Good Friday 2024: When is Good Friday 2024 & 2025?

Below you can find dates of Good Friday 2024 and Good Friday 2025. In the table you can check how many days you have been on holiday, which week is the holiday and which day of the month.

When is ..? Date Day of the week Week Number Day left
Good Friday 2024 March 29, 2024 Friday 13 11
Good Friday 2025 April 18, 2025 Friday 16 396
Good Friday 2026 April 03, 2026 Friday 14 746
Good Friday 2027 March 26, 2027 Friday 12 1103
Good Friday 2028 April 14, 2028 Friday 15 1488
Good Friday 2029 March 30, 2029 Friday 13 1838
Good Friday 2030 April 19, 2030 Friday 16 2223
Good Friday 2031 April 11, 2031 Friday 15 2580
Good Friday 2032 March 26, 2032 Friday 13 2930
Good Friday 2033 April 15, 2033 Friday 15 3315
Good Friday 2034 April 07, 2034 Friday 14 3672

Good Friday

Good Friday is observed on the Friday before Easter Sunday by many Christians around the world. Good Friday commemorates Jesus Christ’s Passion, crucifixion, and death, which is told in the Bible. According to the Bible, the son of God was flogged, ordered to carry the cross on which he would be crucified and then put to death. It's difficult to see what is "good" about it. However, in Old English "good" refers to "a day or season observed as holy by the church", hence the greeting "good tide" at Christmas or on Shrove Tuesday. In addition to Good Friday, there is also a less well-known Good Wednesday, namely the Wednesday before Easter. It is the day after Maundy Thursday and involves people fasting and praying.

Good Friday Background

There are many theories as to why the day that remembers Jesus’ death on the cross is known as Good Friday. One school of thought is that Good Friday stems from the words “God’s Friday”, while others understand “good” in the sense of “observed as holy”. According to yet another interpretation, despite the horrors Jesus endured on that day, the event ultimately represents an act of love and constitutes one of the central and most cherished themes of Christianity: that Jesus died to pay the price for humankind's sins. Many Orthodox Christians call the day Great Friday. The day is also known as Black Friday or Sorrowful Friday, as well as Long Friday.

 

The Good Friday date is one of the oldest Christian holidays, with some sources saying that it has been observed since 100 CE. It was associated with fasting during the early years of its observance and was associated with the crucifixion around the fourth century CE. The Easter date depends on the ecclesiastical approximation of the March equinox.

 

Good Friday Celebrations

As Lent, a period of reflection in preparation for Easter, comes to a close, many Christians observe Good Friday. “Good Friday is the day Christians commemorate the suffering and execution of Jesus by the Roman-occupying empire in Jerusalem.

In accordance with state law, Indiana state employees are given a day off on Good Friday, a religious holiday. In 1999, in the case of Bridenbaugh v O'Bannon, an Indiana state employee sued the governor for giving state employees Good Friday as a day off. The US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiff, stating that the government could give state employees a paid day off when that day is a religious holiday, including Good Friday, but only so long as the state can provide a valid secular purpose that coincides with the obvious religious purpose of the holiday.

Thanks to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Caribbean nation in 2012, the Cuban government granted his request to make Good Friday an official holiday, allowing people to stay home and observe this sacred day.

 

Good Friday Customs and Traditions

Good Friday is not an official holiday in the United States. Regular services will continue according the schedule in some areas, including Toledo, Ohio, where the city’s refuse will be collected during its regular schedule. However, financial markets, as well as many businesses, public schools and universities/colleges are closed on Good Friday.

 

Good Friday is a state holiday in some states such as Hawaii, where city and state offices are closed and some forms of public transport (eg. buses) run on the state holiday schedule. In some areas, such as Perry County in Tennessee, Good Friday is a school holiday. Good Friday is a holiday designated by the governor as a day of fasting and prayer in Connecticut.

Many Italians choose to fast or eat a diet consisting of only fish on this day. To observe the Catholic Church's day of mourning, every statue and cross in churches is covered by a black or purple cloth.

 

Rome's largest Good Friday event, known as "Way of the Cross" or "Stations of the Cross," is a solemn torchlight procession led by the Pope. The crowd visits each of the 14 "stations of the cross," each symbolizing a part of Jesus' passion and death. The procession begins at the Colosseum and ends at Palatine Hill.

 

Jerusalem is where Jesus' crucifixion took place, according to the Bible. Therefore, it makes sense that Good Friday is a highly spiritual and ritualistic holiday for the city.

Traditions include a pilgrimage in which individuals, many of whom carry crosses, retrace the steps Jesus took on his way to the cross. The route leads to Golgotha, also known as the Place of the Skull, where Jesus met his death.

 

Jamaicans have a different use for eggs during their celebration of Good Friday.

This tradition involves cracking an egg and separating its yolk from its white. Before sunrise, they will pour the egg white into a glass of water. As the sun's heat warms the glass, patterns will form from the egg. In the past, Jamaican elders believed the pattern revealed how you would die.

 

London's Trafalgar Square puts on a free open-air play every year on Good Friday.

"The Passion of Jesus" is performed by a mixture of both amateur and professional Christian actors who take their audience on a journey from Jesus' arrest to his resurrection on Easter.

The cast comprises more than 100 performers as well as several animals.

As the show features a realistic portrayal of the crucifixion, parental guidance is suggested.

 

Countries such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in Central America use art to celebrate Good Friday.

On this day, the streets are lined with Alfombras, Spanish for "rug." Created using colorful sawdust, their subjects often are either religious or nature-focused.

In order to take in their beauty, you must observe the Alfrombras before any Good Friday processions commence, as they will be washed away by the flood of the crowd's feet.

 

Good Friday Facts

  • Jesus was crucified on this day. Judas, one of Jesus' 12 supporters, betrayed Jesus by kissing him and hence, exposing him to the chief priests
  • After Jesus was arrested, he was beaten and spit on, and a crown of thorns was placed on his head
  • Due to its aquatic habitat and behavior, the Catholic Church officially categorized the Beaver as a type of fish, making it acceptable to eat on Good Friday and throughout Lent. This ruling was later extended to the Capybara and muskrat as well.
  • On Good Friday 1930 the BBC reported that there was no news so instead, they played piano music.
  • In German-speaking countries, Good Friday is generally referred to as Karfreitag meaning Mourning Friday
  • During the Great Fire of New Orleans in 1788, priests refused to allow church bells to be rung as fire alarms because it was Good Friday. As a result, 856 buildings burned during the conflagration.
  • Many parts of Germany ban dancing on Good Friday. “The strictest bans start at 4 a.m. on Thursday and run through Saturday.”
  • Radio & TV stations in NZ aren’t allowed to play any commercial content at all on Good Friday, Easter Sunday & Christmas Day or they get fined.
  • In typical Orthodox services, people mourn the crucifixion of Christ by taking down the cross and recounting the story of Jesus' last days, which is called the Passion of Christ
  • Altars remain bare on this day a life-sized cross is placed at the center of the altar for the parishioners to kiss or touch
  • Many Good Friday services end with the church bell toiling 33 times for each year of Jesus' earthly life.
  • The Good Friday Earthquake, a magnitude 9.2 quake centered in Alaska, caused the water in the Edwards Aquifer located in San Antonio to ‘slosh’ at least 5 feet – and then the pen skipped off the page.
  • In 1592 “the London Clerk of Markets issued a decree forbidding the sale of hot cross buns and other spiced bread, except at burials, on Good Friday, or at Christmas. The punishment for transgressing the decree was forfeiture of all the forbidden product to the poor.”
  • The Saturday after Good Friday and before Easter Sunday is called Holy Saturday.
  • Ireland bans alcohol sales on Good Friday.
  • On Good Friday almost 500 years ago, Scots fought in a battle on Swedish soil in which their country was not involved.
  • There is a superstition on Good Friday that if you wash your clothes the head of the household could die.
  • No-one’s entirely sure where the name “Good Friday” actually came from. – Source
  • In 1935 the Germans published a new calendar, removing names of saints’ days and Good Friday was named in memory of the 4500 Saxons who were murdered by Charlemagne the Butcher.
  • The “Good Friday Fallacy” is the demonstrably incorrect belief that the pivotal Virginia Indian Uprising of 1622 began on “Good Friday.”

 

Good Friday Symbols

The most important Good Friday symbol is the crucifix, or cross, which represents the way in which Jesus died. Some crosses bear a figure of Christ. Other symbols of Good Friday include black cloth used to cover the cross, paintings and statues in churches and some homes to signify mourning. In addition, some people deliberately create a bare appearance in their homes and churches by removing all flowers and shiny objects.

Check out the Good Friday in the following years.