(called also Shere Thursday) is the Thursday immediately preceding Easter, on which a certain number of poor persons receive alms from the king or queen. Some conceive the name Maunday to be derived from mandatum, command; but others with stronger probability suppose it to be derived from the maunds, or large baskets from which it was customary to distribute the alms to the poor. It received the name "Shere Thursday," says an old homily, "for that in old Fathers' days the people would that day shere theyr heedes and cypp theyr berdes, and so make them honest agenst Easterday." The ceremonial of the Maunday, as practised by Queen Elizabeth in 1572, was as follows:—After thirty-nine poor people (the number equal to the years of her majesty's age) had been placed on forms by a long table in a hall prepared for the occasion; and after the preliminary arrangements had been gone through, "her majesty came into the hall, and after some singing and prayers made, and the gospel of Christ's washing of his disciples' feet read," her majesty "kneeling down upon the cushions and carpets under the feete of the poore women, first washed one foote of every one of them in soe many several hasons of warm water and swete flowers, then wiped, crossed, and kissed them, as ther almoner and others had done before." Then after receiving food, clothing, and money from the queen, they retired. The last king who performed this ceremony in person was James II. We learn from the Times newspaper of April 16, 1838, that after the distribution of the queen's royal alms, which consisted of money and clothing, to the Maunday men and women, by Mr Hanby, at the Almory Office, "they also received Ll. 10s., a commutation instead of the provisions heretofore distributed." Nor was this custom confined to the sovereign; for we find that Cardinal Wolsey in 1530 "made his Maundy;" and in the Earl of Northumberland's household book of 1512, we have an enumeration of "al manner of things yerly yeven by my lorde of his Maundy." The same ceremony is kept up in German Catholic countries by the court, under the name of Fusswaschung, or "the washing of the feet;" and Dr E. D. Clarke (Travels in Russia, 1810, i. 55) witnessed "the Archbishop of Moscow washing the feet of the apostles" on the Thursday immediately preceding Easter. (Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i., p. 142.)