Good Friday

I think Britain is alone in Europe in calling this day "Good Friday". The derivation of the name is unknown, though 2 main arguments are offered, I believe.

1. In Greek and in other Romance languages, Fridays generally were at one time designated as "Holy Friday", and it may be that the term is mean to indicate holiness.

2. It may be derived from "***'s Friday" - as "*** be wi

The Anglo-Saxons brought their own Teutonic religion to Britain. Among their gods were Tiu, the *** of war, Woden, king of heaven, Thor, the *** of Storms, and Freya, goddess of peace. The names Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday derive from these gods.

From this context, we can see that Friday is derived from Freya, the goddess of peace, in the Teutonic religion. Hope this is h

Maybe all Fridays should be labelled (one or 2 l's?) as "good", and THE Good Friday as "best", since the following Monday is also a holiday!
By the way, I thought (and am pretty sure) Freya was the goddess of fertility... There's something left of it in French, we use the verb "frayer" when certain animals reproduce. Frogs.

Godess of love and fertility she is.

Dear Abbie,

you wrote that Britain is alone in Europe in calling this day "Good Friday", but as a Dutch person, I can tell you that that's not true. In the Netherlands we also call this day good friday (goede vrijdag) and just like in Britain friday/vijdag is named after goddess Freya.

I know this doesn't really answer the question of the derivation of the name, but it does sh

Thanks, Guest. In Germany it is called "Charfreitag " "Sorrowful Friday", and I think that in other European countries it is Holy Friday, but let's wait and see what others have to say.

In French speaking countries, it's the "vendredi saint", "Holy Friday".

In Germany, it is called "Karfreitag" (with a k instead of ch, Abbie).

INTERESTINGLY, this prefix "Kar-" is derived from an old word "Kara" which is related to the English word "care", mainly in its meaning "be worried (about)".

So the actual meaning indeed is somehow more negative unlike "good" would imply something more positive...

An English Etymological Dictionary gives the following explanation:

"Good Friday
c.1290, from good in sense of "holy" (e.g. the good book "the Bible," 1896), also, esp. of holy days or seasons observed by the church (c.1420); it was also applied to Christmas and Shrove Tuesday."

Thanks Pemmican.