Churches resurrect an old Easter custom – Holy Humor Sunday

Plan on joining us on May 18th for Mt. Tabor’s first “Holy Humor Sunday.” Here is a little history of how this fun service originated but has been lost in a humorless world.

From time to time in our earthly lives, many of us have been dead - from illness, depression, physical injuries, emotional wounds, the loss of loved ones, financial losses - and yet have come alive and endured while looking forward to the Great Resurrection.

Many American churches are resurrecting an old Easter custom begun by the Greeks in the early centuries of Christianity-"Holy Humor Sunday" celebrations of Jesus' resurrection on the Sunday after Easter.

For centuries in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week following Easter Sunday, including "Bright Sunday" (the Sunday after Easter), was observed by the faithful as "days of joy and laughter" with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.

Churchgoers and pastors told jokes, sang, laughed, and danced.

The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. "Risuspaschalis - the Easter laugh," the early theologians called it.

In 1988 the Fellowship of Merry Christians began encouraging churches and prayer groups to resurrect Bright Sunday celebrations and call it "Holy Humor Sunday," with the theme: "Jesus is the LIFE of the party."

Sonia C. Solomonson, managing editor of The Lutheran, wrote a splendid article titled “Two Parts Faith, One Part Humor” a few years ago, reporting on how some Lutheran congregations are observing Holy Humor Sunday. “So, who says we can’t laugh and celebrate in our places of worship? We can find a way to mix faith and humor, stir it into our lives, and let it simmer into a rich stew that will feed all those around us.”

Article from: Holy Humor Sunday - The Joyful Noiseletter