Q 01/05

Many Catholics give up meat on Good Friday and traditionally eat which food in its place?

A) Cheese

B) Eggs

C) Fish

D) Lentils

Answer · why

C) Fish

Fish is the traditional stand-in on days of abstinence. The custom even shaped fast food: McDonald's added the Filet-O-Fish in the 1960s after a franc...

Q 02/05

Good Friday's 'good' once meant holy, a sense also heard in 'good tide', an old name for which festival?

A) Midsummer

B) Christmas

C) Michaelmas

D) May Day

Answer · why

B) Christmas

Christmas was 'good tide' because 'good' once marked any day the church kept as sacred. The popular story that Good Friday began as 'God's Friday' is ...

Q 03/05

Old English called Good Friday 'Long Friday', a name that survives today in which group of languages?

A) Celtic

B) Romance

C) Nordic

D) Slavic

Answer · why

C) Nordic

Nordic languages kept the old name: Danes say Langfredag and Swedes Långfredagen. The 'long' is put down to Jesus's drawn-out suffering, or to the day...

Q 04/05

Germans call Good Friday 'Karfreitag', from the Old High German word 'kara', meaning what?

A) Sorrow

B) Mercy

C) Cross

D) Fasting

Answer · why

A) Sorrow

Sorrow: 'kara' meant grief or lament. The same Germanic root gave English 'care', which meant sorrow and anxiety long before it meant looking after so...

Q 05/05

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

A) Commandment

B) Supper

C) Remembrance

D) Betrayal

Answer · why

A) Commandment

Commandment: the name is traced to the day's Latin antiphon, 'Mandatum novum do vobis', Jesus's new commandment to love one another, given after he wa...