Why Do They Call It Good Friday Despite the Tragedy?

[fargoth]

why "good" firday?

i was just learning the history of alaska (sometimes i feel an urge to learn about distant lands, last time it was georgia (not the US state)).

and i got to the part of good friday's earthquake, the greatest earthquake recorded in north america and third greatest earthquake recorded in the whole world.

131 people died, $1.8 billion in 2006 U.S. dollars and $65 million in 2006 Canadian dollars damage was done.

why the hell do they call it GOOD friday?!

uhh, ignore this post... it got posted twice, and anyway i found out why it was called that way

 

[Hootenanny]

Good friday to me means the day that Christ was crucified. The friday before easter.

~H

 

[Pengwuino]

The most obvious explanation is that people tend to call things like this with names associated with the day it happened if there is one. Example: St. Valentines Day Massacre.

And if those weren't the actual days both those things happened, then i don't know.

 

[heartless]

Good friday to me means the day that Christ was crucified. The friday before easter.

~H

If somebody was killed, why the hell "good"?

 

[Astronuc]

These explain it in some detail, but it is basically the Friday before Easter Sunday -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06643a.htm

Because of the uncertainty of the day and year of the original event, and the fact that people in Jerusalem used a lunar calendar, the date shifts each year in the modern solar calendar.

As for why it is good -

Mainstream Christian churches view Christ's crucifixion as a voluntary and vicarious act, and one by which, along with resurrection on the third day, death itself was conquered.

In Palestine, Jesus' birthplace, it is known as "Sad Friday." In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria (and Eastern Orthodox Church in general) the day is called Great Friday.

Wikipedia

 

[arildno]

In Norwegian it is called the "Long Friday" (a long day of suffering, essentially)