Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday, the central festival of the Christian year. Good Friday is usually observed as a day for mourning the death of Jesus. Some churches hold a three-hour worship service. In some churches, Good Friday marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum, the three days of Easter.
The earliest records from the A.D. 100’s show that Good Friday had no connection with mourning Jesus’s death. It was simply a day of fasting before Easter. By the late 300’s, however, Christians observed Good Friday with a long series of readings and prayers that focused on the death of Jesus on the cross. This service was held from noon to 3 p.m.
