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A Hindu friend of mine asked me today why we call it Good Friday. What's so
'good' about it if Jesus Christ was crucified on this day? I gave him a
off-the-cuff reply that explained how it was 'good' because by his dying
the world was saved and similar blah. Later I went online and found many
interesting explanations. The site below was the most clear and consise.
--------
http://www.kencollins.com/question-11.htm
Calling the day of the Crucifixion 'Good' Friday is a designation that is
peculiar to the English language. In German, for example, it is called
Karfreitag. The Kar part is an obsolete word, the ancestor of the English
word care in the sense of cares and woes, and it meant mourning. So in
German, it is Mourning Friday. And that is what the disciples did on that
day-they mourned. They thought all was lost.
I've read that the word good used to have a secondary meaning of holy, but
I can't trace that back in my etymological dictionary. There are a number
of cases in set phrases where the words God and good got switched around
because of their similarity. One case was the phrase 'God be with you',
which today is just 'good-bye'. So perhaps Good Friday was originally God's
Friday. But I think we call it Good Friday because, in pious retrospect,
all that tragedy brought about the greatest good there could be.
I can see virtue in either terminology. If we call it Mourning Friday, as
in German, we are facing reality head on, taking up the cross if you will,
fully conscious that the Christian walk is seldom a walk in the park. But
if we call it Good Friday, as in English, we are confessing the Christian
hope that no tragedy-not even death-can overwhelm God's providence, love,
and grace. Either way seems fine to me!
-------
There are many more informative sections on Rev. Ken Collins site.
Particularly check out:
http://www.kencollins.com/glossary/vestments.htm
http://www.kencollins.com/glossary/liturgy.htm
----
The page below is also quiet readable without any long drawn vague
philosophical explanations.
http://catholicism.about.com/cs/lent/f/goodfriday04.htm
Good Friday is the day that marks when Jesus Christ was crucified on the
cross for our salvation. Today the whole Church mourns the death of Jesus.
Good Friday is a day of fast and abstinence. Catholics are also supposed to
meditate and pray between the hours of noon to three o'clock in the
afternoon. These are the hours Jesus hung on the cross.
Good Friday is called good because on this day Jesus was crucified for our
redemption of our sins. orld: "Holy Friday" for Latin nations, Slavs and
Hungarians call it "Great Friday," in Germany it is "Friday of Mourning,"
and in Norway, it is "Long Friday." Some view the term "Good Friday" (used
in English and Dutch) as a corruption of the term "God's Friday."
Good Friday is also the only day that there isn't a full Mass.
----
Fuelled now with a 'passion' for knowledge about Holy Week I checked out
Maundy Thursday and found a lengthy explanation at:
http://www.maundy.com/maundy_thursday.html
Maundy Thursday
The word 'Maundy' comes from the Latin word for commandment, mandatum. This
is a special day for Christians. It is the day when they remember the Last
Supper, the agony in the garden of Gethsemane and the arrest and trial of
Jesus. The Last Supper is a key event for Christians. It was at this Last
Supper which Jesus shared with his friends that he changed the words of the
traditional Passover meal and commanded his followers to break and eat
bread and drink wine in his memory. Christians throughout the world
continue to do this. This act of remembrance is known as the Eucharist,
Holy Communion, Mass or The Lord's Supper.
The blessing of oils
As Maundy Thursday commemorates the day when Jesus instituted the Eucharist
through the Last Supper, it is also the day on which priests may renew
their priestly vows. This service is called the Blessing of Oils and it is
one where oil blessed by a bishop is distributed to the priests for them to
use in their ministry the following year. Holy oil is used for baptism,
confirmation and the anointing of the sick and dying.
The distribution of Maundy money
This is an ancient tradition dating from before the Middle Ages. However,
when the Church of England broke with the Church in Rome and the English
monarch became Supreme Head of the Church in England, the ceremony took on
a greater significance.
The reigning monarch, as Head of the Church, gives out special coins,
called 'Maundy money', to elderly people at a service on Maundy Thursday.
One coin is given for every year of the monarch's age. The coins are silver
and are specially minted for the occasion. The service takes place in one
of the great English cathedrals and it usually takes 40 years before it is
held at the same cathedral again. In the year 2000 the ceremony took place
in Lincoln Cathedral and 148 old-age pensioners, 74 men and 74 women, each
received the Maundy money. In times past not only were the poor given coins
to help provide food but the monarch also washed the recipients' feet.
-----
Briefly...
http://www.answers.com/topic/maundy-thursday
Maundy Thursday (môn'de) [Lat. mandatum, word in the ceremony], traditional
English name for Thursday of Holy Week, so named because it is considered
the anniversary of the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus at the Last
Supper (that is, the mandatum novum or "new commandment"). In some
churches, Jesus's washing of the disciples' feet is symbolically reenacted.
In Great Britain there is a survival in the distribution by the sovereign
of special "maundy money" to certain of the poor at Westminster Abbey. In
the Roman Catholic Church, Maundy Thursday is a general communion day; a
single Mass is sung, in the evening, and a Host, consecrated for the
morrow, is placed in a specially adorned chapel of repose. The altars are
stripped bare until the Easter vigil mass.
-----
Cheers!
Cecil Pinto
(Trivia Hunter and Lenten Religious Scholar)
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