By The Way...

For many years now, I've wondered why Good Friday is called "Good Friday" -- after all, it is the day Jesus was crucified, and even allowing for the fact that this would enable his resurrection, the event it self falls beyond the normal definition of "good." So naturally, I was curious.

Turns out an archaic definition of "good," dating back to old English, is "holy." And now, of course, "Good Friday" suddenly makes more sense: It's actually "Holy Friday" -- which, if you are a Christian, it most certainly is. Now I can relax.

There's more good basic information on Good Friday here, in case you're interested in some of its more obscure details. And if you celebrate Good Friday, I hope yours is a reverent and contemplative one.

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• #3 Comment from mlrhjeh 
  3/25/05 11:30 AM | Permalink

  I'm glad you cleared that up.
  I Too, have always wondered!
  
  Mary Louise of Watching My Sister
• #2 Comment from mavarin 
  3/25/05 11:21 AM | Permalink

  I always thought of it as a way to distinguish the name from the names Holy Tthursday (or Maundy Thursday) and Holy Saturday.  Good is sort of a stark, low key word in that context, that it sort of makes you think about why it's called good, and whether it is good, and what happened and why. - Karen
• #1 Comment from dhamina 
  3/25/05 9:17 AM | Permalink

  Thank you for doing that research - I often wondered why we called Good Friday - I always justified it by the fact that the eventual outcome was that it was "good" - but thought it confusing why we called it "good"  -poor choice in words, I thought - now I know - it's Holy Friday!