14 ms·

Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

116 points by vitoc 1y ago

WorkerBee28474 1y ago
https://archive.is/pAaH8 https://archive.is/pAaH8
- neonate 1y ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20250418050741/https://www.historyextra.com/period/general-history/good-friday-facts-why-called/ https://web.archive.org/web/20250418050741/https://www.histo...
WorkerBee28474 1y ago
The etymology is interesting, but this writing reads like weirdly bad AI.
- arrowsmith 1y ago
  "Why is Good Friday called Good Friday? … What is Good Friday? … Why is Good Friday called Good Friday? … How is Good Friday marked around the world? … When is Good Friday in 2025?" This is SEO slop.
  - citrin_ru 1y ago
    SEO slop existed long before LLMs but now it is also in the training sets which may affect their output.
    - sph 1y ago
      Good. Let LLMs eat and regurgitate themselves, until they reach a singularity of uselessness.
    - airstrike 1y ago
      It's lossy turtles all the way down
  - rvba 1y ago
    This feels like SEO slop boosting its ranking by being linked on HN. I wonder what Dang or Tomhow think about submissions like this
PaulRobinson 1y ago
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.
- dwedge 1y ago
  Thank you. I opened the page, saw the layout and ads and bailed within 2 seconds
- Modified3019 1y ago
  Article is weird because it’s mass produced SEO slop
AStonesThrow 1y ago
Why don't we consult a rather authoritative and reliable, albeit 100 years old, source? https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06643a.htm 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!
- sollewitt 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - milesrout 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - jiggawatts 1y ago
      [flagged]
    - 1y ago
textm0de 1y ago
Most likely an evolution of "God Friday", in much the same way as "God Be With Ye" became Good-Bye.
- layer8 1y ago
  Wikipedia disagrees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday#Etymology
tetris11 1y ago
> 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.
- fabianholzer 1y ago
  Well, ascension day and the corpus christ feast are always on a thursday and as such the friday after them are Brückentage, but in my lifetime at least the good friday not once was on a thursday...
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- qwertox 1y ago
  Karfreitag can't be a bridge day since it is a public holiday (gesetzlicher Feiertag). Although Thursday was a regional commemoration day (Gründonnerstag), it wasn't a public holiday, so most people still worked.
- alternatetwo 1y ago
  Any day between holidays and weekend is a "Brückentag", a bridge day. Friday would be a bridge day, if thursday were a public holiday. So would monday, if tuesday were one. It's not a term a for specific day, but for a type of day.
- xg15 1y ago
  No, this is wrong. As the others have said, "Brückentag" is a general term for non-holidays, and it doesn't even apply here as Friday is the holiday and not Thursday. Good Friday is also still very significant in its religious purpose here, so calling it "bridge day", even if it applied, would be disrespectful. (Which doesn't keep the racing/modding community from having their own "Car Freitag" on that day...)
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
danwills 1y ago
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.
- GranularRecipe 1y ago
  The first month after March equinox has great religious significance across many cultures (in the temperate zone), e.g. Pesach. When different cultures meet, they tend to syncretise.
  - ithkuil 1y ago
    Yes. And this mix continues. Even traditional that originally have some common root and then diverge can later resyncretise. For example look at Halloween being introduced in southern Europe thanks to US cultural influence
- larusso 1y ago
  Let’s talk about Christmas then. They deliberately put it at a time where many northern folks had their own traditional end of the year / longest night (opposite to midd summer) festivals. In Germany we have Nikolaus on the 6.12 (goes back to a priest St Nikolaus who did good to people and I believe died on the 6th of December) But the name is striking to Santa Claus which is just a Anglo version of that name. Interesting is also that half of Germany the Christ baby brings the presents or the Weihnachtsmann. The Weihnachtsmann is what we would refer as Santa. But Santa and Nikolaus are depicted the same. There some other festivals like Jule from Scandinavia etc. But compared to Christmas we at least know that the end of Jesus (or whoever it was) happened at that time due to too many religions and groups in the city. When he was born and how old he even was… Edit: Also the fact that the holiday follows the moon calendar because it was the Sunday after the Paschal full moon. Which is celebrated by the Jewish as Passover.
  - 1y ago
hagbarth 1y ago
In Danish it’s called Langfredag (Long Friday). I believe it’s because of the drawn out suffering of the crucifixion.
- yencabulator 1y ago
  > In Old English, the day was called Long Friday (langa frigedæg [ˈlɑŋɡɑ ˈfriːjedæj])—referring to the lengthy observances of fasting and religious services, making it a day of extended devotion—and equivalents of this term are still used in Scandinavian languages and Finnish.[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday#Etymology
- dfxm12 1y ago
  It's more about it being a long day for the faithful. Traditionally, you may have attended three hours agony, fasting, in addition to the liturgy (there's no transubstantiation), etc.
morninglight 1y ago
Because the stock market is closed?
ReptileMan 1y ago
In my country it is called literally Crucifixion Friday
- woldemariam 1y ago
  Same in Ethiopia
thih9 1y ago
> (…) 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 (…)
- thrance 1y ago
  It's actually called holy Friday (Vendredi Saint) in France.
  - zanellato19 1y ago
    In Brazil too. Sexta feira Santa
    - faragon 1y ago
      Also in Spanish, "viernes santo" ("holy Friday")
  - giraffe_lady 1y ago
    English-speaking eastern christians call it this too. But every day of holy week is named like that, holy tuesday, holy saturday, etc. Easter/Pascha is the one exception in the week.
    - registeredcorn 1y ago
      At risk of being a pedant, Pascha would not be the exception to Holy Week but rather after the conclusion of Holy Week. The end of week is sundown on Saturday. After Holy Week has ended on Saturday, The Resurrection (i.e. Pascha), occurs on the first day of the week - Sunday. :)
      - mistrial9 1y ago
        (you are right it is slightly tedious those details, but well done) Overall it seems striking to me that the seven day week itself is one of the enduring and fundamental features of the ancient world that has so thoroughly formed the fabric of modern life in the West and elsewhere.
getnormality 1y ago
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...
- vel0city 1y ago
  > to drive home the Christian message For "the Christian message" the death of Christ is the ultimate good thing. According to Christianity his death brings everyone's salvation, not the resurrection. This is my body which is given for you. Sad so many Catholic churches fail at actually sharing that message.
  - lukan 1y ago
    The whole suffering jesus on the cross everywhere is failing to bring that message across to me. Im german it is Karfreitag (Karfriday) btw. and the whole week, Karwoche (Kar week). And that means sadness. Lamenting.
    - vel0city 1y ago
      In Christian ideology, his suffering and death was the suffering and death we were all supposed to have. He took that suffering and death so we don't have to, the "perfect lamb". Looking at just that suffering on that one day is missing the context for everything else after, at least according to Christian ideology. Also, an important part of the completion of previous prophecies for those looking at the older books. Jesus wouldn't have been the savior if those things didn't happen to him, according to the texts.
      - lukan 1y ago
        Oh thanks, but since I was also raised catholic, I am aware of the theory. Still, the main visible symbol, is rather one of death and suffering to me. Jesus does not look happy on those crosses, where he also has a face.
SoftTalker 1y ago
Page is catastrophically broken. Scrolling doesn't work at all. Reader mode helps.
- layer8 1y ago
  You are probably using an ad blocker.
  - SoftTalker 1y ago
    Yes, the web is nearly unusable without one.
philsnow 1y ago
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.
- otterley 1y ago
  In light of recent market turmoil, I would call today "not bad Friday."
bmk44 1y ago
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.

116 points by vitoc 1y ago

WorkerBee28474 1y ago

https://archive.is/pAaH8 https://archive.is/pAaH8

neonate 1y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20250418050741/https://www.historyextra.com/period/general-history/good-friday-facts-why-called/ https://web.archive.org/web/20250418050741/https://www.histo...

WorkerBee28474 1y ago

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

arrowsmith 1y ago
"Why is Good Friday called Good Friday? … What is Good Friday? … Why is Good Friday called Good Friday? … How is Good Friday marked around the world? … When is Good Friday in 2025?" This is SEO slop.
- citrin_ru 1y ago
  SEO slop existed long before LLMs but now it is also in the training sets which may affect their output.
  - sph 1y ago
    Good. Let LLMs eat and regurgitate themselves, until they reach a singularity of uselessness.
  - airstrike 1y ago
    It's lossy turtles all the way down
- rvba 1y ago
  This feels like SEO slop boosting its ranking by being linked on HN. I wonder what Dang or Tomhow think about submissions like this

PaulRobinson 1y ago

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.

dwedge 1y ago
Thank you. I opened the page, saw the layout and ads and bailed within 2 seconds
Modified3019 1y ago
Article is weird because it’s mass produced SEO slop

AStonesThrow 1y ago

Why don't we consult a rather authoritative and reliable, albeit 100 years old, source? https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06643a.htm 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!

sollewitt 1y ago
[flagged]
- milesrout 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - jiggawatts 1y ago
    [flagged]
  - 1y ago

textm0de 1y ago

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

layer8 1y ago
Wikipedia disagrees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday#Etymology

tetris11 1y ago

> 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.

fabianholzer 1y ago
Well, ascension day and the corpus christ feast are always on a thursday and as such the friday after them are Brückentage, but in my lifetime at least the good friday not once was on a thursday...
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
qwertox 1y ago
Karfreitag can't be a bridge day since it is a public holiday (gesetzlicher Feiertag). Although Thursday was a regional commemoration day (Gründonnerstag), it wasn't a public holiday, so most people still worked.
alternatetwo 1y ago
Any day between holidays and weekend is a "Brückentag", a bridge day. Friday would be a bridge day, if thursday were a public holiday. So would monday, if tuesday were one. It's not a term a for specific day, but for a type of day.
xg15 1y ago
No, this is wrong. As the others have said, "Brückentag" is a general term for non-holidays, and it doesn't even apply here as Friday is the holiday and not Thursday. Good Friday is also still very significant in its religious purpose here, so calling it "bridge day", even if it applied, would be disrespectful. (Which doesn't keep the racing/modding community from having their own "Car Freitag" on that day...)

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

danwills 1y ago

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.

GranularRecipe 1y ago
The first month after March equinox has great religious significance across many cultures (in the temperate zone), e.g. Pesach. When different cultures meet, they tend to syncretise.
- ithkuil 1y ago
  Yes. And this mix continues. Even traditional that originally have some common root and then diverge can later resyncretise. For example look at Halloween being introduced in southern Europe thanks to US cultural influence
larusso 1y ago
Let’s talk about Christmas then. They deliberately put it at a time where many northern folks had their own traditional end of the year / longest night (opposite to midd summer) festivals. In Germany we have Nikolaus on the 6.12 (goes back to a priest St Nikolaus who did good to people and I believe died on the 6th of December) But the name is striking to Santa Claus which is just a Anglo version of that name. Interesting is also that half of Germany the Christ baby brings the presents or the Weihnachtsmann. The Weihnachtsmann is what we would refer as Santa. But Santa and Nikolaus are depicted the same. There some other festivals like Jule from Scandinavia etc. But compared to Christmas we at least know that the end of Jesus (or whoever it was) happened at that time due to too many religions and groups in the city. When he was born and how old he even was… Edit: Also the fact that the holiday follows the moon calendar because it was the Sunday after the Paschal full moon. Which is celebrated by the Jewish as Passover.
- 1y ago

hagbarth 1y ago

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

yencabulator 1y ago
> In Old English, the day was called Long Friday (langa frigedæg [ˈlɑŋɡɑ ˈfriːjedæj])—referring to the lengthy observances of fasting and religious services, making it a day of extended devotion—and equivalents of this term are still used in Scandinavian languages and Finnish.[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday#Etymology
dfxm12 1y ago
It's more about it being a long day for the faithful. Traditionally, you may have attended three hours agony, fasting, in addition to the liturgy (there's no transubstantiation), etc.

morninglight 1y ago

Because the stock market is closed?

ReptileMan 1y ago

In my country it is called literally Crucifixion Friday

woldemariam 1y ago
Same in Ethiopia

thih9 1y ago

> (…) 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 (…)

thrance 1y ago
It's actually called holy Friday (Vendredi Saint) in France.
- zanellato19 1y ago
  In Brazil too. Sexta feira Santa
  - faragon 1y ago
    Also in Spanish, "viernes santo" ("holy Friday")
- giraffe_lady 1y ago
  English-speaking eastern christians call it this too. But every day of holy week is named like that, holy tuesday, holy saturday, etc. Easter/Pascha is the one exception in the week.
  - registeredcorn 1y ago
    At risk of being a pedant, Pascha would not be the exception to Holy Week but rather after the conclusion of Holy Week. The end of week is sundown on Saturday. After Holy Week has ended on Saturday, The Resurrection (i.e. Pascha), occurs on the first day of the week - Sunday. :)
    - mistrial9 1y ago
      (you are right it is slightly tedious those details, but well done) Overall it seems striking to me that the seven day week itself is one of the enduring and fundamental features of the ancient world that has so thoroughly formed the fabric of modern life in the West and elsewhere.

getnormality 1y ago

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...

vel0city 1y ago
> to drive home the Christian message For "the Christian message" the death of Christ is the ultimate good thing. According to Christianity his death brings everyone's salvation, not the resurrection. This is my body which is given for you. Sad so many Catholic churches fail at actually sharing that message.
- lukan 1y ago
  The whole suffering jesus on the cross everywhere is failing to bring that message across to me. Im german it is Karfreitag (Karfriday) btw. and the whole week, Karwoche (Kar week). And that means sadness. Lamenting.
  - vel0city 1y ago
    In Christian ideology, his suffering and death was the suffering and death we were all supposed to have. He took that suffering and death so we don't have to, the "perfect lamb". Looking at just that suffering on that one day is missing the context for everything else after, at least according to Christian ideology. Also, an important part of the completion of previous prophecies for those looking at the older books. Jesus wouldn't have been the savior if those things didn't happen to him, according to the texts.
    - lukan 1y ago
      Oh thanks, but since I was also raised catholic, I am aware of the theory. Still, the main visible symbol, is rather one of death and suffering to me. Jesus does not look happy on those crosses, where he also has a face.

SoftTalker 1y ago

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

layer8 1y ago
You are probably using an ad blocker.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  Yes, the web is nearly unusable without one.

philsnow 1y ago

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.

otterley 1y ago
In light of recent market turmoil, I would call today "not bad Friday."

bmk44 1y ago

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.