Why Is Holy Thursday Not A Holy Day Of Obligation?

[FutureSister2009]

This may be a really dumb question but it's one I've never known the answer to. Why is Holy Thursday not a Holy Day of Obligation? It seems like it really should be. And I feel like it should be illegal for me to have classes today.

[cappie]

My best guess as I don't really know..... :unsure: Good Friday is not a day of obligation for technical reasons. The obligation on a holy day is an obligation to attend mass. This would be impossible to fulfill on Good Friday because no mass is celebrated. The services that are held are liturgies, but not masses

 

I don't know the reason why Holy Thursday isn't a day of obligation. My best guess would be that it is to do with the fact that the Holy Thursday mass (ie the mass of the Lord's Supper) can only be celebrated once, on the Thursday evening. This makes it very hard for some people to attend (eg those who work night shifts, or those with young children) and the church perhaps thinks it an unreasonable burden to demand their attendance.

 

On a normal holy day, by contrast, there would be several masses celebrated throughout the day. Thus people are able to fit their mass attendance around their other commitments, so an obligation would not be so unreasonable.