Q&A for How to Celebrate Good Friday

Jesus was God. As it says in Luke 1:37, "For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Depends on where you live. In the United States, most of them don't. The only religious holiday that is observed by secular US businesses is Christmas. But if you need the day or part of the day off, you can always request it from your employer ahead of time.

Protestants don't have food restrictions on Good Friday, although many of them choose to observe the same "no meat" rule as Catholics.

Of course. If you're not Catholic, you're not bound by Catholic traditions.

There is evidence that He died and rose again in either 30 AD or 33 AD. I'm not going to get involved in the debate between them now, but there are good points for both ideas. The important thing is that it happened.

It was meant to be an act of penitence, in remembrance of the Friday on which Christ was crucified.

Yes. Nothing is illegal about taking a bath before 3:00.

Genesis says that God created all the beasts on the planet before he created us, in the Garden of Eden. It's quite possible that man and dinosaurs coexisted for a time, and that dinosaurs were destroyed in Noah's flood.

Not usually. Schools typically do not grant religious holidays off, or else the amount of children skipping school because of personal religious holidays would be absurd. If you are attending a Catholic school, however, you may already have that day off.

Special prayers can be said at any time on Good Friday.

You don't have to, but if you want to anyway, you can stop at any time.

Yes, Orthodox Christians are called to fast on Good Friday, unless they are physically unable to due to health complications, or are above or below the age range required to do so. And yes, they are called to go to Church every Sunday. If you truly don't have the time to attend one hour a week, then you should probably reevaluate your life and choices. If you want to be a Christian, then you need to order your life towards God, which means giving Him due worship and following His commands.

Just normal everyday things. They don't celebrate the holiday, so they just have a normal Friday.

If you're not a Christian, then you wouldn't traditionally do anything to celebrate Good Friday.

Good Friday lasts the whole day.

He was 33 years old.

It depends. Since Good Friday is so close to Easter, you could have some Easter-related activities for kids like egg hunts, dying eggs, making baskets, etc.

Yes.

Yes, you can.

Yes, Lent lasts until Easter Sunday. So you have to keep those promises on Good Friday and the Saturday afterwards.

It's called Good Friday because Jesus Christ was crucified on a Friday, which was "good" because by His death, we can be saved from our sins.

That God's law was so important that Jesus Christ Himself didn't get to be an exception to that law. Even though Jesus didn't sin, because he wanted to save everyone else from their sins, He had to die because the law requires the death of a sinner. The significance of the cross is that God's law cannot be changed but Jesus was willing to die to prevent us from having to die because of the law's requirement.

If you have a Bible, you might read something from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. The chapters 13 -16 in the book of John are inspiring to many people. You can go somewhere in private and pray thanking Jesus for the good things in your life.

You will have to decide why those pagan beliefs are not aligned with your Roman Catholic religion. Admiring and valuing nature, elements of nature is good. However, worshipping them as creators is not aligned with Catholicism, since they are created by God. You have to work out for yourself why you want to practice them together and what makes you keep both.

Since it was not in your hands to give your mom another birthday date, then yes, you can celebrate it, knowing that it is a special day for Jesus as well. You can avoid anything disgraceful happening in the name of celebration so you don't do something just because others are mourning on this day.

Jesus was given bitter water through a sponge on Good Friday, when He asked for water. If you feel moved by it, you may fast on Good Friday and make penance for your own sins or do so in memory of the great Lord. You can also just spend the day reading or contemplating on the harshness God went through despite being God so you know the need to be good humans who don't judge, hate and persecute. Enjoying on Good Friday should be avoided if you love Jesus.

The purpose of lighting the candle decides if it is okay. If it is in front of God, in your prayer area for you to worship, then it is okay. However, you can avoid it if it is for aroma or lighting for entertainment and relaxation.

Jesus was crucified on Good Friday. This means you can avoid all kinds of fun activities on this Friday. However, you don't have to feel bad about the sacrifice that you will be making. Or else, Jesus won't be very happy about your forced or halfhearted sacrifice. Do what you do with your own consent or don't do it. Just be aware of His crucifixion all day and spend the day a bit quietly.

Yes, you may fast. The connection with God is not controlled by humanly boundaries of religion our parents follow or where we are from. If your soul searches Jesus and desires to fast in His name, He would accept your worship just like He accepted people from all walks of life as His disciples.

We can reach God the Father through His Son, Jesus. Since we sin, sometimes without even realizing it, we tend to turn away from the holy Father and all the heavenly glory therein. However, those who want to try and find a way to know about God and be worthy or reaching heaven, have Jesus and His parables and life to guide us to the required path so we stay good and reach Him. You can see if you make good use of what you have to know if you could do better if you get more. Ignorance does not yield better communication with the Holy.