from Hacker News

Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

by vitoc on 4/18/25, 3:59 AM with 142 comments

  • by WorkerBee28474 on 4/18/25, 5:06 AM

  • by AStonesThrow on 4/18/25, 5:48 AM

    Why don't we consult a rather authoritative and reliable, albeit 100 years old, source?

    https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06643a.htm

    Good Friday, called Feria VI in Parasceve in the Roman Missal, he hagia kai megale paraskeue (the Holy and Great Friday) in the Greek Liturgy, Holy Friday in Romance Languages, Charfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German, is the English designation of Friday in Holy Week — that is, the Friday on which the Church keeps the anniversary of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

    The origin of the term Good is not clear. Some say it is from "God's Friday" (Gottes Freitag); others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag, and not specially English. Sometimes, too, the day was called Long Friday by the Anglo-Saxons; so today in Denmark.

    I should also add that Friday retains its pagan vestiges, named after Frigg in the German pantheon, or Venus, the Roman deity of erotic love, beauty and fertility, better known to some as Aphrodite. And likewise, April is a month that was long known as sacred to Aphrodite/Venus in the Roman Calendar, and many feasts such as the Veneralia were celebrated during April.

    It is no coincidence that on Good Friday, Christ redeemed the world; since He is the Bridegroom and the Church is his holy, unblemished bride, it is the day of consummation: the consummation of His sacrifice on the Cross, the day He poured out His Precious Blood for us, and many theologians mark this event also as the seeds or birth of the Church, along with Pentecost.

    So I'd say that Good Friday is best Friday. And the fact that it's in April is really cool. And once I heard the university shooting up fireworks on the evening of Good Friday. I'll be planning on the Stations of the Cross at 3pm. Seeya there!

  • by thih9 on 4/18/25, 6:21 PM

    > (…) the meaning of the name Good Friday can be understood as historically meaning ‘holy’. The use of ‘good’ denotes that this is a day of religious observance (…)

  • by hagbarth on 4/18/25, 7:02 AM

    In Danish it’s called Langfredag (Long Friday). I believe it’s because of the drawn out suffering of the crucifixion.

  • by WorkerBee28474 on 4/18/25, 5:09 AM

    The etymology is interesting, but this writing reads like weirdly bad AI.

  • by bmk44 on 4/18/25, 10:54 PM

    In Polish, it is called "Wielki Piątek" which translates as "Great Friday". Simiarly; the week is "Wielki Tydzień", translates as "Great Week". I always understood it in the similar vein as the Jewish "High Holidays" as the most important observation of the year.

    The discrepancy between "Holy Week" and "Good Friday" always irked me when I learned these terms in English.

  • by getnormality on 4/18/25, 6:56 PM

    Growing up Catholic, I always figured that it was meant to be paradoxical, to drive home the Christian message. This horribly sad event that is so painful to imagine happening, this event was the most important Good thing that happened in human history. So we have to call it Good Friday.

    Like many folk etymologies, it sounds like it's not quite right, but it was intuitive at the time...

  • by philsnow on 4/18/25, 8:48 PM

    I was surprised to learn that markets (NYSE and NASDAQ) at least are closed on Good Friday.

    Some article ascribed it to superstition about a previous crash that had happened on some previous Good Friday, but debunked there being any connection.

  • by ReptileMan on 4/18/25, 5:12 PM

    In my country it is called literally Crucifixion Friday

  • by SoftTalker on 4/18/25, 8:11 PM

    Page is catastrophically broken. Scrolling doesn't work at all. Reader mode helps.

  • by textm0de on 4/18/25, 5:51 AM

    Most likely an evolution of "God Friday", in much the same way as "God Be With Ye" became Good-Bye.

  • by PaulRobinson on 4/18/25, 5:48 AM

    TLDR: "Good" can mean "Holy". That's it.

    This is a weird article. If you bail early, at least now you know the answer to the question.

  • by morninglight on 4/18/25, 3:58 PM

    Because the stock market is closed?

  • by tetris11 on 4/18/25, 6:22 AM

    > In Germany, the day is known as Karfreitag

    In Germany its known as "brücketag" because Thursday was a public holiday and people take a "bridge-day" on Friday to extend the weekend.

  • by danwills on 4/18/25, 6:38 AM

    I find it odd how Easter, a pre-Christian Pagan festival (worshipping goddess of fertility: Eostre) has become seemingly-arbitrarily connected to the purported events at the end of Jesus' life.. yet it still includes a good amount of the prior symbolism (rabbits, eggs etc)!

    Still great to have a short break from work! Not arguing against it at all, it just seems a bit bizarre to me overall.