Good Friday – Somber Traditions And Very Quiet Days

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast,

Where I help you learn a little and sleep a lot.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster,

And today's episode is about Good Friday.

Good Friday,

Also known as Black Friday,

Holy Friday,

Great Friday,

Great and Holy Friday,

Or Friday of the Passion of the Lord,

Is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary,

Golgotha.

It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum.

Members of many Christian denominations,

Including the Catholic,

Eastern Orthodox,

Lutheran,

Anglican,

Methodist,

Oriental Orthodox,

United Protestant,

And some Reformed traditions,

Including certain Continental Reformed,

Presbyterian,

And Congregationalist churches,

Observe Good Friday with fasting and church services.

In many Catholic,

Lutheran,

Anglican,

And Methodist churches,

The services of the Great Three Hours Agony is held from noon until 3 pm,

The hours the Bible records darkness covering the land until Jesus' death on the cross.

Communicants of the Moravian Church have a Good Friday tradition of cleaning gravestones in Moravian cemeteries.

The date of Good Friday varies from one year to the next in both the Gregorian and Julian calendars.

Eastern and Western Christianity disagree over the computation of the date of Easter and therefore of Good Friday.

Good Friday is a widely instituted legal holiday around the world.

Some predominantly Christian countries,

Such as Germany,

Have laws prohibiting certain acts,

Public dancing,

Horse racing,

And remembrance of the somber nature of Good Friday.

The term Good Friday comes from the sense,

Pious,

Holy,

Of the word good.

Less common examples of expressions based on this obsolete sense of good include the Good Book for the Bible,

Good Tide for Christmas or Shrove Tide,

And Good Wednesday for the Wednesday and Holy Week.

A common folk etymology incorrectly analyzes Good Friday as a corruption of God Friday,

Similar to the linguistically correct description of goodbye as a contraction of God be with ye.

In Old English,

The day was called Long Friday,

Referring to the lengthy observances of fasting and religious services,

Making it a day of extended devotion.

And equivalents of this term are still used in Scandinavian languages and Finnish.

According to the accounts in the Gospels,

The royal soldiers,

Guided by Jesus' disciple Judas Iscariot,

Arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Judas received money,

30 pieces of silver,

For betraying Jesus,

And told the guards that whomever he kisses is the one they are to arrest.

Following his arrest,

Jesus was taken to the house of Annas,

The father-in-law of the high priest,

Caiaphas.

There he was interrogated with little result,

And sent bound to Caiaphas,

The high priest where the Sanhedrin had assembled.

Conflicting testimony against Jesus was brought forth by many witnesses,

To which Jesus answered nothing.

Finally,

The high priest adjured Jesus to respond under solemn oath,

Saying,

I adjure you,

By the living God,

To tell us,

Are you the anointed one,

The Son of God?

Jesus testified ambiguously,

You have said it,

And in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty,

Coming on the clouds of heaven.

The high priest condemned Jesus for blasphemy,

And the Sanhedrin concurred with the sentence of death.

Peter,

Waiting in the courtyard,

Also denied Jesus three times to bystanders,

While the interrogations were proceeding just as Jesus had foretold.

In the morning,

The whole assembly brought Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate,

Under charges of subverting the nation,

Opposing taxes to Caesar,

And making himself a king.

Pilate authorized the Jewish leaders to judge Jesus according to their own law and execute sentencing.

However,

The Jewish leaders replied that they were not allowed by the Romans to carry out a sentence of death.

Pilate questioned Jesus and told the assembly that there was no basis for sentencing.

Upon learning that Jesus was from Galilee,

Pilate referred the case to the ruler of Galilee,

King Herod,

Who was in Jerusalem for the Passover feast.

Herod questioned Jesus but received no answer.

Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate.

Pilate told the assembly that neither he nor Herod found Jesus to be guilty.

Pilate resolved to have Jesus whipped and released.

Under the guidance of the chief priest,

The crowd asked for Barabbas,

Who had been in prison for committing murder during an insurrection.

Pilate asked what they would have him do with Jesus,

And they demanded,

Crucify him.

Pilate's wife had seen Jesus in a dream earlier that day,

And she forewarned Pilate to have nothing to do with this righteous man.

Pilate had Jesus flogged and then brought him out to the crowd to release him.

The chief priests informed Pilate of a new charge,

Demanding Jesus be sentenced to death because he claimed to be God's son.

The possibility filled Pilate with fear,

And he brought Jesus back inside the palace and demanded to know from where he came.

Coming before the crowd one last time,

Pilate declared Jesus innocent and washed his own hands in water to show he had no part in this condemnation.

Nevertheless,

Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified in order to forestall Orion.

The sentence written was Jesus of Nazareth,

King of the Jews.

Jesus carried his cross to the site of execution,

Assisted by Simon of Cyrene,

Called the Place of the Skull,

Or Golgotha in Hebrew and in Latin,

Calvary.

There he was crucified along with two criminals.

Jesus agonized on the cross for three hours,

From noon to 3 p.

M.

Darkness fell over the whole land.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark,

Jesus is said to have spoken from the cross.

Quote in the Messianic Psalm 22,

My God,

My God,

Why have you forsaken me?

With a loud cry,

Jesus gave up his spirit.

There was an earthquake,

Tombs broke open,

And the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom.

A centurion on the guard at the site of the crucifixion declared,

Truly this was God's Son.

Joseph of Arimathea,

A member of the Sanhedrin and a secret follower of Jesus,

Who had not consented to his condemnation,

Went to Pilate to request the body of Jesus.

Another secret follower of Jesus,

A member of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus,

Brought about a hundred-pound weight mixture of spices and helped wrap the body of Jesus.

Pilate asked confirmation from the centurion of whether Jesus was dead.

A soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a lance,

Causing blood and water to flow out.

And the centurion informed Pilate that Jesus was dead.

Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus' body,

Wrapped it in a clean linen shroud,

And placed it in his own new tomb that had been carved in the rock in a garden near the site of the crucifixion.

Nicodemus also brought seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes,

And placed them in the large rock over the entrance of the tomb.

Then they returned home and rested,

Because Shabbat had begun at sunset.

Byzantine Christians,

Eastern Christians who follow the rite of Constantinople,

Orthodox Christians,

And Greek Catholics,

Call this day Great and Holy Friday,

Or simply Great Friday.

Because the sacrifice of Jesus through his crucifixion is recalled on this day,

The divine liturgy,

The sacrifice of bread and wine,

Is never celebrated on Great Friday,

Except when this day coincides with the great feast of the Annunciation,

Which falls on the fixed date of the 25th of March.

For those churches which follow the traditional Julian calendar,

The 25th of March currently falls on April 7th of the modern Gregorian calendar.

Also,

On Great Friday,

The clergy no longer wear the purple or red that is customary throughout Great Lent,

But instead don black vestments.

There is no stripping of the altar on Holy and Great Thursday,

As in the West.

Instead,

All of the church hangings are changed to black,

And will remain so until the divine liturgy on Great Sunday.

The faithful revisit the events of the day through the public reading of specific psalms and the Gospels,

And singing hymns about Christ's death.

Rich visual imagery and symbolism,

As well as stirring hymnody,

Are remarkable elements of these observances.

In the Orthodox understanding,

The events of Holy Week are not simply an annual commemoration of past events,

But the faithful actually participate in the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

Great and Holy Friday is observed as an absolute fast,

And adult Byzantine Christians are expected to abstain from all food and drink the entire day,

To the extent that their health permits.

On this holy day,

Neither a meal is offered,

Nor do we eat on this day of the crucifixion.

If someone is unable or has become very old,

Or is unable to fast,

He may be given bread and water after sunset.

In this way,

We come to the holy commandment of the holy apostles not to eat on Great Friday.

The Byzantine Christian observance of Holy and Great Friday which is formally known as the Order of Holy and Saving Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Begins on Thursday night with the Matins of the Twelve Passion Gospels.

Scattered throughout this matin service are twelve readings from all four of the Gospels,

Which recount the events of the Passion from the Last Supper through the crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

Some churches have a candelabrum with twelve candles on it,

And after each Gospel reading one of the candles is extinguished.

The first of these twelve readings is the longest Gospel reading of the liturgical year,

And is a concatenation from all four Gospels.

Just before the sixth Gospel reading which recounts Jesus being nailed to the cross,

A large cross is carried out of the sanctuary by the priest,

Accompanied by incense and candles,

And is placed in the center of a nave,

Where the congregation gathers.

Today he who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon the cross three times.

He who is king of the angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns.

He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.

He who in Jordan set Adam free receives blows upon his face.

The bridegroom of the church is transfixed with nails.

The son of the virgin is pierced with a spear.

We venerate thy passion,

O Christ,

Three times.

Show us also thy glorious resurrection.

The readings are 1.

John chapter 13 verse 31 through chapter 18 verse 1.

Christ's last sermon.

Jesus prays for the apostles.

2.

John chapter 18 verses 1 through 28.

The agony in the garden.

The mockery and denial of Christ.

3.

Matthew chapter 26 verses 57 through 75.

5.

The mockery of Christ.

Peter denies Christ.

4.

John chapter 18 verse 28 through chapter 19 verse 16.

Pilate questions Jesus.

Jesus is condemned.

Jesus is mocked by the Romans.

5.

Matthew chapter 27 verse 3 through 32.

Judas commits suicide.

Jesus is condemned.

Jesus mocked by the Romans.

Simon of Cyrene compelled to carry the cross.

6.

Mark chapter 15 verses 16 through 32.

Jesus dies.

7.

Matthew chapter 27 verses 33 through 54.

Jesus dies.

8.

Luke chapter 23 verses 32 through 49.

Jesus dies.

9.

John chapter 19 verses 25 through 37.

Jesus dies.

10.

Mark chapter 15 verses 43 through 47.

Joseph of Arimathea buries Jesus.

11.

John chapter 19 verses 38 through 42.

Joseph of Arimathea buries Jesus.

12.

Matthew chapter 27 verses 62 through 66.

The Jews set a guard.

During the service,

All come forward to kiss the feet of Christ on the cross.

After the canon,

A brief moving hymn,

The Wise Thief,

Is chanted by singers who stand at the foot of the cross in the center of the nave.

The service does not end with the first hour as usual,

But with a special dismissal by the priest.

May Christ,

Our true God,

Who for the salvation of the world endured spitting,

And scourging,

And buffeting,

And the cross,

And death,

Through the intercessions of His most pure Mother,

Of our holy and God-bearing Fathers,

And of all the saints,

Have mercy on us and save us,

For He is good and the lover of mankind.

The next day,

In the forenoon on Friday,

All gather again to pray the Royal Hours,

A special expanded celebration of the little hours,

Including the first hour,

Third hour,

Sixth hour,

Ninth hour,

And Typica,

With the addition of scripture readings,

Old Testament,

Epistle and Gospel,

And hymns about the crucifixion of each of the hours.

Some of the material from the previous night is repeated.

This is somewhat more festive in character and derives its name of Royal from both the fact that the hours are served with more solemnity than normal,

Commemorating Christ the King who humbled Himself for the salvation of mankind,

And also from the fact that this service was in the past attended by the Emperor and his court.

In the afternoon,

Around 3 p.

M.

,

All gather for the Vespers of the taking down from the cross,

Commemorating the deposition from the cross.

Following Psalm 103-104 in the Great Litany,

Lord,

I call,

Is sung without a psalter reading.

The first five stichera,

The first being repeated,

Are taken from the Apostica at Matins,

The night before,

But the final three of the five are sung in Tone 2.

Three more stichera in Tone 6 lead to the entrance.

The evening Procumenon is taken from Psalm 21.

They parted my garments among them,

And cast lots upon my vesture.

There are then four readings,

With Procumenon before the second and fourth.

Exodus 33.

11-23,

God shows Moses His glory.

The second Procumenon is from Psalm 34.

Judge them,

O Lord,

That wrong me.

Fight against them that fight against me.

Job 42.

12-20,

God restores Job's wealth.

Note that verses 18-20 are found only in the Septuagint.

Isaiah 52.

13-54.

1,

The fourth suffering servant song.

The third Procumenon is from Psalm 87.

They laid me in the lowest pit,

In dark places,

And in the shadow of death.

1 Corinthians 1.

18-2.

2,

St.

Paul places Christ crucified as the center of the Christian life.

And Alleluia is then sung,

With verses from Psalm 68.

Save me,

O God,

For the waters are come in,

Even unto my soul.

The Gospel reading is a composite taken from three of the four Gospels.

Matthew 27.

1-38,

Luke 23.

39-43,

Matthew 27.

39-54,

John 19.

31-37,

Matthew 27.

55-61.

Essentially,

The story of the crucifixion as it appears according to St.

Matthew,

Interspersed with St.

Luke's account of the confession of the good thief,

And St.

John's account of blood and water flowing from Jesus' side.

During the Gospel,

The body of Christ,

The Soma,

Is removed from the cross,

And,

As the words in the Gospel reading mention Joseph of Arimathea,

Is wrapped in a linen shroud and taken to the altar in the sanctuary.

The apostica reflects on the burial of Christ.

Either at this point in the Greek use,

Or during the Trapparian following in the Slav use,

Noble Joseph,

Taking down thy most pure body from the tree,

Wrapped it in pure linen and spices,

And he laid it in a new tomb.

An epitaphios,

Or winding sheet,

A cloth embroidered with the image of Christ,

Prepared for burial,

Is carried in procession to a low table in the nave,

Which represents the tomb of Christ.

It is often decorated with an abundance of flowers.

The epitaphios itself represents the body of Jesus wrapped in a burial shroud,

And is a roughly full-sized cloth icon of the body of Christ.

The service ends with the hope of the resurrection.

The angel stood by the tomb,

And to the women bearing spices he cried aloud,

Myrrh is fitting for the dead,

But Christ has shown himself a stranger to corruption.

Then the priest may deliver a homily,

And everyone comes forward to venerate the epitaphios.

In the Slavic practice,

At the end of Vespers,

Compline is immediately served,

Featuring a special Canon of the Crucifixion of our Lord,

And the Lamentation of the Most Holy Theotakos by Simeon of the Logothete.

On Friday night,

The Matins of Holy and Great Saturday,

A unique service known as the Lamentation of the Tomb,

Is celebrated.

This service is also sometimes called Jerusalem Matins.

Much of the service takes place around the Tomb of Christ in the center of the nave.

A unique feature of the service is the chanting of the Lamentations or Praises,

Which consist of verses chanted by the clergy interspersed between the verses of Psalm 119,

Which is by far the longest psalm in the Bible.

The Encomia are the best-loved hymns of Byzantine hymnography,

Both their poetry and their music being uniquely suited to each other and to the spirit of the day.

They consist of 185 tercet antiphons arranged in three parts,

Which are interjected with the verses of Psalm 119,

And nine short and theotokia invocations to the Virgin Mary.

The three stasses are each set to its own music and are commonly known by their initial antiphons,

Life in a Grave,

Worthy It Is,

All the Generations.

Musically,

They can be classified as strophic with 75,

62,

And 48 tercet stanzas each respectively.

The climax of the Encomia comes during the third stasses with the antiphon,

A Lamentation of the Virgin for Her Dead Child.

O my sweet spring,

My sweetest child,

Where has your beauty gone?

Later during a different antiphon of that stasses,

Early in the morning of the myrrh bearers came to thee and sprinkled myrrh upon thy tomb.

Young girls of the parish place flowers on the epitaphios and the priest sprinkles it with rosewater.

The authors and date of the Encomia are unknown.

Their high Attic linguistic style suggests a dating around the 6th century,

Possibly before the time of St.

Romanos the Melodist.

The Evlogitaria,

Benedictions of the resurrection,

Are sung as on Sundays.

Since they refer to the conversation between the myrrh bearers and the angel in the tomb,

Followed by a kathismata about the burial of Christ.

Psalm 50 is then immediately read,

And then followed by a much-loved canon,

Written by Mark the monk,

Bishop of Hydras in Kosmos of the Holy City,

With earmoy by Cassiany the nun.

The high point of the much-loved canon is Ode 9,

Which takes form of a dialogue between Christ and the Theotokos,

The Christ promising his mother the hope of the resurrection.

This canon will be sung again the following night at the midnight office.

Lauds follow,

And at Stikara take the form of a funeral lament,

While always preserving the hope of the resurrection.

The Doxastikon links Christ's rest in the tomb with his rest on the seventh day of creation,

And the Theotokion,

Most Blessed Art Thou,

O Virgin Theotokos,

Is the same as is used on Sundays.

At the end of the Great Doxology,

While the Trisagion is sung,

The Epitaphios is taken in procession around the outside of the church,

And is then returned to the tomb.

Some churches observe the practice of holding the Epitaphios at the door,

Above waist level,

So the faithful must bow down under it as they come back into the church,

Symbolizing their entering into the death and resurrection of Christ.

The Epitaphios will lay in the tomb until the Paschal service,

Early Sunday morning.

In some churches,

The Epitaphios is never left alone,

But is accompanied 24 hours a day by a reader chanting from the Psalter.

When the procession is returned to the church,

A Troparion is read,

Similar to the ones read at the sixth hour throughout Lent,

Focusing on the purpose of Christ's burial.

A series of Prokemena and readings are then said.

The first Prokemenon is from Psalm 43,

God tells Ezekiel to command bones to come to life.

The second Prokemenon is from Psalm 9,

And is based on the verses sung at the Kathismata and Lodz on Sundays.

Arise,

O my Lord,

Lift up thy hand,

Forget not thy poor forever.

St.

Paul celebrates the Passion of Christ and explains its role in the life of Gentile Christians.

The Alleluia verses are from Psalm 67,

And are based on the Paschal verses,

Let God arise,

And let his enemies be scattered.

The Pharisees ask Pilate to set a watch at the tomb.

At the end of the service,

A final hymn is sung as the faithful come to venerate the Epitaphios.

In Latin,

The name used by the Catholic Church until 1955 was Feria Sexta in Parasceva,

Friday of Preparation for the Sabbath.

In the 1955 reform of Holy Week,

It was renamed Feria Sexta in Passione et Morte Domini,

Friday of the Passion and Death of the Lord.

And in the new rite introduced in 1970,

Shortened to Feria Sexta in Passione Domini,

Friday of the Passion of the Lord.

The Catholic Church regards Good Friday and Holy Saturday as the Paschal Fast,

In accordance with Article 110 of Sacro Sanctum Concilium.

In the Latin Church,

A fast day is understood as having only one full meal and two collations,

A smaller repast,

The two of which together do not equal the one full meal,

Although this may be observed less stringently on Holy Saturday than on Good Friday.

The Roman Rite has no celebration of Mass between the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday,

Maundy Thursday evening,

And the Easter Vigil,

Unless a special exemption is granted for rare solemn or grave occasions by the Vatican or the local bishop.

The only sacraments celebrated during this time are baptism for those in danger of death,

Penance,

And anointing of the sick.

While there is no celebration of the Eucharist,

It is distributed to the faithful only in the celebration of the Passion of the Lord,

But can also be taken at any hour to the sick who are unable to attend this celebration.

The collection for the holy places is taken up on Good Friday.

The celebration of the Passion of the Lord takes place in the afternoon,

Ideally at three o'clock.

However,

For pastoral reasons,

Especially in countries where Good is not a public holiday,

It is permissible to celebrate the Liturgy earlier,

Even shortly after midday or at a later hour.

The celebration consists of three parts,

The Liturgy of the Word,

The Adoration of the Cross,

And the Holy Communion.

The altar is bare without cross,

Candlesticks,

And altar cloths.

It is also customary to empty the holy water fonts in preparation of the blessings of the water at the Easter Vigil.

Traditionally,

No bells are rung on Good Friday or Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil.

The liturgical color of the vestments used is red.

Before 1970,

Vestments were black except for the communion part of the rite,

When violet was used.

If a bishop or abbot celebrates,

He wears a plain mitre.

Before the reforms of the Holy Week liturgies in 1955,

Black was used throughout.

The vespers of Good Friday are only prayed by those who could not attend the celebration of the Passion of the Lord.

The three hours' devotion based on the seven last words from the cross begins at noon and ends at 3 p.

M.

,

The time that the Christian tradition teaches that Jesus died on the cross.

The Good Friday liturgy consists of three parts,

The Liturgy of the Word,

The Adoration of the Cross,

And the Holy Communion.

In addition to the prescribed liturgical service,

The stations of the cross are often prayed,

Either in the church or outside,

And a prayer service may be held from midday to 3 p.

M.

,

Known as the Three Hours of Agony.

In countries such as Malta,

Italy,

The Philippines,

Puerto Rico,

And Spain,

Processions with statues representing the Passion of Christ are held.

In Rome,

Since the papacy of John Paul II,

The heights of the Temple of Venus and Roma and their position opposite the main entrance to the Colosseum have been used to good effect as a public address platform.

The Pope,

Either personally or through a representative,

Leads the faithful through meditations on the stations of the cross,

While a cross is carried from there to the Colosseum.

There are many more traditions related to Good Friday,

But that will conclude this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast.

Happy sleeping.