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Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

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Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#121

Post by getnormality »

tptacek wrote: post #112
vel0city wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to drive home the Christian message For "the Christian message" the death of Christ is the ultimate good thing. According to Christianity his death brings everyone's salvation, not the resurrection. This is my body which is given for you. Sad so many Catholic churches fail at actually sharing that message.

I have never been to a Catholic mass that failed to share that message. It's not a subtle detail.

Yes. GP is one of the most baffling comments I've ever read on HN. I really have no idea how one manages to arrive at that opinion.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#123

Post by eitland »

jltsiren wrote: post #116
eitland wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are watching this through English language glasses and it also seems you haven't thought this through: In every European language I checked except German, Easter is named something completely different. Either something that sounds like it is inspired by Pesach (the Jewish passover) like our Norwegian or Danish Påske, Swedish Påsk, Dutch Pasen or something completely different. Won't blame you, there is a lot of…

More like through Finnish language glasses. We were talking specifically about Easter, which is related to but also different from other Paschal traditions. For example, Finnish pääsiäinen was not a traditional spring festival, because it's too early for that. Our ancestors had their spring festivals in May, and the traditions now continue in other May festivals, such as May Day and Ascension Day.

> We were talking specifically about Easter, which is related to but also different from other Paschal traditions.

Here is from the top level comment in this thread:

> I find it odd how Easter, a pre-Christian Pagan festival (worshipping goddess of fertility: Eostre) has become seemingly-arbitrarily connected to the purported events at the end of Jesus' life..

They are clearly thinking about påske and (it seems to me) confusing the 2000 year old celebration (with even older Jewish roots) with this goddess that is only mentioned some 800 years after Christians started celebrating påske.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#124

Post by croes »

swat535 wrote: post #56
danwills wrote: post #14

I find it odd how Easter, a pre-Christian Pagan festival (worshipping goddess of fertility: Eostre) has become seemingly-arbitrarily connected to the purported events at the end of Jesus' life.. yet it still includes a good amount of the prior symbolism (rabbits, eggs etc)! Still great to have a short break from work! Not arguing against it at all, it just seems a bit bizarre to me overall.

I've spent a fair amount of time studying ancient Sumerian culture and religion as a hobby, and the often repeated claim that "Easter comes from Ishtar" just doesn't hold up to even minimal scrutiny. It's one of those internet factoids that sounds plausible on the surface but completely falls apart under actual historical or linguistic analysis. There's no serious academic support for a connection between the Christi…

And why the eggs and the Easter Bunny?

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#125

Post by registeredcorn »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #108
thrance wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually called holy Friday (Vendredi Saint) in France.

English-speaking eastern christians call it this too. But every day of holy week is named like that, holy tuesday, holy saturday, etc. Easter/Pascha is the one exception in the week.

At risk of being a pedant, Pascha would not be the exception to Holy Week but rather after the conclusion of Holy Week. The end of week is sundown on Saturday.

After Holy Week has ended on Saturday, The Resurrection (i.e. Pascha), occurs on the first day of the week - Sunday. :)

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#126

Post by philsnow »

I was surprised to learn that markets (NYSE and NASDAQ) at least are closed on Good Friday.

Some article ascribed it to superstition about a previous crash that had happened on some previous Good Friday, but debunked there being any connection.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#127

Post by otterley »

philsnow wrote: post #126

I was surprised to learn that markets (NYSE and NASDAQ) at least are closed on Good Friday. Some article ascribed it to superstition about a previous crash that had happened on some previous Good Friday, but debunked there being any connection.

In light of recent market turmoil, I would call today "not bad Friday."

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#128

Post by vel0city »

tptacek wrote: post #112
vel0city wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to drive home the Christian message For "the Christian message" the death of Christ is the ultimate good thing. According to Christianity his death brings everyone's salvation, not the resurrection. This is my body which is given for you. Sad so many Catholic churches fail at actually sharing that message.

I have never been to a Catholic mass that failed to share that message. It's not a subtle detail.

Maybe I'm being less charitable to Catholic churches on that. Truly a lot of Christian churches have failed on their messaging to others from what I've seen, and it's probably not just a Catholic thing. It's not like Joel Osteen is really sharing a truly Christian life and theology.

The fact there's a lot of people in this thread with this understanding should point to a lot of people not getting it though. I mean this is a whole thread of people not getting why it's "Good Friday" yet the Catholic Church has supposedly been preaching this point for over a thousand years.

I'm truly not anti-Catholic. I do think Catholics are unfairly painted by a lot of Protestants. As someone who walks between both worlds on a daily basis there's a lot of untruths and misunderstandings about Catholics out there.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#129

Post by vel0city »

elcritch wrote: post #120
vel0city wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to drive home the Christian message For "the Christian message" the death of Christ is the ultimate good thing. According to Christianity his death brings everyone's salvation, not the resurrection. This is my body which is given for you. Sad so many Catholic churches fail at actually sharing that message.

In Eastern Orthodox churches the main hymn we sing is: > Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! [1] It’s sung about a hundred times in Pascha (Easter) liturgy, so _very_ well emphasized in the eastern traditions. Though in eastern churches the emphasis was less on a juridical understanding of the passion wherein Christ fulfilled a legal requirement. R…

I love hearing more about the viewpoint of Coptics, they're seemingly underrepresented in viewpoints in a lot of discussions in the US!

Your comments mirror a lot from my Egyptian friends. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#130

Post by tptacek »

vel0city wrote: post #128
tptacek wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never been to a Catholic mass that failed to share that message. It's not a subtle detail.

Maybe I'm being less charitable to Catholic churches on that. Truly a lot of Christian churches have failed on their messaging to others from what I've seen, and it's probably not just a Catholic thing. It's not like Joel Osteen is really sharing a truly Christian life and theology. The fact there's a lot of people in this thread with this understanding should point to a lot of people not getting it though. I mean th…

:homer-into-the-hedges:

It's cool, I'm just saying: Catholics definitely believe this; it's "Good Friday" because "Good" was synonymous with "Holy", so there's not much debate around that. All the denominations agree about the holiness of the event!

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