Where did the term "Good Friday" come from?
412809
Good Friday is the day that Jesus died so we celebrate it in honoring of his death. Here are some websites where you can read a little more about it.\nhttp://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/GoodFrid\nhttp://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06643a.htm\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday
781305
Does 'nt the word holiday originate from Holy Day. What English people call a holiday (as in seaside) the Americans call a vacation.So calling Christmas a holiday seems ok to me.
197866
April 14th is Good Friday.  I'm not sure if is a national holiday because it involves Easter and not everyone celebrates Easter.
779098
Wednesday came from - wodnes dæg, meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden who was a god of the Anglo-Saxons in England \n\nWednesday is considered either the third or the fourth day of the week, between Tuesday and Thursday. The name comes from the Middle English Wednes dei, which is from Old English Wodnes dæg, meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden who was a god of the Anglo-Saxons in England until about the 7th century AD. Wodnes dæg is like the Old Norse Othinsdagr ("Odin's day"), which is an early translation of the Latin dies Mercurii ("Mercury's day"). Although Mercury (the messenger of the gods) and Woden (the king of the Germanic gods) are not equivalent in most regards, both gods guided the souls of the dead to the underworld.
14658
Boxing Day\nThe day after Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is better known as Boxing Day. The term may come from the opening of church poor boxes that day; maybe from the earthenware boxes with which boy apprentices collected money at the doors of their masters' clients. \n\nNowadays, we often see, in certain families, gifts (boxes) given to those who provide services throughout the year.
379342
What do these all have to do with Christianity?  The answer is, NOTHING! People find it hard to believe that the traditions for their favorite holidays didn't originate with that holiday. Easter is the Christian celebration of the rebirth of Jesus. The holiday was set at this time of the year because it coencides with Passover, a Jewish tradition remembering the night when the angel of death came and killed the sons of Egypt.  It also conincided with the pagan celebration of the Spring Equidox, and the coming of Spring. \n\n The traditions of modern Easter, though, are very Pagan. The name of easter is linked to the goddess Ester, of firtility. Some of her symbols were: rabbits, young animals (such as chicks), eggs, and chocolate. (Do these seem familiar?) When christians would convert pagans, they would bring some of their traditions with them. There are many other influences in this holiday as well.\n\nDitto with the oriigns of Christmas.  If you study the Bible, and the climate of the Middle East, topography etc.  you will find that Jesus was most likely born in the Spring,and not December 25.  So what's with celerbrating Chirstmas 24 ~ the Winter Solstice ~ you've got it ~ another orginal Pagan holiday!
145167
Party, party, party!!!  It is a pagan holliday where people get very drunk and act like wild animals.  It is also called Fat Tuesday.  It is the Tuesday just before Lent or Ash Wednesday, the Catholic holliday where people promise to give up something they really enjoy for 40 days till Easter.  It is most popularly celebrated in New Orleans.  There is a carnival atmosphere where people get very intoxicated in the streets of New Orleans.  Guys buy beaded necklaces and give them to girls for flashing their breasts.  \n\nFor me as a Christian, I think it is kinda sad.  I look forward to celebrating Easter as the time when Christ died for me and rose again.  I think that a devout Catholic should be ashamed of themself if they were to go out and act like this, then go to confession, followed by Ash Wednesday where they make a "sacrifice" to show how much they love Him.
313717
I assume you wonder at the meaning of "Maundy" (Thursday is because that it believed to be the day of the week on which the Last Supper took place).\n\n"Maundy" is the French form of the Latin "mandatum", meaning "command".   This is the first word of the expression "mandatum novum do vobis"  -- "a new command I give to you", Jesus' words to his discples at the Last Supper, immediately after washing their feet (John 13:34).\n\nIn the Roman Catholic church there is an old tradition of the washing of feet at the service on that Thursday, and it was followed by the singing of the anthem,  “Mandatum novum do vobis”.     The ceremony thus became known by the abbreviation "mandatum." The Old French version of theword is mandé, which became corrupted into our "maundy."
234777
The first day of the week, Sunday, since ancient times has been designated the "day of rest". For Christians it is the holy day of the week, due to the fact that Christ was reported to have risen from the dead upon this day. \nYet the name of Sunday has nothing to do with Christianity, but everything to do with even more ancient religions. The ancient Greeks knew that the sun was the source of life on the planet and they gave it prime importance in their thinking. When the Romans later adopted the seven day week they emphasize their respect for the sun by naming the first day of the week for it..."dies solis"..."day of the sun". \n\nThe actual word "Sunday" is derived from the German word "Sonntag" (and they likely got it from the Scandanavians). These folk too placed a great deal of importance on the sun. Some tribes of these Germanic peoples invaded England in the 500's or so. They were known as the Angles and the Saxons. The old English work was "sunnandaeg" and it changed over time to become our current, "Sunday". \n\nThere are several holidays that are traditionally held on Sunday. Mother's Day (second Sunday in May) and Father's Day (third Sunday in June) began to be celebrated rather recently, 1914 and 1924 respectively. Easter is an ancient holiday that was officially designated by the Church in the year 325. Its position on the calendar has confused lay people for centuries. The date is calculated by taking the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the 21st of March.
116925
So Jesus died on Good Friday, rested in the tomb during the following day, Saturday, which was the Sabbath, and then rose early on Sunday morning, the day we call Easter Sunday.\n\nToday nearly the entire Christian world goes to church and worships on Sunday. Why is this? When was the day of worship changed from the Sabbath, which we just saw is Saturday, to Sunday?\n\nWe go to church on a specific day of the week because of the Sabbath commandment. The Ten Commandments can be found in Exodus 20:3-17. In the Sabbath commandment God has not only given us a command to keep the Sabbath day holy but has also told us how to keep it holy.\n\nThis commandment is found in Exodus 20:8-11: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”\n\nThis commandment tells us that God’s Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week. God’s holy Sabbath day is Saturday. Sunday is the first day of the week.\n\nSince the Sabbath commandment has been changed, can we find a Bible text that would document this change? As we search the Scriptures we run across Psalms 111:7-9. “The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption to his people: he has commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.”\n\nThese verses seem to indicate that the Sabbath commandment should not have been changed. In fact, these verses tell us that all of the commandments will be in effect forever. As we continue our search we find Isaiah 66:22,23. These verses tell us that those who are saved from the earth will be keeping the Sabbath day, Saturday, holy throughout eternity, in the New Earth, which God has not yet created. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the Lord.”\n\nOf course, we all know that Jesus was our example as First Peter 2:21 says, “For this you were called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps:” Since Jesus always kept the Sabbath day holy should we also keep the Sabbath day holy?\n\nLet us now go to that verse that tells us about a change in the day to be kept holy. The verse is Daniel 7:25. “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Here we see that someone would attempt to change God’s times and God’s laws. This verse in the Catholic Douay translation says “. . . he shall think himself able to change times and laws.”\n\nThe Catholics have changed God’s law extensively. They deleted the second commandment so as to allow their practice of bowing down and worshiping their images. They gutted the Sabbath commandment, which is their third commandment, removing all the instruction that God gave as to how to keep the Sabbath day holy. They also removed the instruction that God’s Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. In order still to have ten commandments after removing the second, they divided the tenth and made it their ninth and tenth.\n\nKeeping the Sabbath was so important to the followers of Jesus that they would not even anoint His body on the Sabbath day. Joseph, you will rememb
351927
no, Good Friday is not a national holiday, it is a religious holiday. It reflects upon the day that Chirst was crucified on the cross, and that 3 days later (Easter) He rose again.
386472
We christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On Good Friday he was crucified and on Easter he was resurrected.
19693
Well, both Saturday and Sunday are holy days in some religions - time for rest. Hence, the weekend has formed around this.
706799
In the year 800 ad...\nIn the Holy Roman Empire: the pope baptized Herr Otto on Dec.25... this date became what we know now as Christmas...\n\nThis was the celebration of the renowned Christian Kingdom, which today is called Germany...\n\nTherefore the date has become a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, instead of the birth of a kingdom...\n\nAfter the fact of the earlier kingdom, then the English version appears...\nThough Christmas has been celebrated since the 4th century AD, the first known usage of any Christmastime greeting, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" (thus incorporating two greetings) was in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. The same phrase appeared in the first Christmas card, produced in 19th century England.\n\nThe then relatively new term "Merry Christmas" figured prominently in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in 1843. The cynical Ebenezer Scrooge rudely deflects the friendly greeting and broods on the foolishness of those who utter it. "If I could work my will," says Scrooge, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding." After the Spirits of Christmas effect his transformation, he is able to heartily exchange the wish with all he meets. The continued popularity of A Christmas Carol and the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies have led some to credit Dickens with popularizing, or even originating, the phrase "Merry Christmas.\n\nThe alternative "Happy Christmas" gained wide usage in the late 19th century, and is still common in the United Kingdom and Ireland. One reason may be the alternative meaning, still current there, of "merry" as "tipsy" or "drunk." Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer "Happy Christmas" for this reason. In American poet Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823), the final line, originally written as "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night," has been changed in many editions to "Merry Christmas to all", perhaps indicating the relative popularity of the phrases in the United States.\n\nTo be merry is a biblical term, as in eat, drink, and be merry...
702717
I have an old World Almanac (I think it was 1985's) which actually gave the method for determining Easter, and trust me, it's not something you actually give all the steps of here.  It's truely a mess, and it's this way because the early Church attempted to combine the Jewish and Julian (later the Gregorian) calendars.\n\nIt's actually Easter that is figured, Good Friday is simply the Friday before it.  Easter is supposed to occur on the Sunday after Passover, and if Passover falls on Sunday, then it's the Sunday after that.  Passover, being based on the Jewish calendar, is based on the full moon of a certain month (forget which), and to obfuscticate it even more, the Jewish calendar is lunar, not solar like the Julian/Gregorian calendar.\n\nRoughly, the way it is figured is to take the year and divide it by 19, then throw away everything but thr remainder, then remultiply it to get a certain number (0-18).  You then go to a special chart which gives a date, the date of something called the Pascal Full Moon, no relation to the actual full moon.  Easter is then the Sunday afterwards.  The formula had to be modified with the advent of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th Century, so it really isn't as easy as it sounds.\n\nWithout surprise, there is an ongoing movement to have a fixed date for Easter (in other words, say it's always on  April 10).  The problem is objections by various denominations for various reasons (even a "second Sunday in April" has been attacked).  I suspect the date of Easter will be a mess for a while to come.
415825
As far as I know, it was invented by Martin Luther during the 1500's.  When he posted his Thesis against the Catholic Church, he used it to get the Word of God into the hands of the common people.
50587
Yes, the Last Supper was held on Friday + it is said that said that Adam and Eve were driven out of the Paradise on Friday + in Britain, executions were held on the 13th of each month.