It’s never celebrated/observed on the same day unlike your birthday or Jesus’ birthday (I know it’s not really the 25th of December, but it’s always celebrated in the 25th).
People are just mourning Jesus’ death on a random day just because it’s Friday lol
Because the Germanic tradition of festivals honouring Ēostre was structured that way and the festivals were maintained as part of assimilation into Christianity. All the "Good Friday" stuff is working backwards from celebrations that already existed to work them into a Christian framework.
Christmas is the same thing. We hear you like winter solstice celebrations, here's a way you can keep your festival and not get beheaded.
Why not change it now that Christianity is the main religion? It’s not like anyone is attached to this single Friday for more than once a year
My guess is because that's how it's always been done, and organized religion is kinda inherently conservative. Hard to see the Catholic Church changing anything like that for no reason
people want to do social rituals with the seasons. religions just write their name on them and make it about their stuff.
if they didn't claim some big deal ritual in the spring, some upstart nature worshippers would kick off and eat into the Christian's numbers.
like who would be going to church for a regular old sermon while there's people getting shithoused on ferments and lichen with blue face paint, gyrating around in the woods, hooting at the sky and listening to Orbital, The Blue Album.
According to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified the week of the Passover on the day before the sabbath. Passover is determined by the lunar calendar, so it moves because the lunar calendar doesn't sync up perfectly with the calendar we use now.
Yeah and that name, getting nailed to a piece of wood doesn't sound like a good Friday at all
I could be wrong but iirc it is scheduled off of a lunar calandar that doesn't conform perfectly to your solar one. It relates that lunar calandar to the spring equinox, which determines Easter, which determines Good Friday.
How do modern Christians justify it not being related to the Bible?
I imagine there is some (probably thin) after-the-fact biblical interpretation that justifies scheduling it like that, and all the order of days and such is more closely related to the bible, so its just the placement that sticks out. But I think it's because after the bible was written, the authority for determining questions like that was passed to the church directly by Christ. As the one true church, they then could faithfully determine ambiguous things as would be willed by God. So they worked it out as God willed it more or less. But also I don't think the date itself is really considered special, nor is Christmas, it's the things you do on the days that lend it meaning. There is no ritual significance to the equinoxes (def a symbolic one though), no spell you have to cast under the correct celestial configuration to ensure anything, the ritual significance is the Mass and all of that jazz, and that's just the time they picked to do that stuff cause everyone must do it at the same time
Well why not have it on a consistent moon cycle then, like, the full moon of April, rather than on specifically a weekend (calculated based on solar calendar)
Not exactly - they are both based on lunar calendars, but different calendars. Passover is not always on the same day of week - which makes good Friday even less sensical.
Yeah, I think they kept it a Friday because according to the Bible, Jesus was crucified on Friday, the Sabbath was the next day, and then he was resurrected on Sunday. So keeping the celebrations on those days fits in well with the normal church calendar, that you would celebrate the resurrection on Sunday. Eta: I can't remember if the passover seder was supposed to be on the sabbath or the last supper, hang on and I'll try to look it up. Sorry, I didn't grow up high church; the liturgical calendar isn't really our thing. Edit 2: OK, so Passover was the last supper, the rest of the Passover festival continued for the next several days. It was a bit confusing, but apparently there was confusion over calendars because of leap days and such, so the church decided to follow the lunar schedule they follow now to try to keep things relatively simple, celebrate the day in approximately the right time (nothing magical about the specific date, just a day of remembrance), and have Easter on Sunday, as the first Resurrection Sunday.
It’s never celebrated/observed on the same day
It's prob on a lunar calendar. You could just as well ask why don't other Christian holidays follow a lunar calendar
