The Origin of Easter Sunday
So-called Easter Sunday is always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st day of March. If a full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after. On page 7 of this number is a reproduction of a photograph showing a custom which is observed on Maundy Thursday in Jerusalem. The ordinance of feet-washing was instituted by our Lord Himself as recorded in John 13. It has been continued in perverted forms in the church nearly ever since. In the seventeenth Council of Toledo in 694 it was made obligatory on the Thursday of "holy week" in the Catholic Church, throughout the churches of Spain and Gaul. In 1530 Wolsey washed, wiped, and kissed the feet of fifty-nine poor men at Peterborough. The practise was continued by English sovereigns till the reign of James II, and as late as 1731 the Lord High Almoner washed the feet of the recipients of the royal gifts at White Hall on Maundy Thursday. As instituted by our Lord, it was in connection with the last supper. Smith's "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities" tells us that it was performed in the early church with the catechumens, and said also that others engaged in it, but it seems to have occurred once a year. In fact it was more or less observed until the year 306, when the Council of Elvira prohibited it. One can see, by referring to the Scripture record, that our Lord did not confine it to any particular class, as have the perversions of the ordinance ever since. He washed the feet of all His disciples, and told them that "ye should do as I have done to you." In Jerusalem it is one of the Pharisaic ceremonies performed on that day, some prelate washing the feet of beggars or penitents.