Good Friday is the Friday before Easter or Pascha. It commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus at Calvary. This year, it is on April 6, 2007.
Good Friday is a holy day observed by most Christian religions. Special prayer services are often held on this day with readings from the Gospel giving accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion. Mainstream Christian churches view Christ's crucifixion as a voluntary and vicarious act, and one by which, along with resurrection on the third day, death itself was conquered.
In the predominantly Catholic Philippines, the day is commemorated with street processions, the Way of the Cross, and a Passion play called the Sinakulo. The Church keep the day solemn by not tolling the church bells and no Mass will be celebrated. In some communities (most famously in San Fernando, Pampanga), the processions include devotees who self-flagellate and sometimes even have themselves nailed to crosses as expressions of penance. After three o'clock in the afternoon of Good Friday (the time at which Jesus is traditionally believed to have died), noise is discouraged, radio stations and television stations sign off, businesses automatically close, and the faithful are urged to keep a very solemn and prayerful disposition through Easter Sunday.
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Wow. Self flagellation?! Actually nailing themselves to a cross?!?! I think I'll stick to praying, repenting, and thanking God...and interpret that part about my body being a temple to mean that I shouldn't hit it with things or pound nails into it. :)
I do admire those with faith and such strong devotion that they can do that. But...wow.
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