Holy Wednesday - Customs

Customs

  • Czech Republic: the day is traditionally called Ugly Wednesday, Soot-Sweeping Wednesday or Black Wednesday, because chimneys used to be swept on this day, to be clean for Easter.
  • Malta: this day is known as L-Erbgħa tat-Tnieber (Drums' Wednesday), in the past children went to the parish church and drummed on the chairs to make the sound of thunderstorms, as their version of the "strepitus" sound at Tenebrae.
  • Scandinavia: this day is known as Dymmelonsdagen. A dymbil is a piece of wood. Historically, the metal clapper of the church bells were replaced by these dymbils on Holy Wednesday, to make a duller sound; that is the day's namesake. The day is sometimes confused with Ash Wednesday, and to the public, the days have started to apply to one another.

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Famous quotes containing the word customs:

    “O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate, you
    and I cannot be confined within the weak list of a country’s
    fashion. We are the makers of manners, Kate.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “The customs of some savage nations might, perchance, be profitably imitated by us, for they at least go through the semblance of casting their slough annually; they have the idea of the thing, whether they have the reality or not.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking.”
    —Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)