Album release, SPACE camps, Good Friday and Easter

Join The Real Sarahs and Alex de Grassi for the release of “Everything's Changed” March 23, at SPACE Theater (508 W. Perkins, Ukiah).

Everything's Changed… not just the title of the new release but also an acknowledgment that the entire world has undergone a profound shift since early 2020. Tickets are available at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah and at Mazahar in Willits. $30/advance; $35/door. Website: https://www. brownpapertickets.com/ event/6249164

Take home a CD that features seven originals by Sarah Larkin and Sarah Ryan, one traditional, and three unique arrangements of songs by Nanci Griffith, John Prine, and Kate Wolf. De Grassi is joined throughout by bassist David Hayes, and on some tracks by drummer Kirk Harwood.

Guest appearances by electric guitarist Nina Gerber, violinist Jeremy Cohen (Quartet San Francisco), vocalist/mandolinist AJ Lee, steel guitarist Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz (ALO), and percussion by Joe Craven (David Grisman) and Downbeat-poll winning percussionist Hamid Drake give these performances a sound that straddles the line between the Americana tradition and Contemporary Folk.

Register now!

For SPACE (Near & Arnold's School of Performing Arts & Cultural Education) Summer camps for ages 8-18 beginning June 10. Onsite camps are free to Ukiah Unified School District students; call 707- 462-9370. Limited funding for Redwood Collegiate Academy and Sequoia Career Academy students.

For more information, go to www.spaceperformingarts.org or call SPACE at (707) 462-9370. Some financial aid available first come, first served.

Five facts about Good Friday and Easter

Next week marks the two holiest days on the Christian calendar, Good Friday and Easter. Here are five facts you should know about these days of religious observance:

Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The historical origins of the “Good” in Good Friday remain unclear, though some entomologists believe the term “good” is an archaic form of “holy.” The holiday is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, and Black Friday. In the United States, 12 states observe Good Friday as a state holiday: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, and Tennessee.

The day before Good Friday is known as Maundy Thursday. The term “Maundy” is derived from the Latin word mandatum (commandment). The term refers to the commandment given by Jesus at the Last Supper: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)

The Christian scholar Bede (673-735 AD, aka the Venerable Bede) claimed in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre, a pagan goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Later scholars, however, claim that the term derives from the Anglo-Saxon word “oster,” meaning “to rise,” or for their term for the Spring equinox, “Eostre.”

In Medieval Europe, Christians would abstain from eating eggs and meat during Lent. Eggs laid during that time were often boiled to preserve them and were given as Easter gifts to children and servants. Some traditions claim the Easter egg is symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus, with the shell of the egg representing the sealed tomb and cracking the shell representing the Resurrection. Christians in the Middle East and in Greece painted eggs bright red to symbolize the blood of Christ.

Almost all scholars agree that Jesus was crucified in the spring of either A.D. 30 or A.D. 33. In their book, “The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived,” Andreas Köstenberger and Justin Taylor contend that the exact date of the first Good Friday was Friday, April 3 and the first Easter on April 5 A.D. 33.

Their assumption for that date is based on the beginning of Tiberius's reign (A.D. 14), the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius's reign (A.D. 28), the beginning of Jesus's ministry (A.D. 29), and a minimum three-year duration of Jesus' ministry, putting the most likely date of Jesus's crucifixion in A.D. 33 (April 3).

“While other dates are possible,” say the authors, “we believers can take great assurance from the fact that the most important historical events in Jesus's life, such as the crucifixion, are firmly anchored in human history.”

CREDIT: By Joe Carter, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, April 2017.