Since when do we not celebrate Good Friday?

[NerdGirl]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/61350/

The question-asker conveyed (and Eirene did not seem to disagree) an idea that I've only ever heard at BYU, which is that we don't celebrate Good Friday in our church. And my question is, since when? Once when I was at BYU, I remember saying to someone, "Isn't it weird that we don't have the day off on Good Friday?" And their response was to look at me funny and say, "We're not Catholic!" Um, the last time I checked, we were Christian church, and Good Friday is a Christian holiday, not just a Catholic holiday. We don't have a special church-wide service on Good Friday, but we also don't on Christmas, and I don't hear people going around saying that we don't celebrate Christmas. And up here, the Halifax temple actually has like 4 special sessions on Good Friday when it isn't normally open. And I've definitely been to special firesides for Good Friday. And it's a statutory holiday here, but maybe it's not in the US? I don't know. So is this just an American Mormon thing to not celebrate Good Friday? Or a Utah thing? Or a BYU thing? Because we've definitely always celebrated it everywhere in Canada that I've lived. Thoughts?

[Craig Jessop]

Well it's not a state holiday here, but most schools do give it as a day off under the guise of "April Break" or the like. I don't think BYU does it because, well, BYU doesn't believe in giving its students breaks unless it's federally mandated.

[krebscout]

I never had it off in school, and I don't remember any firesides or anything. Which, I agree, is a shame. It's kinda one of the more important days. I intend to make a bigger celebration of it within my family.

[thebigcheese]

I never even knew what Good Friday was until sometime during my teenage years. Back home, I'm pretty sure we would get a holiday on the Monday after Easter.

[Katya]

[T]he last time I checked, we were Christian church, and Good Friday is a Christian holiday, not just a Catholic holiday.

We don't celebrate Lent, either. (Which is best known for being Catholic, but is also celebrated by some other Christian denominations.)

So is this just an American Mormon thing to not celebrate Good Friday? Or a Utah thing? Or a BYU thing? Because we've definitely always celebrated it everywhere in Canada that I've lived. Thoughts?

I've lived in Utah, Illinois, and Maine, and I've never known Mormons to celebrate Good Friday in any of those places.

[Dragon Lady]

So maybe celebrating it is just a Canada thing?

[Katya]

So maybe celebrating it is just a Canada thing?

Do Mormons in predominantly Catholic countries celebrate it?

[thebigcheese]

Do Mormons in predominantly Catholic countries celebrate it?

Not in Brazil, according to my husband.

Also, this is his two cents on the matter:
The LDS church emphasizes the resurrection more than the crucifixion. The Catholic church emphasizes the crucifixion more than the resurrection. Therefore, Good Friday (the day Christ was crucified) is a very big deal for them. They have even adopted the symbol of the cross, which our church generally steers away from. It would make sense then, that the LDS church makes a bigger deal out of Easter than Good Friday.

[Katya]

Not in Brazil, according to my husband.

Also, this is his two cents on the matter:
The LDS church emphasizes the resurrection more than the crucifixion. The Catholic church emphasizes the crucifixion more than the resurrection. Therefore, Good Friday (the day Christ was crucified) is a very big deal for them. They have even adopted the symbol of the cross, which our church generally steers away from. It would make sense then, that the LDS church makes a bigger deal out of Easter than Good Friday.

That reasoning does make sense, and I'd be curious to know if there's any historical evidence to support it. (I.e., the lack of emphasis on the crucifixion causing the lack of emphasis on Good Friday is a plausible hypothesis, and it would be interesting to look for evidence to see if the one caused the other, or if they're correlated for another reason, entirely.)

Also, April conference talks tend to be Easter-themed, but how many of you have ever gone to church on Easter Sunday and had a pretty regular meeting? (I have.) Frankly, I'd say that Mormons don't have much of a liturgical calendar, generally.

[Dragon Lady]

Also, April conference talks tend to be Easter-themed, but how many of you have ever gone to church on Easter Sunday and had a pretty regular meeting? (I have.) Frankly, I'd say that Mormons don't have much of a liturgical calendar, generally.

I think that's largely due to the curriculum already being planned out for the second two hours. The teachers aren't given much of a choice as to whether or not they teach about the resurrection. Sure, they can usually work it in, but it takes more work. Now, if you're in Primary, Easter Sunday does have an Easter lesson. (Unless you're in Sr. Primary this year. They don't. But I wonder if that's because they're learning the New Testament, so it's going to be covered as part of the curriculum anyway.)

[vorpal blade]

In general lately schools and governments have gone away from celebrating religious holidays, such as Easter and Christmas, by those names, though they may celebrate it under a different name like Spring Break or Winter holiday. This is because of a mistaken idea that our government must have a complete separation of church and state.

I've lived in a number of places in the U.S. and Italy and never seen anyone in the LDS church recognize Good Friday as something other than a practice of other churches.

In churches where members may only come out to church twice a year, during Christmas and Easter, it might make sense to make a really big deal of those holidays. I think in our church we like to emphasize a daily remembrance and observation, but we do have special talks and programs for Easter and Christmas. Just not as extreme as other churches. Good Friday as a religious observance began with the Catholics. That's the way it looks to me.

[Katya]

Also, April conference talks tend to be Easter-themed, but how many of you have ever gone to church on Easter Sunday and had a pretty regular meeting? (I have.) Frankly, I'd say that Mormons don't have much of a liturgical calendar, generally.

I think that's largely due to the curriculum already being planned out for the second two hours.

Yes, but we could have extra an Easter lesson in the manual, like Primary does. It's not as if we don't know when the holiday is coming. But we don't. All I'm saying is that I really don't think Mormons have a much in the way of a liturgical calendar, so I'm not surprised that we don't celebrate Good Friday (always excepting Canadians ).

[Marduk]

The LDS church emphasizes the resurrection more than the crucifixion. The Catholic church emphasizes the crucifixion more than the resurrection. Therefore, Good Friday (the day Christ was crucified) is a very big deal for them. They have even adopted the symbol of the cross, which our church generally steers away from. It would make sense then, that the LDS church makes a bigger deal out of Easter than Good Friday.

Also, we make the BIGGEST deal out of Christmas, when...... nothing happened.

[Dragon Lady]

Also, we make the BIGGEST deal out of Christmas, when...... nothing happened.

What, you want us to have two big holidays in April?

[Dragon Lady]

Also, April conference talks tend to be Easter-themed, but how many of you have ever gone to church on Easter Sunday and had a pretty regular meeting? (I have.) Frankly, I'd say that Mormons don't have much of a liturgical calendar, generally.

I think that's largely due to the curriculum already being planned out for the second two hours.

Yes, but we could have extra an Easter lesson in the manual, like Primary does. It's not as if we don't know when the holiday is coming. But we don't. All I'm saying is that I really don't think Mormons have a much in the way of a liturgical calendar, so I'm not surprised that we don't celebrate Good Friday (always excepting Canadians ).

You could become a Primary teacher, then you could always have an Easter and Christmas lesson!

But no, I see what you're saying. And yeah, they could change that. And maybe they should with all the push of celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. But we often get plenty of instruction about both of them in the month preceding, and on the day of in Sacrament meeting (which, isn't that about the same length as, say, Mass?) and in all the ward and RS activities. I guess… I'm undecided on what I think should happen here.

[Yarjka]

Easter is a bigger holiday than Good Friday in general. There's the Easter Bunny, Easter egg hunts, chocolates and candies, etc. In other words, a lot of traditions and fun stuff that you can't ignore because kids will demand it. It also falls on Sunday every year, meaning it will be acknowledged in church more frequently. Good Friday is on a Friday - people are busy doing other things. There also aren't any fun traditions that I know of associated with the holiday. You may very well have had a special fireside on Good Friday and you just don't remember it, because its focus would have been on Christ's crucifixion, which is a topic that is common enough that it probably didn't stand out to you as anything unique.

[thebigcheese]

If no one does a Christmas or Easter lesson at some point on that Sunday, it feels like something is missing from church that day -- like they're totally ignoring the obvious. Personally, I find those lessons particularly uplifting and greatly miss them when they're not taught.

[Marduk]

Once when I taught Sunday school, I skipped the lesson manual lesson and taught an Easter based lesson. The bishop happened to attend my class that day, and remarked "you know, I know you deviated from the manual here, but you did such a good job, and it felt so in place, that I had to actually think to realize that it wasn't in the manual. Generally we aren't supposed to deviate from the manual, but in this case, it was a good idea."

The end.

[Katya]

Once when I taught Sunday school, I skipped the lesson manual lesson and taught an Easter based lesson. The bishop happened to attend my class that day, and remarked "you know, I know you deviated from the manual here, but you did such a good job, and it felt so in place, that I had to actually think to realize that it wasn't in the manual. Generally we aren't supposed to deviate from the manual, but in this case, it was a good idea."

The end.

Good on you, on all counts.