Why is Good Friday Called Good Friday?
- Editor OGN Daily
- Apr 18
- 1 min read
It is the day when Christians commemorate Jesus Christ's crucifixion. But why is it called Good Friday?
According to the Bible, the son of God was flogged, ordered to carry the cross - Simon of Cyrene was compelled by Roman soldiers to help Jesus carry it - on which he would be crucified. It's difficult to see what is "good" about it.
Some sources suggest that the day is "good" in that it is holy, or that the phrase is a corruption of "God's Friday". owever, according to Fiona MacPherson, senior editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, the adjective traditionally "designates a day on (or sometimes a season in) which religious observance is held".
The OED states that "good" in this context refers to "a day or season observed as holy by the church", hence the greeting "good tide" at Christmas or on Shrove Tuesday. In addition to Good Friday, there is also a less well-known Good Wednesday - also called Holy Wednesday or Spy Wednesday - which marks Judas' betrayal, which is commonly believed to be the Wednesday before Easter Sunday.
The earliest known use of "guode friday" is found in The South English Legendary, a text from around 1290, according to the dictionary. According to the Baltimore Catechism - the standard US Catholic school text from 1885 to the 1960s, Good Friday is good because Christ "showed His great love for man, and purchased for him every blessing."
