Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

historyextra.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 154 posts

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#31

Post by suddenlybananas »

defrost wrote: post #30
suddenlybananas wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://youtu.be/0m2ZQaxfpnY?si=t0zQAWhZEW8Uoa2z the Easter Bunny is not pagan, it's a much more recent tradition.

The video doesn't disprove a long standing non Christian association between what is now Easter and rabbits. What it does state is in agreement with the wikipedia article on the connection between Ēostre and rabbits, namely: The earliest evidence for the Easter Hare (Osterhase) was recorded in south-west Germany in 1678 by the professor of medicine Georg Franck von Franckenau ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ost…

Of course it is possible that the tradition goes back more than a thousand years from when it was first attested, but we have no material evidence of that whatsoever. No statues of a goddess surrounded by eggs and rabbits, no amulets of protection, no recorded myths, no references to something similar from Greek or Roman sources, nothing. This is in contrast to beer where we have actually found remains of beer from long, long ago.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#32

Post by defrost »

suddenlybananas wrote: post #31
defrost wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video doesn't disprove a long standing non Christian association between what is now Easter and rabbits. What it does state is in agreement with the wikipedia article on the connection between Ēostre and rabbits, namely: The earliest evidence for the Easter Hare (Osterhase) was recorded in south-west Germany in 1678 by the professor of medicine Georg Franck von Franckenau ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ost…

Of course it is possible that the tradition goes back more than a thousand years from when it was first attested, but we have no material evidence of that whatsoever. No statues of a goddess surrounded by eggs and rabbits, no amulets of protection, no recorded myths, no references to something similar from Greek or Roman sources, nothing. This is in contrast to beer where we have actually found remains of beer from l…

It certainly existed for generations prior to when it was first written about .. as much of all human activity did.

We have actual remains of rabbits from long long ago.

The point being much human activity leaves little trace, we'd be wise to not assume the only human activity was activity that left a pyramid or giant stautue in its wake.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#33

Post by photios »

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 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..

The Eostre connection is unconvincing. Eostre is a Saxon goddess with earliest sources about her cult from 8th century and:

- Easter has been celebrated before 8th century.

- And it has been celebrated by people that have never heard of Saxons or their gods.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#34

Post by suddenlybananas »

defrost wrote: post #32
suddenlybananas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it is possible that the tradition goes back more than a thousand years from when it was first attested, but we have no material evidence of that whatsoever. No statues of a goddess surrounded by eggs and rabbits, no amulets of protection, no recorded myths, no references to something similar from Greek or Roman sources, nothing. This is in contrast to beer where we have actually found remains of beer from l…

It certainly existed for generations prior to when it was first written about .. as much of all human activity did. We have actual remains of rabbits from long long ago. The point being much human activity leaves little trace, we'd be wise to not assume the only human activity was activity that left a pyramid or giant stautue in its wake.

Yes, but traditions are also invented all the time, and there's no reason to assume a random tradition among German Protestants in the 17th century goes back over a thousand years without evidence.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#35

Post by ithkuil »

GranularRecipe wrote: post #17
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.

The first month after March equinox has great religious significance across many cultures (in the temperate zone), e.g. Pesach. When different cultures meet, they tend to syncretise.

Yes. And this mix continues. Even traditional that originally have some common root and then diverge can later resyncretise. For example look at Halloween being introduced in southern Europe thanks to US cultural influence

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#36

Post by petesergeant »

knome wrote: post #23
petesergeant wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They deliberately put it Who did? When?

The Catholic Church. The fourth century. https://www.history.com/articles/history-of-christmas >In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). >Although some evidence suggests that Jesus' birth may have occurred in the sprin…

The "history.com editors" using a phrase like "it is commonly believed" doesn't feel like a citation to me. My understanding is that the date is derived from the date of the Annunciation.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#37

Post by thisislife2 »

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.

embrace. extend. extinguish. Cultural assimilation by the missionaries to spread Christianity, is one of the major reason. This is why different countries have their own "local" version of Christianity with their own unique / weird rituals or practice.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#38

Post by xg15 »

tetris11 wrote: post #8

> In Germany, the day is known as Karfreitag In Germany its known as "brücketag" because Thursday was a public holiday and people take a "bridge-day" on Friday to extend the weekend.

No, this is wrong. As the others have said, "Brückentag" is a general term for non-holidays, and it doesn't even apply here as Friday is the holiday and not Thursday.

Good Friday is also still very significant in its religious purpose here, so calling it "bridge day", even if it applied, would be disrespectful.

(Which doesn't keep the racing/modding community from having their own "Car Freitag" on that day...)

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#39

Post by boredhedgehog »

larusso wrote: post #25
petesergeant wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They deliberately put it Who did? When?

Well the Bible was written some 300 years after all of this happened. Jesus didn’t own a birth certificate nor was it ever officially written down. As to who decides when what happened and wrote it down I don‘t know. We have historical figures where we don‘t know exactly when their born. But we don‘t just write a data down. Here is a link going in more detail and actually contradicts what I wrote. But points about th…

> Well the Bible was written some 300 years after all of this happened.

Are you perhaps confusing writing with the process of canonization? Common estimates would place the writing of the youngest book of the Bible at 95-120 AD.

Re: Why is Good Friday called Good Friday?

#40

Post by xg15 »

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 find it fascinating that a lot of traditional holidays seem to have acquired multiple, sometimes conflicting narratives over the ages.

Christmas is the most obvious one (what does a bearded dude on the north pole have to do with the birth of Jesus? For Germans specifically: The "Christkind" is Baby Jesus, but its also a kind of spirit of its own who brings presents, and for some reason usually depicted as a girl?)

But you also have a similar thing for Carnival: Traditionally, it's the last feast before Lent (where Lent is also an expanded narrative of Easter!). But there are also all kinds of local narratives layered on top of it, like the Rhineland "Session", which begins in November, is somewhat awkwardly interrupted by Christmas and ends with Carnival as its sort of "grand finale".

And then Easter has the triple narrative as the death and ascension of Jesus, the feast after the end of Lent (so a bit like Islam's Eid al Fitr) and the beginning of spring.

In some way, it reminds me of the sprawling lore and extended universes/fan canons around Star Wars or other Scifi or Fantasy franchises, except on a much, much larger scale. I think it's all pretty fun.

Post reply on HN