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Holy Week
Maundy Thursday / Holy Thursday
Also called: Jueves Santo, Jeudi Saint, Gründonnerstag, Quinta-feira da Ceia, Holy and Great Thursday (Orthodox), Covenant Thursday
2 April 2026
All Christians
Maundy Thursday remembers the Last Supper — the night Jesus shared bread and wine with his friends and washed their feet. 'Maundy' comes from the Latin for 'commandment', because Jesus told his followers to love one another.
Churches hold foot-washing ceremonies, special communion services, and sometimes all-night prayer vigils. In Jerusalem, pilgrims pack the Upper Room and Garden of Gethsemane.
Eden lists Holy Week pilgrimages that include these sacred sites.
At a glance
- Type
- feast
- Date type
- Moveable (changes with Easter)
- Regions
- Global
- Themes
- Passion & Death, Birth of Christ, Covenant
- Liturgical colour
- White, then Red or Black stripped at end
Common questions
Maundy Thursday is observed on 2 April 2026. Moveable feasts shift each year; fixed feasts stay on the same calendar date.
The remembrance of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, at which he instituted the Eucharist ("the Lord's Supper"), washed the disciples' feet, and gave the "new commandment" (mandatum novum — from which the name "Maundy" derives) to love one another. Rites typically include: a Mass of the Lord's Supper or equivalent service, a Washing of Feet ceremony (mandatum), and the solemn transfer
It is associated with All Christians. It falls in the Holy Week, Triduum season of the liturgical year.