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Holy Humor Sunday/Bright Sunday

Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
in Ecclesiantics
The Ancient Church would use the day after Easter to tell jokes in the face of death/devil.

Recently, this has been extended to the 2nd Sunday of Easter in a number of traditions. I believe the Orthodox call it Bright Sunday.

Does your fellowship observe this?

If so, what are some of the jokes you have heard during it? (I know some of the Bad Jokes thread can be used in this too, but I am wondering if there might be other jokes you have heard or used or wish you can use).

Here's one:

How to you get a guitar player to play softly?
You hand him/her sheet music.

Comments

  • Merry VoleMerry Vole Shipmate
    I'm an acoustic guitarist who doesn't read sheet music. And I wish there was no amplification in church. Like there isn't in my folk club -which is bliss in comparison.
  • SpikeSpike Ecclesiantics & MW Host, Admin Emeritus
    Considering the date I’d assumed this was a joke and was going to post about the our priest wearing a clown costume and make up to celebrate the Mass, but a quick Google search showed that this is indeed real. I’d never heard of it before.

    Every day, as they say, is a school day.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    On the contrary, the Sunday after Easter is often known as *Low Sunday* in Anglican circles, due to the (usually) low attendance...
    :unamused:
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited April 1
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    On the contrary, the Sunday after Easter is often known as *Low Sunday* in Anglican circles, due to the (usually) low attendance...
    :unamused:
    Likely a folk etymology. It’s more probable that the name comes from laudes/Laudes Sunday, or that it’s intended to contrast to the”high” festival of Easter itself—or a combination of the two.

    Meanwhile, I think I’d run screaming, or at least want to, from any service where time was spent telling bad jokes.

  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    Although IME attendance on Easter Day itself can be low due to the number of folk who have gone to the mysterious land of Away. In my present church, the best Easter attendance was in 2021 as gathering and travelling were so severely restricted. Our (relatively small) building was as full as the constraints of social distancing allowed.

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Baptist Trainfan wrote: »
    Although IME attendance on Easter Day itself can be low due to the number of folk who have gone to the mysterious land of Away. In my present church, the best Easter attendance was in 2021 as gathering and travelling were so severely restricted. Our (relatively small) building was as full as the constraints of social distancing allowed.

    True - a goodly number of our folk are also attracted to the Land of Away.

    During our last interregnum, we astonished a visiting priest on *Low* Sunday by mustering nearly 40 in the congregation - more than we'd had on Easter Day.

    Our best Easter for many years was 2022, with over 60 in church.

    (BTW, I take @Nick Tamen's point about *Laudes* Sunday, although I don't think I've ever heard it referred to in this way.)
  • ForthviewForthview Shipmate
    I think that it is mainly due,as Nick says,to the contrast between the 'high' Sunday of Easter and the 'low' Sunday following which does not have all the celebration of the previous Sunday. In English RC terminology the following week was known as 'Low Week'
    The Sunday was also known as Dominica in Albis(depositis) the day when the newly baptised laid aside their white garments.
    Yet another name was quasi modo geniti Sunday from the beginning of the Introit of the day. The hunchback Quasimodo is said to have received that name because that was the day of his birth.
    It is now,due to the wishes of pope John Paul II, designated in RC terms as Divine Mercy Sunday.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited April 1
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    (BTW, I take @Nick Tamen's point about *Laudes* Sunday, although I don't think I've ever heard it referred to in this way.)
    The laudes theory is based on Laudes being the incipit (first word) of the sequence for the second Sunday of Easter in the Use of Sarum—Laudes Salvatori voce modulemur supplici (“Let us sing praises to the Savior with humble voice”). That same theory would say the reason the incipit of the sequence gave its name to the day rather than the more usual pattern of the incipit of the introit doing so is because in the Sarum Rite, the sequence was the first proper of the day that differed from the propers of Easter itself. (I don’t know if that’s accurate, but that’s what the theory says.)

    FWIW, the first recorded use of “Low Sunday” in English is from the 1400s, so prior to the Reformation and the suppression of the Use of Sarum.

  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Consider this: when Lent was taken more seriously, with fasting. solemnity and other pious actions, that the week after Easter would be one of parties and pranks and jokes. It is not easy, she said, to trace the origins or inspiration for the tradition. It may have been inspired by the famous Easter midnight sermon of John Chrysostom (344-407 A.D.), who described a vision of Christ confronting the devil and laughing at him. That is the way, I have always treated it, that God has the last laugh at death.

    Even in the Emmaus walk: were not the disciples overjoyed when they realized who they were with? Imagine how they must have rushed in the darkening night back to Jerusalem to share in their joy? Of course, the walk to Emmaus would have happened in the evening of the day of resurrection, but the church calendar puts it on the Sunday after Easter.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited April 1
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Consider this: when Lent was taken more seriously, with fasting. solemnity and other pious actions, that the week after Easter would be one of parties and pranks and jokes. It is not easy, she said, to trace the origins or inspiration for the tradition.
    Who is “she”? Are you quoting something or someone?

    I get the reasoning for the concept. I’m afraid I just find the attempts I have seen at a “Holy Humor Sunday” (which admittedly have been barely any in person, but I’m including what I’ve read and seen online), to be, for want of a better word, cringeworthy.

  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Consider this: when Lent was taken more seriously, with fasting. solemnity and other pious actions, that the week after Easter would be one of parties and pranks and jokes. It is not easy, she said, to trace the origins or inspiration for the tradition.
    Who is “she”? Are you quoting something or someone?

    I get the reasoning for the concept. I’m afraid I just find the attempts I have seen at a “Holy Humor Sunday” (which admittedly have been barely any in person, but I’m including what I’ve read and seen online), to be, for want of a better word, cringeworthy.

    oops. The quote is from The Joyful Newsletter

    Here it is in full:
    Mrs. Soule Papdemetriou, a librarian at Hellenic College's Holy Cross School of Theology, Brookline, Mass., observes that in the Greek and Slavic Orthodox tradition, Easter Monday "was a day of joy and laughter, a time of great celebration" over the resurrection of Christ and the renewal of the spiritual life of the people."

    An American citizen born in Greece, Mrs. Papademetriou remembers that the celebration began on Easter Monday and continued through "Bright Week" (Diakaiesimos).

    It is not easy, she said, to trace the origins or inspiration for the tradition. It may have been inspired by the famous Easter midnight sermon of John Chrysostom (344-407 A.D.), who described a vision of Christ confronting the devil and laughing at him.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Thanks!
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    There's certainly something to be said for keeping up the Easter joy liturgically, at least for the first week - after that, even the
    repeated Alleluias
    might begin to flag...
  • ForthviewForthview Shipmate
    I'm not sure just how much humour but certainly a bit of Easter joy comes from the centuries old custom in the Czech Republic of men spanking or whipping girls with a special whip called pomlázka. This happens every year on Easter Monday. The whips are sometimes decorated with different bright colours,a bit like the decoration of the branches of greenery used on Palm Sunday. It is possibly even a pre Christian fertility rite, girl are expected to reciprocate with the gift of Easter eggs.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate
    edited April 1
    Forthview wrote: »
    I'm not sure just how much humour but certainly a bit of Easter joy comes from the centuries old custom in the Czech Republic of men spanking or whipping girls with a special whip called pomlázka. This happens every year on Easter Monday. The whips are sometimes decorated with different bright colours,a bit like the decoration of the branches of greenery used on Palm Sunday. It is possibly even a pre Christian fertility rite, girl are expected to reciprocate with the gift of Easter eggs.

    How do you whip/spank someone with an Easter egg? :flushed:
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    In Hungary there is an Easter Monday dance which ends with the boys throwing buckets of water over the girls.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Forthview wrote: »
    I'm not sure just how much humour but certainly a bit of Easter joy comes from the centuries old custom in the Czech Republic of men spanking or whipping girls with a special whip called pomlázka.
    I imagine most churches where I am would find that very problematic rather than an expression of joy. :flushed:

  • ForthviewForthview Shipmate
    Although this event with the whips happens on Easter Monday I don't think it is a particularly christian tradition,no more than Easter eggs which are really a pre christian fertility sign,given a christian overcoating.
    It is no more than men indicating an interest in women and women indicating a readiness to provide a child.
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    Dons Hostly Mitre

    It would be good to keep the thread on-topic with jokes appropriate to Bright Sunday, with a tangent into the origin of the name also being acceptable.

    Other Easter traditions belong in another thread. No more about whipping, though, please.

    Removes Hostly Mitre

    Nenya - Ecclesiantics Host
  • ForthviewForthview Shipmate
    I am sorry if my mentioning what is still a popular Czech custom on Easter Monday of 'Bright Week' has caused offence. amongst the many customs of boys chasing girls I should have mentioned that after 12noon girls are allowed to throw a bucket of water at any boys who approach them.
  • cgichardcgichard Shipmate
    Just a small clarification: in the Orthodox tradition, the whole week after the Sunday of Pascha is called Bright Week. The Sunday that follows is Thomas Sunday, when we recall how the doubt of the Apostle Thomas about the Resurrection was resolved.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    I am trying to work the story of Thomas and Holy Humor Sunday together. I can imagine when Jesus appeared to the disciples behind those locked doors there was a lot of joy.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I am trying to work the story of Thomas and Holy Humor Sunday together. I can imagine when Jesus appeared to the disciples behind those locked doors there was a lot of joy.

    Yes, but is that joy humour? I'd say not.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I am trying to work the story of Thomas and Holy Humor Sunday together. I can imagine when Jesus appeared to the disciples behind those locked doors there was a lot of joy.

    Yes, but is that joy humour? I'd say not.

    Please explain @Gee D
  • HarryCHHarryCH Shipmate
    I think the joy vs. humor questions is whether there was laughter.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    I would think there was a lot of laughter. You are hiding behind locked doors for fear of your life. Suddenly, your Lord appears. I know after initial shock, I would be laughing.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I would think there was a lot of laughter. You are hiding behind locked doors for fear of your life. Suddenly, your Lord appears. I know after initial shock, I would be laughing.

    I don't know that that really answers my question. Joy is along the lines of pleasure, whereas humour is the description of a joke
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    I would think there was a lot of laughter. You are hiding behind locked doors for fear of your life. Suddenly, your Lord appears. I know after initial shock, I would be laughing.
    Personally, I would think there’d be a lot of freaking out.

    But yes, while both joy and humor can elicit laughter, joy and humor aren’t the same thing. As @Gee D says, humor implies laughter because of things that are funny rather than because on feels joyous.

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    IIRC, there's a scene in Lord of the Rings where Sam laughs out loud simply *for heart's ease* - and that, I think, is what the disciples may have experienced, once the shock had worn off a bit...
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited April 14
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    IIRC, there's a scene in Lord of the Rings where Sam laughs out loud simply *for heart's ease* - and that, I think, is what the disciples may have experienced, once the shock had worn off a bit...
    Yes, I can see that. I think that’s different from laughter prompted by humor, though.

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    IIRC, there's a scene in Lord of the Rings where Sam laughs out loud simply *for heart's ease* - and that, I think, is what the disciples may have experienced, once the shock had worn off a bit...
    Yes, I can see that. I think that’s different from laughter prompted by humor, though.

    Indeed it is - my point entirely.
    :wink:

  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Update on Holy Humor Sunday. I did tell a couple of jokes, one at the beginning of the service and one at the end. I asked if anyone else had a joke at the end. A woman spoke up and told one. I think I should have cultivated the day a little more.

    On Facebook an Anglican priest mentioned his sermon was on holy humor. He said one lady came up to him later and said his sermon helped her understand why her husband had been so happy at his death. But another person came up and complained that such sermons should not be allowed in church.

    You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all the time. He was advised to bless them both.
  • HedgehogHedgehog Shipmate
    In my church, there was no effort at humor. The priest allowed the deacon to give the sermon. From a few other things that happened during the service, I got the sense the priest was trying to preserve his voice. The poor guy is the only priest for two parishes and Holy Week undoubtedly took a lot out of him, so I fully understand why he dumped off the sermon. However, the deacon at the mass I attended is (ahem...how to put this nicely?...) not known for even possessing a sense of humor. As such, it was, perhaps a Divine Mercy that he did not try to tell any jokes.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Hedgehog wrote: »
    However, the deacon at the mass I attended is (ahem...how to put this nicely?...) not known for even possessing a sense of humor. As such, it was, perhaps a Divine Mercy that he did not try to tell any jokes.
    I see what you did there. :lol:

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    It's perhaps a good rule for preachers to follow - never tell (or try to tell) jokes. Your sense of humour may well differ from that of at least some of your listeners...
  • angloidangloid Shipmate
    I can never remember the punchlines. But there is a difference between jokes and humour. A sense of humour (ie a. recognition of human frailty and that we never live up to our often pompous ideals) is essential in a Christian and especially a preacher. God deliver us from pompous preachers.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Fair comment.
    :wink:
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    angloid wrote: »
    I can never remember the punchlines. But there is a difference between jokes and humour. A sense of humour (ie a. recognition of human frailty and that we never live up to our often pompous ideals) is essential in a Christian and especially a preacher. God deliver us from pompous preachers.
    Yes, I was thinking much the same. A sense of humor, including perhaps a well-placed humorous story, can be very effective in a sermon. A joke, on the other hand, typically feels forced and out of place to me.

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