How Do You Observe Good Friday?

ProGoddess · Apr 19, 2019

Thank you for this thread and everyone's sharing on how Good Friday is being observed in different churches.

I went to church in the morning. The scripture of the day was on Psalms 22.The pastor shared and encouraged us - not to feel despaired and lost hope in times of our troubles, no matter how bad the situation was, but to persevere with our trust in the Lord and with our prayers. I felt so much hope and encouragement and thank God for always being with me all the time - just like He did for David, and for His beloved son, Jesus.

As we observe this day on our Lord's sacrifice for us on the cross, let us remember His goodness and mercy that endures forever, and He will reign in our lives.

I herein pray for everyone, Christians and non-Christians, to be showered with His love, peace and joy.
Blessing! :amen:

worshipjunkie · Apr 19, 2019

I went with a friend to a service advertised on FB that was a joint service with two small churches that turned out to be at a small conservative Lutheran church. It had Scripture readings, other readings, hymns. There was a candle up by the Cross that was extinguished at the end of the service, and you had the option of writing a prayer, a confession, or what have you and nailing it to the cross. It was very peaceful and calming and got you focused on the Passion of Jesus. My friend had never been to anything even remotely liturgical before, so it was really different for her. I had never been to a Lutheran church before, but it was a little more familiar for me.

PloverWing · Apr 20, 2019

worshipjunkie said:
There was a candle up by the Cross that was extinguished at the end of the service, and you had the option of writing a prayer, a confession, or what have you and nailing it to the cross.

I've never heard of this particular practice -- writing a prayer or confession and nailing it to the cross. I really like that image, all our confessions nailed to the cross.

ChristianGirl_96 · Apr 20, 2019

The same way I celebrate 4th of July. We are gathering for our annual church picnic lunch at a local park tomorrow morning. There will also be a Easter egg hunt for the children and other games for this adults.

ProGoddess · Apr 20, 2019

Easter egg hunt seem to be popular. How is it related to the Lord's resurrection, I wonder?

Messerve · Apr 20, 2019

~Anastasia~ said:
We have amazing services. There is a prayer and hymn service in the morning. Later we have a service focusing on the Crucifixion, and Christ being removed from the Cross. Little girls in the Church usually get to volunteer (the myrhh-bearers) wearing white dresses - they sprinkle the epitaphios with rose petals. (The epitaphios is the "tomb of Christ" ... it's a piece of furniture really - usually very beautiful and it is decorated with fresh flowers for Holy Friday) ... the large image of Christ that usually is in the altar all year is removed from the cross, wrapped in a white sheet, and laid in the epitaphios. (Later it is replaced with a cloth version showing the burial of Christ, that normally hangs on the front of the choir loft most of the year.) We venerate the empty Cross. In another service in the evening, we all gather and sing lamentations. We take the decorated epitaphios outside and process it around the block, with all the faithful following carrying funeral candles and singing "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, Have mercy on us". And at the doors of the Church the epitaphios is held up and we all duck under it going in, as we were immersed in the water for baptism. After the end of the service, everyone received a flower from Christ's tomb to take home.

Most of the day is very solemn and very sad. The entire week feels like reliving Christ's last days, from the Triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, right through the joyous Resurrection (that's an even better service!). So it's very emotional and very sad, but we know the celebration is coming and that His death and resurrection made the way for our eternal life.

And ours hasn't happened yet. We calculate the Resurrection differently from the west, so it can be on a different day. Holy Friday is next week for us. So we begin our dive into the whole thing in about ... nine hours from now. (I always feel Lazarus Saturday is the start.) I'm very excited!!!

Wow, that's really a fascinating tradition. Thank you for sharing!

Messerve · Apr 20, 2019

ProGoddess said:
Easter egg hunt seem to be popular. How is it related to the Lord's resurrection, I wonder?

Eggs represent new life - a chick emerging from an egg being used as a subtle reference to Jesus emerging from the tomb.

~Anastasia~ · Apr 23, 2019

Messerve said:
Wow, that's really a fascinating tradition. Thank you for sharing!

Welcome. Pretty behind in CF because we are into Holy Week now. It's glorious so far (but sad too of course).

~Anastasia~ · Apr 23, 2019

ProGoddess said:
Easter egg hunt seem to be popular. How is it related to the Lord's resurrection, I wonder?

There is also the story of Mary Magdalene who visited the Emperor and told him the Gospel. He replied that a man could no more come back from the dead than that egg could turn red ... and the egg instantly turned red. We usually portray Mary Magdalene in icons with a red egg in her hands. And we dye eggs for Pascha and everyone receives one, but we only dye them red.

I guess all the colors came in later in the west, and it all probably got connected with chicks, flowers, and lambs as because of spring and the connections to the Christian and natural meaning as well.

As for bunnies ... well that part is probably a bit of a corruption connected due to fertility and those pagan spring connotations. But they would mesh well in many people's minds with chicks, lambs, flowers, and spring. So I think most people see nothing sinister there.

Traditions can change over time and things get added on. This is one thing I appreciate about being able to trace the real meanings.

Francis Drake · Apr 23, 2019

I try to avoid pagan celebrations like the festival of the goddess Ishtar.

~Anastasia~ · Apr 23, 2019

Francis Drake said:
I try to avoid pagan celebrations like the festival of the goddess Ishtar.

There's pretty much a pseudo-history added to greatly by Hislop where that idea comes from, but since each person must act according to their own conscience I'm not trying to persuade you otherwise.

As long as we do not condemn others who regard days as Holy ... especially since the celebration of the Resurrection long preceded any such notions.

God be with you.

Francis Drake · Apr 24, 2019

~Anastasia~ said:
As long as we do not condemn others who regard days as Holy ... especially since the celebration of the Resurrection long preceded any such notions.

Celebrations of the pagan gods such as Ishtar the Queen of Heaven, (note the title) were the norm thousands of years before Christ and continued long after Christ.
So to claim that celebrating the resurrection preceded them is very silly indeed.

~Anastasia~ · Apr 24, 2019

Francis Drake said:
Celebrations of the pagan gods such as Ishtar the Queen of Heaven, (note the title) were the norm thousands of years before Christ and continued long after Christ.
So to claim that celebrating the resurrection preceded them is very silly indeed.

This is not the place for such debates. If you're interested, I suggest you look for actual historical evidence. There isn't any, mind you. Just one mention of the name by Bede and he provides no commentary or additional info. It's all fabricated - mostly by Hislop.

What I meant is that the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ was begun by the early Christians - long before Bede and certainly before Hislop. There is no more ancient knowledge of any "Ishtar".

The early name for the celebration was "Pascha" (from Passover). It still goes by that name in Eastern Christianity today. The similarity of the name "Easter" in western languages does NOT mean that the Resurrection of Christ was in anyway connected to any goddess in ancient Christianity. It's a fabricated link on the most tenuous evidence possible.

As I said, you must follow your own conscience. I'm NOT condemning you for that. I believed it at one time too. I'm providing the info for the sake of the thread.

God be with you.

Jonathan Mathews · May 4, 2019

I call it "Black Friday". The day the Sun went black.

How Do You Observe Good Friday?

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