# Secular Good Friday **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 6, 2023, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271 "2023-04-06T19:35:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/1 "2023-04-06T19:35:58Z")
At work, we take off Good Friday despite the fact that we haven’t had any religious employees for years. So I have been trying to make a secular holiday out of Good Friday. I put up signage for off days and have declared it a new holiday, Good Friends Day. A day to celebrate your friends and to reflect on your relationships. Any one like this? Any suggestions for Good Friends Day traditions? This could be the new Festivus. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/2 "2023-04-06T20:24:41Z")
I’m fond of this website for questions like this. It works better for holidays tied to the same date every year, than for mobile holidays as many religious ones are. But the idea remains. Every day of the year is a holiday for somebody somewhere. So if you’re casting about for something to toast today, or tomorrow, or any other day, just check this out & scroll down a bit. Likewise you can get lots of ideas for novel celebrations themselves. Then it’s just up to you, i.e. the OP, to apply them to his chosen date: > **[Holidays worldwide](https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/)** > > Holiday information - detailed information about holidays and observances, when they occur and how they are observed. The list for the 7th is a bit short, but Armenian Motherhood and Beauty day sounds pretty nice. I’d totally drink to Armenian beauties. As does Karume Day in Tanzania. Sounds pretty exotic; I bet they set out an interesting buffet spread. At least at first glance. Wiki tells me it actually celebrates the assassination of one of their presidents. Which might or not be a thing worth celebrating. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/3 "2023-04-06T20:55:23Z")
Personally, I am Christian, but it really bothers me when governmental entities (like public school districts) have Good Friday off. With holidays like Christmas, you can at least put a fig leaf on it with “Offices will be closed for the two weeks inclusive of December 24 through January 1, for winter break”, or the like. But when you’re consistently taking off the Friday before the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox, there’s no hiding what it really is. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > As does Karume Day in Tanzania. Sounds pretty exotic; I bet they set out an interesting buffet spread. At least at first glance. Wiki tells me it actually celebrates the assassination of one of their presidents. Which might or not be a thing worth celebrating. Now I’m debating whether I should tell our Tanzanian priest “Happy Karume Day”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/4 "2023-04-06T21:41:28Z")
Seriously, the wiki suggests that it’s not so much celebrating an assassination as memorializing the tragic death of one of the founders of their post-colonial country. I gave it the “celebrate” twist for comic effect. So I suppose it might feel to your priest a bit like Kennedy or Lincoln Assassination Day feels to Americans. A day for somber remembrance, not for a party. Here in the USA, we’re better about celebrating the birthdays of most of our martyrs. We can focus on what they did, not why they stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/5 "2023-04-06T21:50:16Z")
Any Friday I don’t get nailed to a tree is a _good_ Friday. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/6 "2023-04-06T22:29:50Z")
**Happy Crucifixion** (of anyone you choose) **Day!** ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/7 "2023-04-06T23:05:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But when you’re consistently taking off the Friday before the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox, there’s no hiding what it really is. Kind of depends on where you are. The public schools in NYC are on vacation starting from today until April 14 - “Spring Recess” here covers Passover and Good Friday. Except the years when Passover is a month after Easter. Those years, “Spring Recess” covers Passover and Good Friday is a single day off - and of course, the reason for that single day is obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/8 "2023-04-06T23:23:16Z")
In the city of Boston, Columbus Day was a de facto holiday for the Italian North End. The Irish wanted to have St Patrick’s Day but needed a fig leaf to cover it. They looked back in history and found that the British were forced to leave the city on March 17, 1776, and thus [Evacuation Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuation_Day_(Massachusetts)) was born. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/9 "2023-04-07T02:11:45Z")
Some years ago I was working on a video with a producer in New York City. He insisted I had to move production back by one day because “between the Italians wanting Good Friday off and the Jews wanting Passover off, that’s just about our entire staff, so we’re closed.” ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/10 "2023-04-07T02:27:32Z")
Most holidays for the stock market are easy; just tell the system it’s a holiday & everything gets pushed out a day. However, there are two **Half-assed holidays** (Columbus Day & Veterans Day) when the NYSE is open but the banks are closed , meaning it’s a trading day but not a settlement day. We had a separate procedure manual for those two days to go in, program-by-program, & turn certain jobs off in advance of those days & then reverse the process & turn them back on the holiday so that the following day was ‘normal’ again. Tomorrow is the opposite, banks are open & the exchange is closed; therefore, we had a totally separate procedure manual to turn off _different_ programs on **Reverse Half-assed day** > [@Telemark](#): > > In the city of Boston, Columbus Day was a de facto holiday for the Italian North End. The Irish wanted to have St Patrick’s Day but needed a fig leaf to cover it. They looked back in history and found that the British were forced to leave the city on March 17, 1776, and thus [Evacuation Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuation_Day_(Massachusetts)) was born. They also get [Marathon Monday](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriots%27_Day) off as well. Some years, like this one, it means taxes are due a day later, too! ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/11 "2023-04-07T03:55:37Z")
The school district here used to try to have spring break around Easter, but they gave it up because the variable date messed with the spring sports and testing schedules too much. Now they have the break in mid-March regardless and they added the Vernal Holiday that just happens to fall on Easter weekend. Having acted as the attendance secretary for a school, I do get it. If you don’t make it a holiday, a significant number of your students (and some of your teachers) won’t show up anyway. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/12 "2023-04-07T12:33:02Z")
I attended a high school in rural western Pennsylvania. The first day of deer season less than half the school (teachers as well as students) showed up. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/13 "2023-04-07T13:29:50Z")
Happy Three-Days-to-Half-Price-Reese’s-Peanut-Butter-Eggs Day. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/14 "2023-04-07T15:11:47Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I attended a high school in rural western Pennsylvania. The first day of deer season less than half the school (teachers as well as students) showed up. I used to live near a ginormous GM vehicle assembly plant. Millions of square feet of factory, thousands of (mostly) men inside working 3 shifts year round. Which plant was in the heart of Missouri Whitetail country. Management closed the plant on the first day of deer season. The absenteeism that day made plant operations simply impossible. That and Christmas were the only two days of the year the plant was shut down all 3 shifts. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/15 "2023-04-07T15:24:14Z")
When I worked for Pacific Bell and AT&T, they used to give people 3 hours off on Good Friday “based on the needs of the service”. Since they couldn’t let everyone off, the low-seniority folks usually lost out. At some point I discovered that the reporting code for the time off was for “Religious Observance”, and it wasn’t specifically tied to Good Friday. Since the company couldn’t discriminate based on religious affinity, the time was available to anyone on any day the workload allowed. I used those 3 hours to get a head start on my annual road trip vacation. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/16 "2023-04-07T15:56:02Z")
When I was an observing Jew I would take days off for the High Holidays and never had a problem with my various bosses. It was just assumed that if you needed to take a religious holiday you would take it without concern of how it would be recorded. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/17 "2023-04-07T16:59:52Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > The school district here used to try to have spring break around Easter, but they gave it up because the variable date messed with the spring sports and testing schedules too much. I see that my public school district is having classes today (spring break was three weeks ago) despite the fact that it includes three of the largest Catholic parishes and the headquarters of the second-largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/18 "2023-04-07T17:08:43Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Happy Three-Days-to-Half-Price-Reese’s-Peanut-Butter-Eggs Day. Or, more generically, the second of four **Cheep chocolate days** Feb 15th, Nov 1st, & Dec 26th for the other three ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/19 "2023-04-07T17:31:33Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Any Friday I don’t get nailed to a tree is a _good_ Friday. Your post reminded me of something a friend sent me today: [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/awAltQh.png "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/awAltQh) > [@InternetLegend](#): > > Having acted as the attendance secretary for a school, I do get it. If you don’t make it a holiday, a significant number of your students (and some of your teachers) won’t show up anyway. Yeah. my high school was about 60% Jewish when I was there, so we always got Rosh Hoshannah and Yom Kippur off. Since they fell in September which was usually hot with Santa Anas, the day off was always welcome. Most of my friends were very Reformed, so we usually went to the beach. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secular-good-friday/982271/20 "2023-04-07T17:37:02Z")
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