Good Friday

“ None of us knows how nigh is the evening. We may be near the final hour, both you and I, even though our hair as yet has no silver tinge. And if we, with this possibility in view, review the march of events in our own lives, we see much which we would like to change—if we but could. How often have not the powers of evil been victorious in our lives, as they were on that Good Friday! ”

“ On Good Friday there is always a procession through the principal streets of the town, which, without any of the devotional accessories of the sepolcri—the time-worn churches, the subdued light, the hushed voices—cannot fail painfully to impress the English spectator who has not been inured to sights of this description. ”

“ It is the most solemn and binding of all Fridays and should be observed as an absolute Fast in token of our sorrow for sin, and in preparation for the Easter Communion. All unnecessary work, all social engagements and pleasures are especially to be avoided by all those who reverence their Lord, and remember of what Good Friday is the solemn memorial. It is a day of Church-going, and it will be found that the Good Friday services are very {125} impressive, solemn and soul-stirring. The Proper Psalms are the 22d, 40th and 54th in Morning Prayer, and the 69th and 88th for Evening Prayer. ”

“ It's Friday. Why?" He replied, "Because it is so still. Did you ever see a place where people live that is so completely silent?" "It reminds me of London on Good Friday—everybody gone to church," said another.
We drove on. A block along the main street a soldier in the French uniform of the line lounged in a doorway. His long blue overcoat flapped desolately over his baggy red trousers. His rifle leaned in the corner. We asked if any hotel remained open. He replied, "I don't know. Have you a cigarette?" I drew out a box and he ran to the car, seizing it as a hungry animal snatches food. ”

“ In the houses of some ignorant people, a Good Friday bun is still kept “for luck,” and sometimes there hangs from the ceiling a hard biscuit-like cake of open cross-work, baked on a Good Friday, to remain there till displaced on the next Good Friday by one of similar make; and of this the editor of the Every-Day Book [405, 406] has heard affirmed, that “it preserves the house from fire;” “no fire ever happened in a house that had one.” This undoubtedly is a relic of the old superstition ”

“ Friday’s a day as’ll have his trick The fairest or foulest day o’ the wik (Shr.) , cp. ‘Selde is the Fryday al the wyke i-like,’ Chaucer, Knightes Tale, l. 681. It is very unlucky to start out on a journey; to remove from one house to another; to enter upon a new service; or to set a hen on a Friday, but specially unlucky is it to begin new undertakings on Good Friday. [Pg 222] If clothes are washed that day some member of the family will die before the year is out. A Yorkshire superstition holds that if clothes are hung out to dry that day they will be taken in spotted with blood. ”

“ Good Friday is a day of mourning and penance, for on that day sin caused the death of the Incarnate Son of God. On the sixth day of Creation God made man; and on the sixth day of the week, God Incarnate redeemed fallen man.
A summary of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sufferings of our Blessed Lord were caused by men, Jews, Gentiles and even His own apostles (Peter and Judas) ; by the light which revealed His nakedness; and by the air which inflamed His wounds. ”

“ A clerk issuing forth on his exclusive Good Friday must in vain [I-695,
I-696] attempt to be merry, unless he is a very merry person at other times. He must be oppressed with a sense of all the rest of the year. He cannot have time to smile before he has to be grave again. It is a difference, a dream, a wrench, a lay-sabbath, any thing but a holiday. There was a Greek philosopher, who, when he was asked on his death-bed what return could be made him for the good he had done his country, requested that all the little boys might have a holiday on the anniversary of his birth-day. ”

“ Therefore p. 18Good Friday was well and wisely called by our forefathers Good Friday; because it shews, as no other day can do, that God is good; that God’s will to men, in spite of all their sins, is a good will; that so boundless, so utterly unselfish and condescending, is the eternal love of God, that when an insignificant race in a small and remote planet fell, and went wrong, and was in danger of ruin, there was nothing that God would not dare, God would not suffer, for the sake of even such as us, vile earth and miserable sinners.
Yes, this is the good news of Passion-week ”

“ Fric′tion-wheels, wheels that lessen friction. [Fr.,—L. frictionem—fricāre, frictum, to rub.]
Friday, frī′dā, n. the sixth day of the week.—Black Friday, Good Friday, from the black vestments of the clergy and altar in the Western Church: any Friday marked by a great calamity; Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, kept in commemoration of the Crucifixion; Holy Friday, Friday in an ember-week—also Golden Friday, sometimes put for Good Friday itself. [A.S. Frígedæg, day of (the goddess) Fríg—Latinised Frigga—wife of Odin.] ”

“ Most men and women cherish a superstitious fear of it, and this opinion has existed since the first Good Friday. Many will never embark upon any enterprise of importance; there are fewer marriages on this day than any other, and sailors are averse to sailing on Friday. Many are the tales they tell of vessels which put to sea on a Friday, and were never heard of again. If all the bank or financial crashes of the last century were counted up, it would be found that Friday supplied the greatest number. A lengthy list could be added to prove that Friday is a day of bad luck. ”

“ You children, however, do not think of rings upon Good Friday; it is much better to think of hot cross buns. If you ask how it is that buns came to be eaten on this day I cannot answer. All that can be said is that bread, in one or another form, has always formed part of religious observances; and it may be that the spicy buns which you eat on Good Friday are connected with a religion that is older than Christianity. All things change, you know, and even the desire for hot cross buns is not so great as it used to be when people struggled in crowds at the doors of the famous Chelsea bun-houses. ”

“ He, the Son of God, endured poverty, fear, shame, agony, death for thee, that He might be touched with the feeling of thine infirmity, and help thee to endure, and bring thee safe through all to victory and peace.
But again, Passion-week, and above all Good Friday, is a good time, because it teaches us, above all days, what it is to be good, and what goodness means. Therefore remember this, all of you, and take it home with you for the year to come. He who has learnt the lesson of Passion-week, and practises it; he and he only is a good man. ”

“ Just because it is sweeping day is no reason for turning the family into a whole flock of Noah's doves, with no place for the soles of their feet. It is very easy to transform black Friday into good Friday by a little judicious manipulation of the household helm. The cleaning, in addition to the routine work, is about all Friday can hold, without crowding. ”

“ In all English houses,” he says, “both private and public (to which latter great part of the people went for their meals) all kinds of meat roasted and boiled, are seen on Fridays, Good Friday not excepted, as if it were a land of Jews or Turks. The nobles in particular reserve their feasts and entertainments of all kinds of meats and delicacies for Fridays. It is the sport of the great, and their sort of piety, to testify by these sacrileges their hatred to the Roman church.” ”

“ As an evidence that vanity is not entirely absent, on Holy Thursday it is customary for men and women to turn out in good clothes and many of the ladies appear in handsome and elaborate gowns. Then on Good Friday everything is changed and the whole country mourns. ”

“ The superstitious frequently preserved Good Friday buns from year to year, from the belief of their efficacy in the cure of diseases. And Poor Robin, in his Almanack for 1753, says:
"Whose virtue is, if you'll believe what's said,
They'll not grow mouldy like the common bread."
[Pg 179]
The poorer people of Offenham will by no means allow any washing to be about on a Good Friday, which would be considered the forerunner of much ill-luck. At Cutnal Green it is thought that if you do not empty your lie tub on Good Friday, you will have bad luck in the ensuing year. ”

“ Good Friday has now almost ceased to be considered a fast by a great number of people. By many indeed its solemn significance is by no means neglected; but while these attend the churches others make high holiday. On this day excursion trains begin running, foot-races are advertised, donkeys and gipsy drivers make their first appearance for the season on heaths and commons, and Cornish and Devonshire wrestlers struggle for muscular triumphs in the presence of excited multitudes.—N. & Q. 5th S. vol. ”

“ Then the whole of Christmas Day and Good Friday, besides eight half-days, are to be granted every year to children and young persons for holidays and half-holidays, and a variety of other stipulations into which it is needless to enter, manifest the same consideration for the health, enjoyment, and comfort of the little slaves, and reflect great credit upon the legislature for the wisdom and benevolence by which they have been dictated. ”

“ Six days as well as Friday, companions brave and strong; it really seems they all deserve a tribute and a song. So here's to good Man Friday, and to his brothers six. There's always one to help me should I be in a fix. ”

“ They were wise men who, for all futurity, connected with certain dates the outstanding events of the sacred history, the memory of great saints, confessors and martyrs. Probably we of the Nonconformist pulpits might here learn a lesson in homiletic tactics from our friends of the Roman and Anglican churches. There should only be one subject for Good Friday ”

“ SPEAKING of Friday and the mystery of luck. Luck is supposed to shift in one direction or another on the sixth day of every week in the year. It is supposed to shift for everybody. A great many people are either too ignorant or too supercilious to acknowledge this vast and oppressive truth, however. They regard Friday as a plain, ordinary day, and go on being fatuously optimistic. ”

“ There are stifling, sticky, sweltering. Sundays in midsummer when one prays, if he can pray at all, for the night to come. And there are blustering, rainy, sleety, dismal, Sundays in the fall when the dead hours go in funeral procession by and the world seems a gloomy tomb. But a Sunday in blossoming time! That is different! The very milk wagons, as they clattered, belated, down the street rattled a cheery note of fellowship and good will. The long drawn call of the paper boy had in it a hint of the joy of living. And the rumble of an occasional passing cab came like a deep undertone of peace. ”

“ One of my gravest superstitions concerns Fridays. I was born on a Friday, and ever since I was old enough to know anything at all I've regarded Friday as especially momentous. And you'd be surprised if I told you how many important things have befallen me on Friday. ”

“ You have all spoken well, my sisters, and each one has some claim to be the best day of the week. How fine it is that every day holds some special joy in work or play! But you all know the highest joy is mine. I am named for the golden sun that gives light to the world. On Sunday men think of the inner light that makes them love the good and the true and persuades them to do right. ”

“ Thursday I regard as one who ploughs steadily on his way, lacking enthusiasm but comfortably conscious of a second wind; Friday is a debilitated but hopeful toiler, whose sole joy in his work lies in anticipating its speedy conclusion ”

“ Again, it is more meritorious to give on a Thursday, as the eve of the Friday holiday, or on the eve of a feast, than on an ordinary day; and lastly, the people expect that they will amass more merit by giving microscopic sums to all comers than by giving more effective assistance to a limited number. ”

“ Why?”
“Because I allowed the Durande to return on Fridays.”
M. Jaquemin Hérode whispered in Caudray’s ear:
“This man is superstitious.”
He resumed, raising his voice, and in a didactic tone:
“Mess Lethierry, it is puerile to believe in Fridays. You ought not to put faith in fables. Friday is a day just like any other. It is very often a propitious day. ”

“ Wednesday is to be fasted, because then the Jews conspired to betray Jesus; Friday, because he then suffered for us. We keep the Lord’s Day as a day of joy, because then our Lord rose. Our tradition is, not to kneel on that day. ”

“ These industrious women, panting with the enthusiasm of work, enjoy Saturday more than any other day of the week. The enjoyment springs from various causes. There is first the delight that comes from a vigorous exercise of the muscles. This pleasure is heightened by the knowledge that the work is for a good end, and that on Sunday the house will be resplendent, immaculate, and peaceful. ”

“ Pomegranates you may cut deep down the middle and see into, but not hearts,—so why should I try and speak?
Friday is best day because nearest, but Saturday is next best—it is next near, you know: if I get no note, therefore, Friday is my day. ”

“ He who calls Friday his natal day shall be of a strong constitution, and perhaps addicted to the pleasures of love.
Saturday is another ill-omened day; most children born on this day will be of heavy, dull, and dogged disposition. ”