Happy Friday!

Today’s Friday. It’s in the same place as on the weekly calendar, every week two days before the last day (Sunday) – or maybe, if you think of Sunday starting the week, then it’s only one day away, but I think of the weekend being two days, Saturday and Sunday, so Friday is two days before the last day (Sunday).

So why is Friday called “Easter” Friday? Or “Good” Friday? I read a BBC article which said

“according to Fiona MacPherson, senior editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, the adjective traditionally ‘designates a day on (or sometimes a season in) which religious observance is held’. The OED states that ‘good’ in this context refers to ‘a day or season observed as holy by the church’, hence the greeting ‘good tide’ at Christmas or on Shrove Tuesday. In addition to Good Friday, there is also a less well-known Good Wednesday, namely the Wednesday before Easter.”

Say what?? Why is Christmas not called “Good Christmas” or “Good whatever-the-day”? Why is Shrove not called “Good Shrove” or “Good whatever-the-day”? Why do religious people seem to think that their Jesus was killed on the Friday? How come Easter moves a lot more than Christmas moves?

I wonder if many religious people understand how Easter is set from Friday to Monday, inclusive, but it moves from March to April and back again? Well, some articles say that it’s based on the Sunday after the full moon (we saw a huge pink moon, a ‘super moon’ last week!). Yet it seems that the calendar has changed – from Gregorian to Julian – so what do religious people place on this change? Did their god recommend it? Or order it? The moons are Paschal – so why do religious people accept that this relates to their Jesus?

But wait!! The resurrection of Jesus is apparently after the Jewish Passover! The religious Learn Religions website says

“At the heart of the matter lies a simple explanation. Easter is a movable feast. The earliest believers in the church of Asia Minor wished to keep the observance of Easter correlated to the Jewish Passover. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ happened after the Passover, so followers wanted Easter always to be celebrated after the Passover. And, since the Jewish holiday calendar is based on solar and lunar cycles, each feast day is movable, with dates shifting from year to year.”

Do you religious people understand this? How does god work with calendars and full moons and lunar and solar cycles? How do you? Or do you think that the human use of lunar and solar cycles is based on god-creation rather than based on evolution? Who came up with them?

The Australian Academy of Science says

·         Different cultures around the world have developed systems to mark the passage of time and record significant events.

·         Many of these systems are based on astronomical observations of the sun, moon and stars.

·         Other calendar systems, such as those of many Indigenous Australian communities, are based on climatic and ecological observations.

NASA says that the first lunar calendar was found in cave art in France and Germany more than 32,000 years BC!

 But New York Times says

“Each calendar reveals something about how the people who created it relate to the world around them while also preserving rich cultural identities and memories.”

  

“Culture”, “identities” and “memories” are so very different between the religions, don’t you think?

So, back to my original question: why is Friday called “Easter” Friday or “Good” Friday? There’s no reason, other than christian religion. If you know that, then maybe you can be forgiven for celebrating this Friday.