Dear friends,
What makes a day special?
I’m not thinking about personal special days like birthdays and anniversaries; I mean the days with national significance. Take, for example, March 21st. Every year, give or take a day, this is the date of the Spring Equinox, when day and night are of equal length, marking the official start of Spring. It is also, amongst other things, the International Day of Forests (according to our kitchen calendar); Human Rights Day in South Africa; National Single Parents Day; and World Poetry Day. And this year, just in case you felt short of things to commemorate, it is also Red Nose Day, when we are encouraged to do something funny to raise money for Comic Relief. It seems like a lot of weight for one day to carry.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the United Nations list of designated days. There are loads of them, proposed over the years. Some, like Holocaust Memorial Day in January, are widely observed; others are more niche. World Tuna Day (2nd May), anyone? International Day of Potato (30th May)? I was relieved to discover that my birthday narrowly misses World Toilet Day, though last year it fell in the snappily-named World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week, of which I was sadly not Aware at all.
Religious traditions have their own holy days, set aside for remembrance, reflection and perhaps a specific act of devotion. Jesus would have observed the Jewish festivals from an early age; Luke tells us he was taken to Jerusalem for the Passover every year. And it is no coincidence that the death of Jesus took place at Passover time. He would have been well aware of the symbolism: the liberation of God’s people; the lamb whose blood identified the Hebrew households and thus spared them the final plague; the leaving behind of the life they knew; the journey into the unknown. Above all, the Exodus shows God’s power to effect a transformation nobody could have imagined, paving the way for the unimaginable transformation of resurrection.
Because of different calendar systems, Easter and Passover now rarely coincide. But we remember the symbolism. On Maundy Thursday, our evening communion service will be a time to reflect on the events of Holy Week, including the Last Supper, in the wider context of God’s plan and promise for the world. On Good Friday we have the return of the Ealing Walk of Witness, beginning with prayer and hot cross buns in church and then joining other churches on the Walk ending at St Saviour’s. And then on Easter Day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, the most special day of all.
I do hope you will be able to join us for some or all of these events, and that together we can renew our sense of hope and joy in God.
Every blessing,
Revd Sue McCoan
