2. When is Holy Week?
Holy Week is the week before Easter, commemorating events in the last days of Jesus' life on Earth. It begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Monday.

3. Palm Sunday
The Sunday before Easter is known as Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. It celebrates Jesus’ triumphal arrival in Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Passover on a donkey. The donkey represented peace.

4. Palm Sunday
On Palm Sunday, children are given crosses made from single palm leaves. Traditionally, many churches will have a procession in or around the church while people sing songs of praise and wave palm leaves. This is to help them imagine what Jesus' entry into Jerusalem might have been like.

5. Palm Sunday
In some English churches small buns called pax cakes (symbolic of peace and goodwill) are given to the congregation as they leave after a Palm Sunday service.

6. Palm Sunday
Any left over palm crosses are kept and burned to make ashes for next years Ash Wednesday services.

7. Holy Thursday
Commonly known as Maundy Thursday, this is the day remembering Jesus’ Last Supper and his betrayal by Judas Iscariot. During the meal, Jesus took bread and wine and shared them with his disciples.

8. Holy Thursday
The meal was probably a Passover meal which Jewish people share together to remember the time when God delivered Moses and the people from slavery in Egypt.

9. Holy Thursday
The name 'Maundy' is derived from the Latin word “mandatum”, meaning a commandment. Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper, commanded: 'And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.' John 13:34

10. Holy Thursday
During the Last Supper, Jesus washed his disciples' feet. In England, the custom of washing feet by the Monarch was carried out until Up until then the King or Queen would wash the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday in Westminster Abbey. Food and clothing were also handed out to the poor.

11. Holy Thursday
In Britain today, the Queen follows a very traditional role of giving Maundy Money to a group of pensioners. The tradition of the Sovereign giving money to the poor dates from the 13th century, from the reign of Edward I.

12. Holy Thursday
At one time recipients were required to be of the same sex as the Sovereign, but since the eighteenth century they have numbered as many men and women as the Sovereign has years of age. Every year on this day, the Queen attends a Royal Maundy service in one of the many cathedrals throughout the country. 'Maundy money' is distributed to male and female pensioners from local communities near the Cathedral where the Service takes place.

13. Good Friday
This day commenced with the arrest and trial of Jesus Christ, followed by his crucifixion, death and burial. On Good Friday, Christians remember the day when Jesus was crucified on a cross.

14. Good Friday
Many Churches hold services lasting three hours. They may celebrate the Stations of the Cross, or take part in Passion plays and dramatic readings.

15. Good Friday
The name Good Friday may be derived from 'God's Friday' in the same way that good-bye is derived from 'God be with ye'. It is 'good' because the barrier of sin was broken.

16. Good Friday
Good Friday today is still a public holiday in much of the UK. Some Christians fast (go without food) on Good Friday. This helps them remember the sacrifice Jesus made for them on the day of crucifixion.

17. Good Friday
It is traditional to eat warm 'hot cross buns' on Good Friday. Hot Cross Buns with their combination of spicy, sweet and fruity flavours have long been an Easter tradition. The pastry cross on top of the buns symbolises and reminds Christians of the cross that Jesus was killed on.

18. Holy Saturday
This was the Sabbath day on which Jesus rested in the grave. Holy Saturday is also known as Easter Even or the Great Sabbath.

19. Holy Saturday
Many churches hold services on this eve of Easter Day. The Easter Vigil is a service held in many Christian churches as the official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The service includes the first use of the word alleluia since the beginning of Lent as well as the first Eucharist of Easter.

20. Holy Saturday
The Easter Vigil is celebrated by the use of a wax candle which is inscribed with a cross. The letters alpha and omega are inscribed at the top and bottom and the four numbers representing the current year are inscribed above and below the cross arms. Five grains representing the wounds of Christ are sometimes pushed into the soft wax.

21. Easter Sunday
Christians gather together on Easter Sunday for a Sunrise Service. This service takes place on a hill side so everyone can see the sun rise.

22. Easter Sunday
Some churches have an Easter Garden. A stone is placed across the mouth of a tomb before Easter, then rolled away on Easter morning.