Good Friday's name stems from an origin that might surprise you. You may have been calling it Good Friday your whole life, but never actually knowing why.
Falling just before Easter annually, this year's Good Friday arrives on April 3, with Easter Sunday following on April 5. Though it marks the deeply solemn occasion of Jesus' crucifixion according to Christianscripture, the day bears what appears to be a rather contradictory name - "Good Friday".
However, Dr James Holt, Associate Professor of Religious Education at the University of Chester, explains there's a straightforward explanation for calling it Good Friday, even though the day's events were anything but positive.
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What's the story behind the name Good Friday? In a TikTok clip, Dr Holt disclosed that the word "good" held an entirely different meaning centuries ago - it actually meant "holy". This explains why the Bible is sometimes called the "Good Book".
The academic elaborated: "The original meaning of the word good could also have included holy or sacred. In Old English, this is what it means. It was a day that was holy. It was sacred. It's the most sacred day of the year.
"We can see this in other things too. Sometimes, the Bible is called the Good Book, and actually, that means holy. So Good Friday is Holy Friday or Sacred Friday."
In more contemporary times, Christians have also reinterpreted the name "Good Friday" afresh, proposing that Jesus' sacrifice has delivered beneficial outcomes to their lives, rendering the day truly "good". Dr Holt went on: "Some well-meaning Christians have tried to interpret that in the modern day.
"One Christian suggested it was a good day because he traded places for you and for me. It's a good day because it was the day he conquered sin and death so that we will never be apart from God on this side of Heaven or the other.
"Whilst there's some truth to this, as it's likely the most sacred day in Jesus' life when Christians believe he sacrificed himself to save humanity, this isn't the original meaning."
Fascinatingly, Good Friday doesn't carry the same name across different tongues. Germans call it "Karfreitag," meaning "Mourning Friday," whilst the French know it as "Vendredi saint" or "Holy Friday."
Both Italian and Spanish speakers refer to it as Holy Friday, and Scandinavian nations including Denmark, Norway, and Sweden employ phrases translating to "long Friday."
Fiona McPherson, a senior editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, shared comparable insights during a 2014 BBC discussion regarding Good Friday.
In her view, the word "good" initially denoted "a day or a period when religious observance takes place". The Oxford English Dictionary further clarifies that "good" describes "a day or season observed as holy by the church".
This usage also appears in the festive salutation "good tide" and in the more obscure Good Wednesday, occurring on the Wednesday preceding Easter.
