[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by ANNE

Mmmm lots of interesting answers here. Rindy's right. Well sort of.
This is what I was led to believe, firstly by Mum n Dad and later through Sunday School.
Good Friday was the Day that Jesus was Crusified. He rose again 3day's after the Crusifiction.
Day 1 Saturday, Day 2 Sunday, Day 3 Easter Monday. Assention Day.

Ah well there you go, That explains it. Except he didn't rise 3 days after the crucifixion. He rose 'on the third day'. Friday was the first day, Saturday was the second day and Sunday was the third day. This is also why we have Sunday as our holy or Sabbath day. You know that "Six days shalt thou labour and do all that though hast to do but the seventh is the sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no work, neither thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor the stranger within thy gates etc etc..."? Well if you look at a calendar you'll see that Sunday isn't the seventh day. It's the first day.

The Jews (today and in Jesus's time) have Saturday as their Sabbath day because it is the 7th day of the week and they are doing like it says - mind you some ignore the manservant, maidservant and stranger bit and get other people to do things for them on the Sabbath even as far as switching a light on or off for very orthodox Jews.

The early Christians also kept Saturday as their Sabbath but somewhere along the way it was changed to Sunday in honour of the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

Ascension Day is another thing altogether. After his resurrection Jesus spent time with various people. He even had a picnic on the beach and chatted to a couple of chaps on the road to Emmaus but it didn't dawn on them who he was at first. It's generally regarded that he stayed 40 days after his resurrection before ascending to Heaven. This year Ascension Day will officially be May 17th - it's always on a Thursday but some churches sort of celebrate it on the following Sunday. Our church doesn't actually make a thing of it at all though and like "Whitsuntide" which used to be celebrated with Whit Monday walks and things it seems to have become largely forgotten nowadays.


Here endeth the lesson for today