What’s so good about Good Friday?
Posted
April 6, 2007 at
10:27 am by
Prescott
Well, the literal answer to that question comes from Wikipedia:
It is likely that the name “Good Friday” came from the earlier English name, “Godes Friday,” meaning “God’s Friday.” In much the same way as “God be with ye” was shortened to “goodbye,” so did “Godes Friday” become “Good Friday.”
But as my kids are running around all crazy, plummeting my efficiency rate into negative digits, I ask it in the sense of, “why, exactly, are the schools closed today?” Good Friday is not a federal holiday in the United States. In Illinois, where I live, it’s not a state holiday. So why, then, is it a district one?
Sure, it can be said that Easter and Christmas Day are also recognized by the district and are religious holidays, but with them being on a Sunday and during winter break, respectively, it’s not implicit that there’s a religious purpose behind the days off. And while those holidays have pagan ties and huge secular festivities outside of the church, Good Friday is the commemoration of that young hippie with crazy ideas being nailed to a couple pieces of timber. So again, why is our public school celebrating a purely Christian event?
Or, more importantly, why do I now have to explain to my children why they are the freaks that aren’t a part of the big school sanctioned celebration?
Tags: easter, good-friday, Religion, separation-of-church-and-state |
6 Responses to “What’s so good about Good Friday?”
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1. anthromomma said:
April 6, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
THANK YOU!!!!
Personally, I think the Good is for ‘good time to make reservations at a steak house for dinner,’ but that probably only works if you live in a Catholic town.
As an aside, will you be donating blood on May 3, Prescott? We certainly will be.
2. anthromomma said:
April 6, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
Arg, I screwed the link up. You get the idea, anyway.
3. Prescott said:
April 6, 2007 @ 3:03 pm
I embarrassingly have an insane blood and needle phobia, but I will definitely do some other philanthropic activity that day.
4. Sheila said:
April 6, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
This may be pure practicality on the part of the school district as an employer. They have to grant religious leave to those teachers who observe the holiday, so they have to find substitutes for all those teachers and, well, you see how this could be a problem on a day a lot of teachers are taking off.
In our school district very few students are Jewish but a whole heck of lot of teachers are, thus the Jewish holidays are school holidays.
5. Prescott said:
April 6, 2007 @ 7:10 pm
But I will say, how do Christians observe Good Friday in this country that constitutes requesting a day off? Our very Catholic neighbors seemed to observe it today by playing basketball in the driveway. I noticed that the main Catholic church in our area is having services at 7 p.m. It really seems unnecessary to have a day off especially since the kids just came back from spring break on Monday.
6. Petulant Pixie said:
April 6, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
Our spring break just happened to be this week, but I know in the past when it hasn’t, the kids have NOT had Good Friday off (except, obviously, when they went to Catholic school). My mom (a 25+ year veteran teacher from the IL public school system) was shocked to find that out, so maybe it’s an IL thing? Around here, it’s just another day.