I just can’t get used to this. The MOST IMPORTANT day in Christianity and it is NOT a holiday.
I get caught out each year BECAUSE the STOCK MARKET is closed. My life revolves around the stock market because I TRADE every day. SMILE. Terrible thing … addiction. I am addicted to trading. It could be worse. I could addicted to something that costs money.
I saw mail being delivered. I was taken aback — though we now have USPS parcel delivery on Sundays thanks to Amazon.
But, I had to check. Good Friday is NOT a federal holiday. How can that be.
Growing up, in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) & in the U.K., both Good Friday & Easter Monday were holidays. 4-day holiday.
Click to ENLARGE. From an Excel Spreadsheet I maintain.
IF you know your Christianity you appreciate that the two holidays are related & as such it is no great surprise that they can — or should — overlap or coincide.
For those that haven’t thought about it the Crucifixion happened just after Passover. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for Passover. The last supper is believed to have a Passover connection.
Hence the connection. In early Christianity Easter was celebrated at the same time as the Passover.
Easter Sunday, per the ‘latest’ formula, can fall between March 22 (the day after the nominal ‘March 21’ Spring Equinox) and April 25.
However, Easter Sunday can NEVER COINCIDE with the start of Passover! The formula used to calculate Easter has this built-in.
So, it is always GOOD FRIDAY that can coincide with the start of Passover — and never Easter per se.
They coincided last year, i.e., Christian Good Friday & the start of the Jewish Passover falling on the same day (which, of course, has to be a FRIDAY). This happens more often that you probably realized. It happened back-to-back, in 2018 & then 2019. Do you remember that? It had also happened in 2012 & 2015.
It will happen again in 2029.
Not so this year, i.e., 2023. Passover started two days BEFORE Good Friday.
The Passover holiday is celebrated over 7 days. So, Passover this year will overlap Easter. That is quite common. Again, remember the CONNECTION.
Click to ENLARGE. School of ‘Hans Memling’ c. 1510. From ‘Wikipedia Commons‘. Good Friday MIDDLE. Easter on right & birth on left.
Click to ENLARGE.
The U.S. has NO — I repeat ‘NO’ — Federal Holiday for Easter, though the stock markets are closed.
Good Friday is not deemed a Federal Holiday — & neither is Easter Monday, i.e., the day after Easter Sunday (in lieu of Sunday).
In many countries in the world, especially in Europe, Easter is a 4-day National Holiday. This was even the case in Ceylon when I was growing up.
But, not so, in supposedly very Christian U.S.
I saw the local school bus go by this morning. That still amazes I. School on Good Friday. But, the stock market, is closed (& when folks used to tell me that Wall St. was run by Jews). We had mail. So the post office is working. Very strange. I, however, though we are not Christians, gave my daughter the day off from homeschooling. I can’t get used to Good Friday not being a holiday.
Good Friday, IF you think about it, is the MOST SIGNIFICANT DAY In The Whole Of Human History!
What happened on a ‘Friday‘, nearly 2,000 years ago, forever & indelibly changed the course of human history.
No other event has been so consequential.
Yes, I gave this a lot of thought.
What was the most significant event, ever, that changed the course of human history?
One way or another, whether you like it or not, it has to Jesus!
You could argue that in that case the day should be the day he was born.
Alas, we don’t know when that was! Christmas is a totally fabricated holiday.
Hence Good Friday. The day he died. Easter the day he was resurrected. Easter follows from Good Friday. Hence, my claim that it is a two-part Holiday: Good Friday & Easter.
IF you don’t agree and have other contenders PLEASE let me know. It will help me in my thinking.
The U.S. has NO — I repeat ‘NO’ — Federal Holiday for Easter.
Good Friday is not deemed a Federal Holiday — & neither is Easter Monday, i.e., the day after Easter Sunday (in lieu of Sunday). In many countries in the world, especially in Europe, Easter is a 4-day National Holiday. This was even the case in Ceylon when I was growing up.
But, not so, in supposedly very Christian U.S.
I saw the local school bus go by this morning. That still amazes I. School on Good Friday. But, the stock market, is closed (& when folks used to tell me that Wall St. was run by Jews). We had mail. So the post office is working. Very strange. I, however, though we are not Christians, gave my daughter the day off from homeschooling. I can’t get used to Good Friday not being a holiday.
Good Friday, IF you think about it, is the MOST SIGNIFICANT DAY In The Whole Of Human History!
What happened on a ‘Friday‘, nearly 2,000 years ago, forever & indelibly changed the course of human history.
No other event has been so consequential.
Yes, I gave this a lot of thought.
What was the most significant event, ever, that changed the course of human history?
One way or another, whether you like it or not, it has to Jesus!
You could argue that in that case the day should be the day he was born.
Alas, we don’t know when that was! Christmas is a totally fabricated holiday.
Hence Good Friday. The day he died. Easter the day he was resurrected. Easter follows from Good Friday. Hence, my claim that it is a two-part Holiday: Good Friday & Easter.
IF you don’t agree and have other contenders PLEASE let me know. It will help me in my thinking.
Click to ENLARGE. Years when Good Friday & Passover coincide.
Click to ENLARGE.
This happens more often that you probably realized, i.e., Christian Good Friday & the start of the Jewish Passover falling on the same day (which, of course, has to be a FRIDAY).
It happened back-to-back, in 2018 & then 2019. Do you remember that? It had also happened in 2012 & 2015. So, this is the 5th time in the last 11 years.
However, given that the two holidays are related it should not come as a great surprise that they do fall, close together.
For those that haven’t thought about it the Crucifixion happened just after Passover. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for Passover. The last supper is believed to have a Passover connection.
Hence the connection. In early Christianity Easter was celebrated at the same time as the Passover. So that they fall together, per a now very convoluted and artificial formula used by the Western Church, is to be expected.
Easter Sunday, per the ‘latest’ formula, can fall between March 22 (the day after the nominal ‘March 21’ Spring Equinox) and April 25.
However, Easter Sunday can NEVER COINCIDE with the start of Passover! The formula used to calculate Easter has this built-in.
So, it is always GOOD FRIDAY that can coincide with the start of Passover — and never Easter per se.
