A Holy Week - What We Can Learn From Other Religions

I have recently subscribed to The Mormon Times which Deseret News now sends out along with The Church News.  A feature from this weeks edition highlighted how different religions celebrate the week of Easter as well as other traditions and ceremonies throughout the year.  As we strive to be missionaries throughout the world I think it not only important to understand and embrace the good from these cultures but to also avoid the embarrassment of ignorance.  For example, this past Ash Wednesday in February a BBC reporter covering a news conference of Joe Bidens kept reffering to a bruise on his forehead that he must have recieved while attending the Olympics (dont believe me? watch here). 

In one of the articles it quotes Marvin Goldstein, who was born a Jew, but baptized into the church in 1985 at the age of 35. "There is a total disconnect," said Goldstein, an accomplished pianist. "Mormons profess to believe all of these (principles of the holidays) yet know nothing about the holidays that even Christ would have celebrated."

Below are links to each of the features dedicated to learning more about about a sampling of these traditions:

Palm Sunday

Good Friday

Passover

Shavuot

Pentecost

Ramadan

Rosh Hashanah

All Hallows' Eve

Yom Kippur

Advent

Hanukkah

Lent