MAUNDY, MAUNDY..

Today is Easter Thursday or Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday, whichever form of Christianity you have been brought up under or just Thursday if you haven't.

The Christians believe that on Maundy Thursday Jesus had his last supper before arranging to be executed on Friday which for some reason is known as Good Friday which might have been a very early example of a typo where the writer had intended to write God Friday and put in an extra O. Writing on wax tablets, carving on sandstone or trying to write on papyrus that kept rolling up must have been a hassle so no wonder the scribe elected to just let the mistake go. I won't go into why Holy Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday as that is way too complicated. It is better to just know it as Easter Thursday because we know that it is the Thursday before Easter Friday which everyone knows is a holiday so we remember it. Easter Thursday, known to be the day of the last supper is also known as the day of the feet washing for the people who were at the last supper.

Little is known of this event but I believe that it is important and the two things are very clearly connected. Jesus, knowing he had a big day coming up no doubt invited a few buddies around for a drink and some eats. The friends were basically fishermen and probably weren't the most cultured and chic people, and, being away from their normal mode of transport, their boats, would have walked to J's place. Other forms of transport prevalent at the time were chariots and ass riding. Both chariot horses and asses, while being better than shanks pony, had the nasty side effect of dropping big piles of dung everywhere. This was Thursday remember which is usually pay day and a big going out night. Given that God Friday was to be a Holy Day (as opposed to a holiday) and that all the shops and bars would be closed, most if not all of the usual Friday night revellers would have elected to go out on Thursday night thereby doubling the already heavy traffic. No wonder then that J's guests would have had to step in steaming piles of excrement on the way to the party. On their arrival and their clamouring to get in Jesus would have naturally been shocked at the state of their feet and demanded that they wash them. Being basically sailors and no doubt had already had a few, a fight or argument ensued. The guests, remonstrating would have said to Jesus "if you want our feet washed then do it yourself". Jesus, I'm sure would have retorted "This is the last supper I'm inviting you bastards to, ever!"