#german tradition

Today is »Maundy Thursday«. In German it is called »Gründonnerstag« (literally: »Green Thursday«) and the Swedish name for the fifth day in the Holy Week is »Skärtorsdagen« (lit.: »The Clean Thursday«).

Where does the differences come from?
The English term »Maundy« derives from the Latin word »Mandatum« and is a religious rite where one washes the feet of someone. This rite is described in the Bible by several disciples who observed Jesus washing the feet of the twelve apostles before the Last Supper.

The Swedish word »skär« is an old nordic term and has been used to describe something as »clean, nice, white«. The origin is the same as in English.

How come, the German call the day »Green Thursday«?

There are several explanations that can be found—unfortunately no one can say what the correct one is.
- Today is the day where the sinners get their sins freed by the church. The Bible describes this rite metaphoric as a part to recover as »green wood«. For this occasion members of the church wore white dresses often with green ribbons.
- Another explanation is, that there is still the period of fasting and that the Christians eat especially green food like vegetables, green cabbage and salad. Furthermore it has been the day where the spring often begins and the people tilled their fields.
- A third explanation is that »grün« does not really describe the color green but rather derives from »greinen« which means crying and refers to being sad because of Jesus’ coming death. 

Photo: harry_nl: https://flic.kr/p/6T4jqP