Good Friday

Good Friday; it's difficult to see what is "good" about it. According to the Bible, it is the day the son of God was flogged, ordered to carry the cross on which he would be crucified and then put to death.

This is where the BBC comes in handy.

Some sources suggest that the day is "good" in that it is holy, or that the phrase is a corruption of "God's Friday".

The answer

• Some suggest the day is "good" as in "holy"
• Others speculate it may be a corruption of "God's Friday"
• But the OED states that the adjective "good" refers to a day or season of religious observance

However, 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.

The earliest known use of "guode friday" is found in The South English Legendary, a text from around 1290, according to the dictionary. According to the Baltimore Catechism - the standard US Catholic school text from 1885 to the 1960s, Good Friday is good because Christ "showed His great love for man, and purchased for him every blessing".

It also says that the day is known as "the Holy and Great Friday" in the Greek liturgy, "Holy Friday" in Romance Languages and Karfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German.The Catholic Encyclopedia, first published in 1907, states that the term's origins are not clear. It says some sources see its origins in the term "God's Friday" or Gottes Freitag, while others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag. It notes that the day was called Long Friday by the Anglo-Saxons and is referred to as such in modern Danish.