Maundy Thursday UK, civil servants were traditionally granted a half-day holiday (known as "privilege leave") on this date, but that was abolished after 2012. The tradition of visiting seven churches on Holy Thursday is an ancient practice, probably originating in Rome. and occurs among the faithful in countries around the world. In India, the custom is to visit fourteen churches, one per Station of the Cross. Traditionally, this is performed on Maundy Thursday evening but is more often done on the morning of Good Friday or on any day of Lent. Usually, whole families would participate, customarily fasting for the duration of
Holy Week in Braga 313, and the determinations of the Council of Nicaea on the celebration of Easter. The first major testimony of the celebration of Holy week in Jerusalem, and the likely start of his imitation in multiple other places in the Christian world, is the travelogue Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta or Itinerarium ad Loca Sancta (Pilgrimage / Itinerary to Holy Places) or, simply, Itinerarium Egeriae (Itinerary of Egeria) written by Egeria or Aetheria. This pilgrim was a woman of Gallaecia, probably even of Bracara Augusta (nowadays the city of Braga), that made his own pilgrimage to the Holy Land between 381 and