Royal Maundy pence to each of fifty poor men. It is not known, however, whether it was as yet the practice each year to have the number of pence and the number of recipients track the monarch's age: Henry IV was the first monarch to decree that the number of pence given be determined by the monarch's age. The ceremony was not always performed on Maundy Thursday; it could be postponed a day to Good Friday by royal command, as it was in 1510. Nobles could hold their own Maundy distributions, as did Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland in the early
Maundy Thursday Cross, Christ's prayer, and his new commandment. The twelve readings are: Beginning on Holy and Great Thursday, the memorial service for the dead is forbidden until after Thomas Sunday. Maundy Thursday is a public holiday in most countries that were part of the Spanish empire (Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela), countries that were part of the Danish colonial empire (Denmark, Iceland, Norway and United States Virgin Islands), and in the Kerala State of India. Certain German states declare a public holiday for public sector employees. In the