What do people actually do on Good Friday?

[lightningandsnow]

You'll have to forgive me. I'm Jewish, and my parents never told me this stuff. :P

[Symarip]

1. K&R'd

[mainegreen]

2. skip work, evidently.

This place is *empty*.

[dembotoz]

6. good time for a few web based trainig clasese i have been putting off

2 down
2 to go
and then i are ceritifiable.


Yawn
they really are horrid

[DeepBlueC]

3. church at 3:00 p.m.

[TZ]

8. Yeah a coworker mentioned something about wanting to go to church

and I gave her a :wtf: look...Jewish atheist..I'm clueless..:rofl:

[Beer Snob-50]

4. eat only one meal for the day

and not eat any meat at all. also at 3:00 you are supposed to stop what you are doing in honor of that being the hour when Jesus died. Any more questions, go see Sister Mary Elephant.

[Wapsie B]

5. Just hanging around with the boys.

Hey, I can see my house from here!

[redwitch]

7. I know what they're NOT doing. Buying beer between 12-3 in NY grocery stores

My son the beer geek was very indignant. :-)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. As an Episcopalian, I go to an evening church service

The altar has been stripped bare of its cloth and other accoutrements at the end of the Maundy Thursday service, and the cross is draped in black.

Unlike any other service:

1) There is no organ music. The choir leads the hymn singing by singing in parts.

2) The choir wears just cassocks (we wear purple cassocks because we're a cathedral, but other churches have black cassocks), no surplice/cotta (those white over-robes)

3) The priests wear very plain vestments

The story of the crucifixion is read. Communion is not celebrated, but at some churches, they consecrate extra on Maundy Thursday and you can receive "leftovers."

The choir and clergy walk in and leave in silence.

All in all, it's an extremely solemn service.

Catholics and more high-church Episcopalians do Stations of the Cross, in which there are prayers and readings at 12 stations around the church, each representing a part of the crucifixion story.

Some Catholics and high-church Episcopalians (and Orthodox, too, I believe) fast from Maundy Thursday night till the first mass of Easter.

[CreekDog]

13. Lutherans do those as well

Maundy Thursday
Good Friday (type of service depends on the congregation itself)
and Easter Vigil (haven't been to one of those yet)

[Shell Beau]

30. Lutheran is very similar to Episcopal I believe.

[tigereye]

15. I miss the Stations on the Cross- Good Friday was always a very powerful

service, and I still think about it during the day, despite not having been a churchgoer for years.


When I was a kid all the stores in my town would close between 12 and 3pm.

[Shell Beau]

23. I grew up Episcopalian and just recently converted to Methodist.

They are quite similar. Though at Communion, we do grape juice! x(

[Manifestor_of_Light]

25. Presbys do curb service with real wine!!

Don't have to get up and go to the altar, and use real wine!!

[Critters2]

26. Depends on the congregation. All my Presby colleagues

are now doing intinction.

[Shell Beau]

27. We do go to the alter, but we do not kneel like we did in my

Episcopal church. And we dip our bread into the juice instead of sipping the wine.

[johnnie]

28. In my church we use V8

Gives it a bit more realism.

[Shell Beau]

29. Plus you aren't leaning sideways anymore!

:7

[edbermac]

10. My taxes.

x(

[Iggo]

17. Oh shit, that's right!!!

Thanks for the reminder!:thumbsup:

[rcrush]

11. get baked.

Isnt that why its called Good Friday?

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

12. If you're a practicing Catholic

you pray and do a Rosary during the Stations of the Cross. Each of those things would require more time to explain than we have now :)
Which explains why I no longer participate in the Catholic religion.

[MrPerson]

14. In the old days Jews stayed inside on Good Friday.

The Bad Old days.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Barricade the doorway, load shotguns, stock up on foodstuffs.

At least that's what we do at our house.

[cherish44]

18. Same thing I do every Friday

Not work! (yay I have Fridays off!)

[bikebloke]

19. It's not a good Friday.

On my way to work, my crank snapped off right at the pedal. Yeah damnshitfuck! It was close to work though. But now I have to walk home via the bike shop. And I know they won't have a crank in the shop. A mechanic told me they use the parts distributors as parts bins. So it will have to be ordered, before I can curse and swear while replacing it. So on the hoof for a bit. Did I say damnshitfuck! yet?

[jobycom]

20. We can't tell you, then. But it's good. nt

[lilyreally]

21. Coffee to keyboard spit.

hahahaha :)

[Raven]

22. Well...there are the Stations of the Cross and the Three Hour Silence.

In the Catholic Church, this was the way to track Jesus' passion and crucifixion. Followed on Saturday by a glorious ceremony of rising from the dead and the washing of the feet of beggars. My God! What a load of crap! I'm sorry to offend anybody but, as I was following along with this as a kid, some little boy was being fondled by a priest.

[old mark]

24. When I was working I thought every Friday was a "good Friday"

because I had the weekend off.

Catholic school - we had to go to church for a very somber service.

I believe Catholics are REQUIRED to attend church over Easter, at least they were in the past.

mark

[LeftyMom]

31. "Oh fuck, I need to get my kid's easter crap while he's at his father's house."

DO NOT ASK ME WHAT A GODDAMN DAIRY FREE CHOCOLATE RABBIT COSTS. :grr:

[Shell Beau]

32. Do they hike up the prices?

I bet they do.

[LeftyMom]

34. $9.99 Organic, fair trade chocolate from free range beans that got to run around and do yoga

But still... $10.

[Shell Beau]

35. That is pretty steep!

[Critters2]

33. As a mainline Protestant (UCC) my congregation doesn't have its own service,

but we participate in a community Good Friday service planned and led by clergy from the local ministerial association. Today, I read the Hebrew Bible text from Isaiah 53, and then a United Methodist pastor preached. His sermon was classic substiutionary atonement doctrine, which I don't believe in. Clergy were sitting on the chancel, facing the congregation, so I had to make an effort not to cringe from time-to-time during his sermon.

I've never, in 22 years, served a church that had its own Good Friday service. They've all done this community thing. But I'm getting so tired of having to sit through sermons of questionable theology that we may do our own next year. In the evening, so people can also go to the community one at noon if they want (and I'd do both).

Liberal Protestants have trouble with Good Friday, because it's been presented as this sacrificial nonsense, which liberals don't buy. So, they don't do much with it, and just come on Easter.

[KatyMan]

37. Question...

because it's been presented as this sacrificial nonsense

Just curious, what does that mean? Not being rude, but as a Catholic, we don't get exposed much to Protestanthink :)

[Critters2]

41. Well, my views aren't typical of Protestants,

which is why I spend whole ecumenical services cringing.

Most Christians, Catholic and Protestant, (though not the Orthodox) think the Passion was a sacrifice to meet some requirement set by God on behalf of human beings. That somehow we are saved from God's wrath by Jesus' murder. I don't believe this. I think Jesus was just one more victim of human scapegoating violence. God's only role in it was sending the Holy Spirit to strenghten him through it, which I also think happens for any human caught up in humanity's violent ways. God didn't kill Jesus and didn't want Jesus killed. Humans are fully responsible for the death of Jesus.

But, Jesus spent 3 years teaching his followers about empathy for victims, about the dangers of violence, about living peacefully with one another. He also taught his followers what was truly pleasing to God (not violent sacrifice, btw), so that at his death they could see the evil they had done by not standing up to the crowd, but not speaking out for justice and peace. After his death and resurrection, his followers committed themselves to working for these values. And they did pretty well until Constantine tied the Church to human culture and its violence again.

Again, my views are not typical of Protestants. Some would call me heretical. So, don't take me as some model of Protestantism. Happily, I belong to a liberal Church where I can get away with such things.:)

Here's a pretty good summation of my views: http://preachingpeace.org/jesus.htm

[Dulcinea]

36. Stations of the Cross, if you're Catholic.

It's like calisthenics--you stand, kneel, & sit alternately while the priest goes through the crucifixion timeline.

When I was growing up, we kept the house quiet between noon and 3 pm (my mother went to Catholic schools all her life, & took that kind of thing very seriously.)

But I'm no longer a practicing Catholic, so I took my kids outside to play today, & tonight's dinner menu features spaghetti & meatballs.

[Iris]

38. When my mom was a kid, they sat in silence in their living room from 12:00pm-3:00pm

I think there was also some kind of horrid meal - of like onions and some kind of bean. But that may have been a special Christmas Eve dinner.

They were Catholic-serious.

[trof]

39. I just try to be really, really good.

So far...so good.
:rofl:

[hippywife]

40. If you're me you only work half a day

and then go do the grocery shopping like you do every other week of the year. :hi:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

42. Serious answer?

I've grown up in the Catholic church. (I'm nonreligious to say the least, though culturally Catholic.) To practicing Catholics, Good Friday is possibly an even bigger deal than Easter...the whole notions of sacrifice and whatever.

http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/friday.php

Good stuff there on Catholicism and Good Friday. I vividly remember the veneration of the cross in particular: long lines of the congregation coming to kiss the cross and worship Jesus. Long service, very solemn and silent. Everything is stripped down; the priests are in sober colors.

[begin_within]

43. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are

the three Lenten customs in the Catholic church. Good Friday is the most "intense" with fasting, and usually a visit to church. Most churches have "Stations of the Cross" in the afternoon, where you walk from one to the next station, each one depicting one scene in the passion and crucifixion of Jesus. There are 14 stations. The rest of the day you just spend quietly, pray, eat little (no meat), basically just mourn for the loss of Jesus the man, and prepare mentally for the good news coming that is Easter. Many churches also have a "Passion" which is some kind of re-enactment of the passion and crucifixion of Jesus, which may include actors and costumes in the more elaborate versions, or may just be readings and mournful songs and communion. It's basically a sad, solemn day, so I don't know why it is called "Good" Friday, it's more like "Dark Friday." Oh, and the Catholic churches are stripped bare - no flowers or candles anywhere, and no dishes of holy water at the doors. Churches are relatively dark, quiet and unadorned. In contrast, Easter Sunday will have the church full of flowers and festivities.

[Inchworm]

44. Good Fridays used to involve...

:bounce::bounce:

and

:beer:

:)