Passion of the Christ to Show at the National Mall

This is incredible:

Rally on National Mall in Washington, D.C. to Officially Launch the Campaign to Make Good Friday a National Holiday in the United States  

On April 22nd, 2011 the Campaign to Commemorate Good Friday as a National Holiday in the United States will officially launch its national campaign on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and collection of 1 million signatures.

New York City, NY (Vocus/PRWEB) April 07, 2011
The Campaign to Commemorate Good Friday as a National Holiday will hold an official launch rally that is open to public on April 22nd, 2011 at 12:00 PM to 3:30 PM on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. located between 7th Street and 14th Street. The campaign seeks to generate nation-wide support and collect 1 million signatures which it will use to petition the U.S. Congress to officially commemorate Good Friday as a National Holiday in the United States.

Good Friday is a state holiday in eleven U.S. states including Connecticut, Texas, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina and North Dakota. State and local government offices and courts are closed, as well as some banks and postal offices in these states. Good Friday has been an official holiday and day of closure for Wall Street since its inception, with stock exchanges around the world and many U.S. and international banks closed in observance of the holiday.

In many countries with a strong Christian tradition such as Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, the countries of the Caribbean, Germany, Malta, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Malta and the United Kingdom, the day is observed as a public or federal holiday.

Good Friday is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary, estimated in the year AD 33 by the Canonical gospels. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Resurrection Sunday.
For more information please visit, http://www.GoodFridayCampaign.com or contact Sharon Jones, Director, phone 212.731.4080 or sj(at)goodfridaycampaign(dot)com.

Of course, this adds yet another worthy event occurring between noon and three.  If you’re in D.C., you might check out the Triduum schedule for the Basilica (the papal nuncio, Bp. Sambi, will be celebrating), the Cathedral (Cardinal Wuerl will be celebrating), St. Mary’s Chinatown, St. Patrick’s, or any of the worthy area churches. To find local churches with Masses in almost any language imaginable (from Latin to Arabic to Old Slovakian to Ge’ez), go here.

If you don’t live in the D.C. area, and still want to see The Passion of the Christ today, it seems that the entire movie is available on Youtube today.