Editing Liturgical year (section)

====Easter Triduum====
{{Main|Paschal Triduum}}
The Easter Triduum consists of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/documentText/Index/2/SubIndex/38/ContentIndex/101/Start/97|title=Chapter II-b. The Yearly Cycle|website=www.catholicliturgy.com|access-date=April 18, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411120450/http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/documentText/Index/2/SubIndex/38/ContentIndex/101/Start/97|archive-date=April 11, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> Each of these days begins liturgically not with the morning but with the preceding evening.

The triduum begins on the evening before Good Friday with [[Mass of the Lord's Supper]], celebrated with white vestments,<ref>[http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/documentText/Index/2/SubIndex/38/ContentIndex/324/Start/319 Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140404061001/http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/documenttext/index/2/subindex/38/contentindex/324/start/319 |date=April 4, 2014 }}, 44</ref> and often includes a ritual of ceremonial footwashing. It is customary on this night for a vigil involving private prayer to take place, beginning after the evening service and continuing until midnight. This vigil is occasionally renewed at dawn, continuing until the Good Friday liturgy.

During the day of [[Good Friday]] Mass is not celebrated in the Catholic Church. Instead a Celebration of the Passion of the Lord is held in the afternoon or evening. It consists of three parts: a [[Liturgy of the Word]] that includes the reading of the account of the [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion]] by [[John the Evangelist]] and concludes with a solemn [[General Intercessions|Universal Prayer]]. Other churches also have their Good Friday commemoration of the Passion.

The colour of vestments varies: no colour, red, or black are used in different traditions. Coloured hangings may be removed. Lutheran churches often either remove colourful adornments and icons, or veil them with drab cloth. The service is usually plain with somber music, ending with the congregation leaving in silence. In the Catholic, some Lutheran, and High Anglican rites, a crucifix (not necessarily the one which stands on or near the altar on other days of the year) is ceremoniously unveiled. Other crucifixes are unveiled, without ceremony, after the service.

[[Holy Saturday]] commemorates the day during which Christ lay in the tomb. In the Catholic Church, there is no Mass on this day; the Easter Vigil Mass, which, though celebrated properly at the following midnight, is often celebrated in the evening, is an Easter Mass. With no liturgical celebration, there is no question of a liturgical colour.

The [[Easter Vigil]] is held in the night between Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, to celebrate the [[resurrection]] of Jesus. See also [[Paschal candle]]. The liturgical colour is white, often together with gold. In the Roman Rite, during the "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" the organ and bells are used in the liturgy for the first time in two days, and the statues, which have been veiled during Passiontide (at least in the Roman Rite through the 1962 version), are unveiled. In Lutheran churches, colours and icons are re-displayed as well.