50 Fun Facts About Good Friday

Good Friday commemorates which event in the life of Jesus?

It falls two days before Easter Sunday, at the heart of Holy Week.

Where does the 'Good' in Good Friday come from?

The same obsolete sense survives in 'the good book' for the Bible and 'good tide' for Christmas.

In Old English the day was called 'Long Friday'; what did the name refer to?

Equivalents of the name are still used in Scandinavian languages, such as Danish Langfredag.

The German name for the day, Karfreitag, uses an Old High German word 'kara' meaning what?

Germany treats it as a 'silent holiday', with laws in many states banning public dancing and even loud lawnmowers.

The 'Maundy' of Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin 'mandatum', meaning what?

It refers to Jesus's 'new commandment' at the Last Supper, re-enacted in the washing of feet.

The Good Friday Service of the Great Three Hours' Agony runs between which hours?

They are the hours the Gospels record darkness covering the land until Jesus's death.

According to the Gospel of Mark, at roughly what time of day was Jesus crucified?

Mark has him die at the ninth hour, around 3 p.m., which is why many Good Friday services centre on that time.

Which Roman governor of Judaea sentenced Jesus to be crucified?

He served under Tiberius from about AD 26 to 36, and the Pilate Stone found at Caesarea is the only inscription naming him.

Learning that Jesus was a Galilean, Pilate sent him to which ruler, who was in Jerusalem for Passover?

Herod Antipas questioned him, mocked him and sent him back to Pilate.

Which prisoner did the crowd choose to have released instead of Jesus?

Mark and Luke describe him as an insurrectionist who had committed murder; the Passover pardon custom is not recorded outside the Gospels.

Who was compelled by the Romans to carry Jesus's cross?

Mark names him as the father of Alexander and Rufus, suggesting his sons were known to early Christians.

Golgotha, the site of the crucifixion, has a name meaning what?

Its Latin equivalent, Calvaria, gives us the name Calvary.

The traditional site of Calvary is enclosed within which Jerusalem building?

A rival Protestant site, the Garden Tomb on 'Skull Hill', was proposed in the 19th century.

How many 'last words' or sayings of Jesus on the cross are traditionally counted?

No single Gospel contains all of them; Luke and John each have a trio found nowhere else.

Jesus's cry from the cross, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani', is in which language?

It echoes the opening of Psalm 22, but uses a verb for 'forsake' that exists only in Aramaic.

In John's Gospel, why did the soldiers not break Jesus's legs as they did the two men beside him?

Instead a soldier, named Longinus in later tradition, pierced his side with a spear.

Which member of the Sanhedrin asked Pilate for Jesus's body and laid it in his own new rock-cut tomb?

All four Gospels agree on the burial, which had to be done before the Sabbath began at sunset.

Which two later Roman writers independently mention the execution of Jesus under Pilate?

Tacitus's Annals and Josephus's Testimonium Flavianum are the main non-Christian references.

Most scholars date the crucifixion to which two candidate years?

Many favour Friday 7 April AD 30, the 14th of Nisan.

How many Stations of the Cross are there in the traditional devotion?

They imitate the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, and the Franciscans got the right to erect them in their churches in 1686.

On Good Friday the Pope traditionally leads the Stations of the Cross at which Roman landmark?

Since John Paul II the Temple of Venus and Roma opposite the entrance has served as the platform.

What is the Holy Week service where candles are extinguished until the church is dark called?

The Latin word means 'darkness', and the service ends with a loud noise, the strepitus.

Which sacrament is never celebrated in Catholic churches on Good Friday?

Communion is given from hosts consecrated the day before; until 1955 only the priest received it, in the 'Mass of the Presanctified'.

Traditionally, what is not done in Catholic churches from Good Friday until the Easter Vigil?

Holy water fonts are also emptied in preparation for the blessing of new water at the Vigil.

Which pope's 1955 reform of Holy Week reshaped the Good Friday liturgy, including its Latin name?

Before the reform the day was called Feria sexta in Parasceve, 'Friday of Preparation'.

Byzantine-rite Christians call it 'Great and Holy Friday'; what colour vestments do clergy wear?

Many also keep an absolute fast, taking no food or drink at all that day.

In Greek Orthodox tradition, what is the epitaphios carried in procession on Good Friday evening?

It is laid on a flower-decked table representing the tomb, and worshippers bow beneath it as they re-enter the church.

Which Christian denomination has a Good Friday tradition of cleaning the gravestones in its cemeteries?

Moravians also hold a Lovefeast on the day, having taken Communion on Maundy Thursday.

Which spiced bun is traditionally eaten on Good Friday in Britain?

The cross stands for the crucifixion and the spices for those used to embalm Jesus.

In 1592 London restricted the sale of spiced buns to Christmas, Good Friday and which other occasion?

Anyone breaking the rule forfeited the whole batch to the poor, so buns were mostly baked at home.

The first definite record of hot cross buns is a London street cry printed in which year?

It appeared in Poor Robin's Almanac; the nursery rhyme followed in the London Chronicle in 1767.

Under Catholic canon law, adults must fast and abstain from meat on Good Friday and which other day?

Abstinence from meat is expected on every Friday of the year unless a solemnity falls on it.

Bermudians mark Good Friday by doing what, said to symbolise the resurrection?

Traditional Bermuda kites are hexagonal, built from sticks and coloured tissue paper.

Until 2018, what was illegal in the Republic of Ireland on Good Friday?

Pubs and off-licences generally closed; Northern Ireland kept a similar ban until 5 p.m.

In which country did Raúl Castro make Good Friday a public holiday in 2012?

It followed John Paul II's earlier success in getting Fidel Castro to restore Christmas Day.

How many US states observe Good Friday as a state holiday?

They include Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Hawaii; it is not a federal holiday.

Good Friday has been a public holiday in Hong Kong since an ordinance passed in which year?

Government offices, banks and post offices close for the day.

Some penitents in San Fernando, Pampanga, in the Philippines mark Good Friday by doing what?

Ruben Enaje became famous for undergoing the ritual every year from 1985.

Which Mexico City borough stages a Passion Play with 450 residents and some two million spectators?

The tradition dates from an 1833 cholera epidemic and climaxes on the Cerro de la Estrella.

The Oberammergau Passion Play, staged since 1634, honours a vow made during what?

Villagers promised to perform the play if they were spared; the 2020 edition was postponed to 2022 by COVID-19.

Which countries' Holy Week processions with statues of the Passion are singled out as especially famous?

In Malta the processions take place in villages across both Malta and Gozo.

In Western Christianity, Easter Sunday always falls within which window of dates?

Good Friday therefore ranges from 20 March to 23 April; the rule was laid down by the Council of Nicaea in 325.

The Council of Nicaea in 325 fixed Easter, and so Good Friday, relative to what?

The rule was meant to stop Christians relying on Jewish calculations of Passover.

Some argue for a midweek rather than Friday crucifixion because Jesus said he would be in the tomb for how long?

By inclusive counting, a Friday death gives only two nights and a day; most scholars still favour Friday.

Holy Saturday, the day after Good Friday, commemorates which event while Jesus's body lay in the tomb?

The Easter Vigil begins that night and carries the church into Eastertide.

In which year was the Good Friday Agreement signed?

Voters on both sides of the Irish border approved it in referendums on 22 May that year.

The Good Friday accord on Northern Ireland is also officially named after which city?

It comprises a multi-party agreement and a separate British–Irish agreement.

The midweek day of Holy Week, remembering Judas's plot to betray Jesus, is traditionally nicknamed what?

Holy Week runs from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday and is the last week of Lent in the West.

In Germany, Good Friday is a 'silent holiday' on which many states ban which activity?

Rules vary across the sixteen states but often also bar loud appliances such as lawnmowers and leaf blowers, and nightclubs are shut.

In which Canadian province may employers give the day off on Easter Monday instead of Good Friday?

Elsewhere in Canada, Good Friday is a federal statutory holiday.