Good Friday

Good Friday
Good Friday
	A depiction of Jesus's crucifixion by Diego Velázquez, named "Christ Crucified", 1632
Observed by	Christians
Type	Christian
Significance	Commemoration of the crucifixion and the death of Jesus Christ
Celebrations	Celebration of the Passion of the Lord
Observances	Worship services, prayer and vigil services, fasting, almsgiving
Date	The Friday immediately preceding Easter Sunday
2024 date	March 29 (Western); May 3 (Eastern);
2025 date	April 18 (Western); April 18 (Eastern);
2026 date	April 3 (Western); April 10 (Eastern);
2027 date	March 26 (Western); April 30 (Eastern);
Related to	Passover, Christmas (which celebrates the birth of Jesus), Septuagesima, Quinquagesima, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Holy Saturday which lead up to Easter, Easter Sunday (primarily), Divine Mercy Sunday, Ascension, Pentecost, Whit Monday, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi and Feast of the Sacred Heart which follow it. It is related to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which focuses on the benefits, graces, and merits of the Cross, rather than Jesus Christ's death.

Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord,^[1]^[2] is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum.

Members of many Christian denominations, including the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, Oriental Orthodox, United Protestant and some Reformed traditions (including certain Continental Reformed, Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches), observe Good Friday with fasting and church services.^[3]^[4]^[5] In many Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist churches, the Service of the Great Three Hours' Agony is held from noon until 3 p.m.—the hours the Bible records darkness covering the land until Jesus' death on the cross.^[6] In the Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican traditions of Christianity, the Stations of the Cross are prayed in the evening of Good Friday, as with other Fridays of Lent.^[7] Communicants of the Moravian Church have a Good Friday tradition of cleaning gravestones in Moravian cemeteries.^[8]

The date of Good Friday varies from one year to the next in both the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Eastern and Western Christianity disagree over the computation of the date of Easter and therefore of Good Friday. Good Friday is a widely instituted legal holiday around the world.^[9] Some predominantly Christian countries, such as Germany, have laws prohibiting certain acts—public dancing, horse racing—in remembrance of the sombre nature of Good Friday.^[10]^[11]

^ Franklin M. Segler; Randall Bradley (2006). Christian Worship: Its Theology And Practice. B&H Publishing Group. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-8054-4067-6. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ Gilman, Daniel Coit; Peck, Harry Thurston; Colby, Frank Moore (1903). The New International Encyclopaedia. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 77. Good Friday is also known as Black Friday in the Western Church, because on that day clerical vestments and altar draperies are black.
^ Ripley, George; Dana, Charles Anderson (1883). The American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary for General Knowledge. D. Appleton and Company. p. 101. The Protestant Episcopal, Lutheran, and Reformed churches, as well as many Methodists, observe the day by fasting and special services.
^ Cite error: The named reference Pfatteicher1990 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference JacobsHaas1899 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "What is the significance of Good Friday?". The Free Press Journal. 2 April 2021. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
^ Hill, Wesley (4 February 2025). Easter: The Season of the Resurrection of Jesus. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-1-5140-0037-3. Many Christians are familiar with the so-called Stations of the Cross. If you walk into a Catholic, Lutheran, or Anglican parish church, you are likely to see a series of icons or small carvings set up along the north and south walls of the nave. Each one depicts a moment of Jesus' passion—Jesus' sentencing, his shouldering his cross, his meeting the women of Jerusalem, his stripping, his being nailed to the cross, and so on, continuing through his being laid to rest in the tomb. Originally pilgrims observed these "stations" in Jerusalem, on the Via Dolorosa, the "sorrowful way" from the fortress Antonia in Jerusalem to Golgota outside the city gates, but they exported them around the world so that even those who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land could still pray through them during Lent and Holy Week especially.
^ Cite error: The named reference WSJ2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 36, Issue 214. Harper & Brothers. 1868. p. 521. In England Good-Friday and Christmas are the only close holidays of the year when the shops are all closed and the churches opened.
^ Cite error: The named reference Petre was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Stevens was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] Franklin M. Segler; Randall Bradley (2006). Christian Worship: Its Theology And Practice. B&H Publishing Group. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-8054-4067-6. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2012.

[2] Gilman, Daniel Coit; Peck, Harry Thurston; Colby, Frank Moore (1903). The New International Encyclopaedia. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 77. Good Friday is also known as Black Friday in the Western Church, because on that day clerical vestments and altar draperies are black.

[RipleyDana1883-3] Ripley, George; Dana, Charles Anderson (1883). The American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary for General Knowledge. D. Appleton and Company. p. 101. The Protestant Episcopal, Lutheran, and Reformed churches, as well as many Methodists, observe the day by fasting and special services.

[Pfatteicher1990-4] Cite error: The named reference Pfatteicher1990 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[JacobsHaas1899-5] Cite error: The named reference JacobsHaas1899 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[6] "What is the significance of Good Friday?". The Free Press Journal. 2 April 2021. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 3 April 2021.

[Hill2025-7] Hill, Wesley (4 February 2025). Easter: The Season of the Resurrection of Jesus. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-1-5140-0037-3. Many Christians are familiar with the so-called Stations of the Cross. If you walk into a Catholic, Lutheran, or Anglican parish church, you are likely to see a series of icons or small carvings set up along the north and south walls of the nave. Each one depicts a moment of Jesus' passion—Jesus' sentencing, his shouldering his cross, his meeting the women of Jerusalem, his stripping, his being nailed to the cross, and so on, continuing through his being laid to rest in the tomb. Originally pilgrims observed these "stations" in Jerusalem, on the Via Dolorosa, the "sorrowful way" from the fortress Antonia in Jerusalem to Golgota outside the city gates, but they exported them around the world so that even those who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land could still pray through them during Lent and Holy Week especially.

[WSJ2020-8] Cite error: The named reference WSJ2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[9] Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 36, Issue 214. Harper & Brothers. 1868. p. 521. In England Good-Friday and Christmas are the only close holidays of the year when the shops are all closed and the churches opened.

[Petre-10] Cite error: The named reference Petre was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Stevens-11] Cite error: The named reference Stevens was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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