GOOD FRIDAY, the Friday before Easter, sacred as the commemoration of the cru cifixion of our Lord. This day was kept as a day of mourning and of special prayer from a very early period. It was one of the two paschal days celebrated by the Chris tian church, and in memory of the crucifixion, was called by the Greeks pascha staura trillion, or the " Paselr of the Cross." That it was observed as a day of rigid fast and of solemn and melancholy ceremonial, we learn from the apostolic constitutions (b v. c. 18), and from Eusebius (Ecc/. Kist. b. ii. c. 17), who also tells that, when Christianity was established in the empire, Constantine forbade the holding of law courts, markets, and other public proceedings upon this day. In the Roman Catholic church, the service of this day is very peculiar; instead of the ordinary mass, it consists of what is called the mass of the presanctified, the sacred host not being consecrated on good Friday, but reserved from the preceding day. The priests and attendants are robed in black, in token of mourning; the altar is stripped of its ornaments: the kiss of peace is omitted, in detestation of. the kiss of the traitor .Judas; the priest recites a long series of prayers for all classes, orders, and ranks in the church, and even for heretics, schismatics, pagans. and Jews. But the most striking part of the ceremonial of Good Friday is the so-called," adoration of the cross," or, as it was called in the old English popular vocab ulary, ."creeping to the cross." A large crucifix is placed upon the altar with appro priate ceremonies, in memory of the awful event which the crucifix represents, and the entire congregation. conuneneing with the celebrant priest and his ministers, approach,
and upon tileir knees reverently kiss the figure of our crucified Lord. In the eyes of Protestants, this ceremony appears to partake more strongly of the idolatrous character than any other in the Roman Catholic ritual; but Catholics earnestly repudiate all such construction of the ceremony. See IDOLATRY: IMAGES. The very striking (Mice of " Tenebrte" is held upon Good Friday. as well as on the preceding two days; it consists of the matins and lauds of. the 9flice,of holy Saturgy, and has tliis.peculiarity, that at the close all the lights in the church are extinguished except one, which for a time (as a symbol of our Lord's death and burial) is hidden under the altar.
In the English church, Good. Friday is also celebrated with special solemnity. Anciently, a sermon was preached at St. Paul's cross on the afternoon of this day, at which the lord mayor and aldermen attended. The practice of eating upon this day "cross buns"—cakes with a cross impressed upon them—is a relic of the Roman Catholic times, but it has lost all its religious significance. In England and Ireland, Good Friday is by-law a dies non, and all business is suspended. In Scotland, the day meets with no peculiar attention, except from members of the EpiscOpal and Roman Catholic communions.