursday will begin the highlights of Holy Week with the evocation of the Last Supper of Jesus with the apostles.
The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Mario Poli, will officiate the
Crystal Mass at 10 am
in the Metropolitan Cathedral and at 6:30 pm the Mass of the Lord's Supper in which the celebrant washes the feet of twelve people imitating the gesture of Jesus.
On Friday the death of Jesus on the cross is remembered.
It is the only day of the year when mass is not celebrated.
At 5:00 p.m. in the metropolitan cathedral, Cardinal Poli will officiate the
Liturgy of the Passion and Death
and at 8:00 p.m. the traditional
Via Crucis
around the Plaza de Mayo.
On Saturday at 8:30 p.m., Cardinal Poli will preside over the Solemn Pascual Vigil in the cathedral.
And on Sunday, at 11:30, in the same temple, Monsignor Joaquín Sucunza, auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, will officiate the Easter Mass.
PS