Holy Cross Day: Celebrating the Cross That Changed Everything
On September 14th, Christians around the world celebrate Holy Cross Day - one of the oldest feast days in the Christian calendar, with roots stretching back to fourth century Jerusalem. The cross is not merely a symbol of suffering but the very instrument of Christ’s redemption for the whole world, the means by which He made peace through His own blood. That the cross, once an instrument of shame and execution, has become the sign of our salvation is reason enough to celebrate with joy and gratitude.
The Rediscovery of the Cross
Holy Cross Day commemorates not only the cross itself but also its remarkable rediscovery after centuries of burial beneath the ruins of Jerusalem.
The earliest Christians held the site of Jesus’ tomb in deep reverence. But when Jerusalem fell to Rome in 70 AD, the city was reduced to rubble. Decades later, in 130 AD, Emperor Hadrian built a Roman colony over the ruins, ordering the tomb of Christ filled in to create a level foundation for a temple dedicated to the goddess Venus. It was a deliberate act of erasure, a pagan overlay on the holiest ground in Christendom. In doing so, Hadrian unwittingly fulfilled Paul’s words: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and set about recovering and restoring the faith’s most sacred sites. He sent his mother, Helena Augusta, to Jerusalem with instructions to have the pagan temple demolished and the ancient ruins beneath it excavated. What the excavations uncovered amazed everyone involved - three crosses, believed to be the cross of Christ and the crosses of the two thieves crucified alongside Him. The discovery was met with tremendous celebration, and Helena, along with her delegation and the local Christian community, established a feast day to mark the occasion.
That feast day has been observed by the Church ever since.
What the Cross Means for Us
It is easy, in the familiarity of the cross, to lose sight of what an astonishing thing it actually is. We wear it around our necks, carve it into our churches, and trace it over our bodies with our hands, and yet the cross was not originally a religious symbol. It was an instrument of execution, the Roman Empire’s most brutal and deliberately humiliating method of putting a person to death. It was designed not only to kill but to shame, to display, and to warn. And yet this is the thing that stands at the very center of the Christian faith. The question worth sitting with on Holy Cross Day is how that happened - how the instrument of the most shameful death imaginable became the sign of the greatest love the world has ever known.
When Jesus went to the cross, He did not go as a victim of circumstances beyond His control. He went deliberately and willingly, in full knowledge of what awaited Him, because the cross was the only way to accomplish what needed to be accomplished. The debt of human sin was real. The separation between a holy God and His broken people was real. And the only way to bridge that separation, to cancel that debt, to make peace where there had been enmity, was for Someone who was without sin to bear the full weight of it on our behalf. Paul says it as plainly as it can be said, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross, the sin of the world was laid upon the Son of God, and in His death it was dealt with completely. The curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The way to God was opened. The peace that had been impossible was made.
This is why the cross is not primarily a symbol of suffering for Christians, though it involved the most profound suffering imaginable. It is a symbol of victory and of love and of the lengths to which God was willing to go to bring His people home. Paul tells the Corinthians that he resolved to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, not because the crucifixion was the end of the story, but because everything that came after it, including the resurrection and the life we now have in Christ, flows directly from what happened there. The cross changes who we are, what we owe, where we stand before God, and what we have to look forward to. It is the hinge upon which all of history turns, and it is the reason that on September 14th the Church pauses to stand before it again, to receive what it offers, and to give thanks for a love that was willing to go that far.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.- 1 Corinthians 1:18
Ways to Celebrate Holy Cross Day at Home
Make a cross-shaped dessert.This is one of our favorite activities for Holy Cross Day, a simple and delicious dessert that children can help make and that gives a tangible shape to the day’s celebration. Whipped cream and crisp dark chocolate wafers are involved, which means it is very difficult to go wrong. The recipe is shared below.
Make a cross from toothpicks.This is a simple craft that even young children can do. Break toothpicks into pieces and arrange them in the shape of a cross on black construction paper, gluing them in place. Punch holes in the corners, thread twine through, and hang the finished cross somewhere visible in your home, or let the children process through the house carrying them. It is the kind of simple, handmade thing that children remember.
Make something with basil.An ancient tradition associated with Holy Cross Day holds that basil was growing abundantly on the hill where Helena discovered the cross. In Greece to this day, priests distribute sprigs of fresh basil to their parishioners on this feast. You can bring that same tradition into your home by having your children gather small bundles of basil, tie them with ribbon, and place them on the table as simple decorations. For dinner, make a fresh homemade pesto and toss it with hot pasta, fragrant, seasonal, and perfectly suited to the day.
Teach your children to make the sign of the cross.Holy Cross Day is a beautiful occasion to introduce or deepen your children’s understanding of the sign of the cross. Many people assume it is a superstitious gesture or something belonging only to certain traditions, but it has always been intended as something far simpler and more beautiful than that - a physical reminder, made with our own bodies, that we belong to Christ and have been marked by His cross. Showing your children how to make the sign of the cross on Holy Cross Day gives the gesture its full context and meaning.
the recipe -
Holy Cross Icebox Cake
Chocolate Cookies
1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup (1 1⁄2 ounces) Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄4 teaspoon table salt
1 1⁄4 cups (5 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Whipped Cream
1 quart heavy whipping cream
1 cup sugar
For the cookies:
Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until combined. In a second medium bowl, combine sugar, water, and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Add butter to the sugar mixture and whisk until incorporated. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir with a spatula until fully combined.
Transfer dough to the counter and knead until smooth, about 20 seconds. Roll into a 5-inch log. Wrap tightly and refrigerate until very firm, at least 2 hours or up to 5 days.
Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 300 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a sharp chef’s knife, slice the log into ⅛-inch-thick rounds and transfer to prepared sheets (20 cookies per sheet), leaving ½ inch between rounds. Bake until the center of the cookies gives very little when pressed with your fingertip, 20 to 22 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and let them cool completely. Serve. (Cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.)
Whip the whipped cream on high until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Add a layer of whipped cream between layers of chocolate wafers and arrange them on a platter. Stack the wafer layers on their sides in the shape of a cross.
When you are satisfied with the shape, cover the whole cross in the remaining whipped cream. Place the ground wafers in a sifter and sift over the cake. Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve.
Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until combined. Combine sugar, water, and vanilla in second medium bowl and whisk until smooth. Add butter to sugar mixture and whisk until incorporated. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture and stir with spatula until fully combined.
Transfer dough to counter and knead until smooth, about 20 seconds. Roll into 5-inch log. Wrap tightly and refrigerate until very firm, at least 2 hours or up to 5 days.
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