Good Friday, also called Holy Friday or Great Friday, is the Friday preceding Easter Sunday. It commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ at Calvary.
Contents [hide]
1 Original Events of Good Friday
2 Names in different languages
3 In the Roman Catholic Church
3.1 Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ
3.2 An example: Malta
3.3 An example: The Philippines
4 Churches of Byzantine tradition
4.1 Matins of Holy and Great Friday
4.2 Royal Hours
4.3 Vespers of Holy and Great Friday
4.4 Matins of Holy and Great Saturday
5 Anglican Communion
6 Other Protestant Traditions
7 Customs associated with Good Friday
8 Calculating the Date of Good Friday
9 Notes
10 See also
10.1 Related Holy Days
11 External links
[edit] Original Events of Good Friday
Main articles: Passion (Christianity), Death and resurrection of Jesus, and Sayings of Jesus on the cross
A Good Friday procession in Bombay by Indian Roman Catholics, depicting the Way of the CrossAccording to the New Testament, Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane by the Temple Guards through the guidance of his disciple,Judas Iscariot. Judas received money for betraying Jesus. He told the guards that whomever he kisses is the one they are to arrest. Jesus was brought to the house of Annas, who is the father-in-law of the current high priest, Caiaphas. There he is interrogated with little result, and sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest, where the Sanhedron had assembled (John 18:1-24).
Conflicting testimony against Jesus is brought forth by many witnesses, to which Jesus answers nothing. Finally the high priest adjures Jesus to respond under solemn oath, saying "I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us, are you the Anointed One, the Son of God?" Jesus testifies in the affirmative, "You have said it, and in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, coming on the clouds of Heaven." The high priest condemns Jesus for blasphemy, and the Sanhedron concurs with a sentence of death (Matthew 26:57-66). Peter also denies Jesus three times during the interrogations. Jesus already knew that Peter would deny him three times.
In the morning, the whole assembly brings Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, under charges of subverting the nation, opposing taxes to Caesar, and making himself a king (Luke 23:1-2). Pilate authorizes the Jewish leaders to judge Jesus according to their own Law and execute sentencing, however the Jewish leaders reply that they are not allowed by the Romans to carry out a sentence of death (John 18:31).
Pilate questions Jesus, and tells the assembly that there is no basis for sentencing. Upon learning that Jesus is from Galilee, Pilate refers the case to the ruler of Galilee, King Herod, who was in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Herod questions Jesus but receives no answer; Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate. Pilate tells the assembly that neither he nor Herod have found guilt in Jesus; Pilate resolves to have Jesus whipped and released (Luke 23:3-16).
It was a custom during the feast of Passover for the Romans to release one prisoner as requested by the Jews. Pilate asks the crowd who they would like to be released. Under the guidance of the chief priests, the crowd asks for Barabbas, who had been imprisoned for committing murder during an insurrection. Pilate asks what they would have him do with Jesus, and they demand, "Crucify him" (Mark 15:6-14). Pilate's wife had seen Jesus in a dream earlier that day; she forewarns Pilate to "have nothing to do with this righteous man" (Matthew 27:19).
Pilate has Jesus flogged, then brings him out to the crowd to release him. The chief priests inform Pilate of a new charge, demanding Jesus be sentenced to death "because he claimed to be God's son." This possibility filled Pilate with fear, and he brought Jesus back inside the palace and demanded to know from where he came (John 19:1-9).
Coming before the crowd one last time, Pilate declares Jesus innocent, washing his own hands in water to show he has no part in this condemnation. Nevertheless, Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified in order to forestall a riot (Matthew 27:24-26). The sentence written is "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Jesus carries his cross to the site of execution (assisted by Simon of Cyrene), called the place of the Skull, or "Golgotha" in Hebrew and "Calvary" in Latin. There he is crucified along with two criminals (John 19:17-22).
Jesus agonizes on the cross for three hours, during which there is darkness over the whole land.[1] With a loud cry, Jesus gives up his spirit. There is an earthquake, tombs break open, and the curtain in the Temple is torn from top to bottom. The centurion on guard at the site of crucifixion declares, "Truly this was God's Son!" (Matthew 27:45-54)
Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin and secret follower of Jesus, who had not consented to his condemnation, goes to Pilate to request the body of Jesus (Luke 23:50-52). Pilate asks confirmation from the centurion whether Jesus is dead (Mark 15:44). A soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a lance causing blood and water to flow out (John 19:34), and the centurian informs Pilate that Jesus is dead (Mark 15:45).
Joseph of Arimathea takes the body of Jesus, wraps it in a clean linen shroud, and places it in his own new tomb that had been carved in the rock (Matthew 27:59-60) in a garden near the site of crucifixion. Another secret follower of Jesus and member of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus (John 3:1) also came bringing 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes, and places them in the linen with the body of Jesus, according to Jewish burial customs (John 19:39-40). They rolled a large rock over the entrance of the tomb (Matthew 27:60). Then they returned home and rested, because at sunset began the Sabbath (Luke 23:54-56).
On the third day, Sunday, which is now known as Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead.
[edit] Names in different languages
Good Friday: English, Dutch (Goede Vrijdag), Hebrew (יום שישי הטוב)
Holy Friday: Spanish (Viernes Santo), French (Vendredi Saint), Italian (Venerdì Santo), Portuguese, (Sexta-Feira Santa), Filipino (Biyernes Santo), Catalan (Divendres Sant), Vietnamese (Thứ sáu Tuần Thánh), Japanese (聖金曜日)
Great Friday: Bulgarian (Велики петък), Czech (Velký Pátek), Estonian, Greek (Μεγάλη Παρασκευή), Hungarian (Nagypéntek), Indonesian (Jumat Agung), Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maltese (Il-Ġimgħa l-Kbira), Polish (language) (Wielki Piątek), Romanian (Sambata Mare), Serbo-Croatian (Veliki petak), Sinhala (Maha Sikurada), Slovak, Slovenian (Veliki petek)
Friday of the Lord's Passion, Passion Friday, Day of Christ's Suffering: Latin (Feria VI in Passione Domini), Russian (Страстной Пяток / Страстная Пятница), Ukrainian (language), (Страсна п'ятниця), Chinese (基督受難日), Arabic ("جمعة الآلام")
Friday of the Crucifixion: Ethiopic (arib siqilat), Irish (Aoine an Chéasta)
Lamentation Friday: German (Karfreitag, an Old German word whose meaning is not obvious to speakers of modern German)
Long Friday: Danish (Langfredag), Faroese, Finnish (Pitkäperjantai), Icelandic (Föstudagurinn Langi), Norwegian (Langfredag), Swedish (Långfredagen)
Sad Friday, Arabic (" الجمعة الحزينة")
[edit] In the Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church treats Good Friday as a fast day, which in the Latin Rite Church is understood as having only one full meal (but smaller than a regular meal) and two collations (a smaller repast, two of which together do not equal one full meal). In countries where Good Friday is not a day of rest from work, the afternoon liturgical service is usually put off until a few hours after the recommended time of 3 p.m.
Crucifix prepared for veneration on Good Friday.The Roman Rite has no celebration of Mass after that of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening until that of the Easter Vigil, and the only sacraments celebrated are Penance and Anointing of the Sick.[2] While there is no celebration of the Eucharist, Holy Communion is distributed to the faithful only in the Service of the Passion of the Lord, but can be taken at any hour to the sick who are unable to attend this service.[3]
The altar remains completely bare, without cross, candlesticks or altar cloths.[4] It is customary to empty the holy water fonts in preparation of the blessing of the water at the Easter Vigil.[5] Traditionally, no bells are rung on Good Friday or Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil.
The Celebration of the Passion of the Lord takes place in the afternoon, ideally at three o'clock, but for pastoral reasons a later hour may be chosen.[6] The vestments used are red.[7] Before 1970, they were black except for the Communion part of the rite, for which violet was used,[8] and before 1955 black was used throughout.[9]If a bishop celebrates, he wears a plain mitre.[10]
The liturgy consists of three parts: the Liturgy of the Word, the Veneration of the Cross, and Holy Communion.
The first part, the Liturgy of the Word, consists of the reading or chanting of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9, and the Passion account from the Gospel of John, which is often divided between more than one singer or reader. This part concludes with a series of prayers: for the Church, the Pope, the clergy and laity of the Church, those preparing for baptism, the unity of Christians, the Jewish people, those who do not believe in Christ, those who do not believe in God, those in public office, those in special need.[11]
The second part of the Good Friday liturgy is the Veneration of the Cross: a crucifix, not necessarily the on