Maundy Thursday

As an enquiring agnostic looking in from the outside as it were, it has always struck me as strange that for most people - even many churchgoers - Easter starts on Good Friday, and today passes more or less without comment. And yet this is the day of the Last Supper and of Jesus's arrest. This is where it all begins. The formal ritual of the Queen giving money to the poor on this day relates back to Jesus washing his disciples' feet, and the name Maundy comes (somewhat tortuously) from the Latin "mandatum" meaning commandment, for whilst doing this, Jesus is reported as saying "A new commandment I give unto you" which in Latin comes out as "Mandatum novum do vobis".