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“Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.”

Today started out cloudy, but the sun is peeking through and chasing away the clouds. The sky is getting bluer and bluer. It is my sloth day, the only day this week with no appointment. I have a chore, an odd one. I need to put the new flag holder outside on the tree. That’s it for the day.

Today is Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday, a Christian holiday celebrating the Last Supper so the service is always at night. Part of the service is the ritual of the washing of feet meant to symbolize how Christ humbled Himself and washed the feet of the disciples. I never went to church on Holy Thursday. I always figured Sunday was more than enough for the week except for one special year, the year my grandfather was having his feet washed by the priest in a re-creation of what happened at the Last Supper. No way was I going to miss that. My grandfather was a short, gruff man filled with self-importance. He wasn’t a warm man. He wasn’t one of my favorites. My mother and I sat together in the church. I assume my father was there but he didn’t sit with us. One of my favorite parts of that service was the waving of the incense. The altar boy filled the gold incense burner and the priest sort of waved the burner to each section of the church. The incense smelled exotic. I still love that smell. The highlight of the evening, of course, was when the men walked barefoot onto the altar and sat on stiff chairs with red leather on the back and on the seat. I have no idea why I remember that. All of the men wore suits and sort of looked a bit silly being barefooted. My mother and I watched quietly until it came to my grandfather’s turn. He gave the priest one foot which was washed then dried and then gave the priest the other foot. My mother and I started laughing quietly. We couldn’t help it. My pompous grandfather looked so solemn. That made us laugh even harder. Our shoulders were shaking and the pew was shaking, but we didn’t utter a sound the whole time. We tried to stop but couldn’t. We didn’t dare look at each other. I can’t imagine what the people around us thought.

When the service was over, we hurried outside and started laughing again. It was hysterically funny to both of us. We never did tell my father. We didn’t think he’d appreciate the humor of it all.

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10 Comments on ““Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.””

  1. Christer.'s avatar olof1 Says:

    April 2, 2015 at 1:40 pm

    Tonight the witches fly to Blåkulla to have a party with the devil 🙂 There are some confusion about where this Blåkulla is because there are a few islands outside our coast line with that name and a few called that even if they actually are named different. I do hope they all find their way, so embrrassing to go to the wrong place 🙂 But it wasn’t only witches going there, quite a few warloks flew there too.

    The most common means of transport are the brooms but many also come by cow, the fly them upside down for some reason. I guess it’s practical to use a cow, if they get hungry or thirsty they have milk nearby 🙂 Some goats are also said to be used but they aren’t upside down though.

    We rareky have anything like that in our churches, I guess too many would feel so embarrassed that they rather would stay at home. No incense either, I’m not too fond of that smell so I don’t mind 🙂 We do however have a lot of sumfur smelling sermons on Good Friday 🙂 That seems to be the day when priests dare to go outside the normal 🙂 🙂

    Have a great day!
    Christer.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      April 2, 2015 at 3:59 pm

      Christer,
      Only a few men had their feet washed. It wasn’t the whole congregation. The whole thing was symbolic.

      It would be embarrassing to go to the wrong place. I looked up Blåkulla and found this, “Blockula is originally the same place as the island Blå Jungfrun, which was in old days called Blåkulla, and since medieval days rumored to be a place were the witches gathered. “I like the whole idea of witches. Here they only appear around Halloween.

      I would think the ones who arrive by cow would get a bit airsick flying upside down.

  2. Birgit's avatar Birgit Says:

    April 2, 2015 at 3:40 pm

    We usually call this day Green Thursday and – I had to ask my catholic friend who is just singing in the 8 pm catholic mass – they still wash feet. I can’t stand incense, it keeps me from breathing. The Easter Fire on Saturday will smell better.

  3. s's avatar s Says:

    April 2, 2015 at 3:47 pm

    You awful awful person. 🙂

    s

  4. jadepagepress's avatar jadepagepress Says:

    April 5, 2015 at 8:35 am

    I enjoyed this so much. Many of my favorite memories from youth have to do with laughing at inappropriate times… often during mass. 🙂 Thanks for bringing me back to your memory. My shoulders were silently shaking up and down with you!

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      April 5, 2015 at 8:47 am

      Nan,
      I’ll always remember that mass and that service. Even now I laugh just thinking about my mother and me trying so hard to be serious and totally failing. I figure everyone in that pew shook just a bit with us.


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