Passion
Passion (Lat., passio, ‘suffering’). The events of Jesus' last days as recounted in the gospels, culminating in his crucifixion. From at least the 4th cent. the passion was recited with musical settings in churches during Holy Week; by the Middle Ages, the chant was plainsong, with motet choruses added in the 15th cent. The St John Passion (1723) and St Matthew Passion (1729) of J. S. Bach are among the most familiar of these Passions.
Passion Sunday is the 5th Sunday in Lent, a week before Palm Sunday, but Passion Sunday is now fused with Palm Sunday.
Passion plays are enactments of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus which served, originally, important didactic purposes. The best known of these is a late example, the play at Oberammergau in Bavaria. According to tradition, the village was spared from plague in 1633, and vowed, in gratitude, to perform a passion play once every ten years. The term ‘passion play’ is also used of dramatic reenactments, by Shīʿa Muslims, of the martyrdom of al-Husain (and al-Hasan): see TAʿZIYA. For a text, see L. Pelly, The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain (1879).
Passion Sunday is the 5th Sunday in Lent, a week before Palm Sunday, but Passion Sunday is now fused with Palm Sunday.
Passion plays are enactments of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus which served, originally, important didactic purposes. The best known of these is a late example, the play at Oberammergau in Bavaria. According to tradition, the village was spared from plague in 1633, and vowed, in gratitude, to perform a passion play once every ten years. The term ‘passion play’ is also used of dramatic reenactments, by Shīʿa Muslims, of the martyrdom of al-Husain (and al-Hasan): see TAʿZIYA. For a text, see L. Pelly, The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain (1879).
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Passion