Good Friday

[DrumNFeather]

This is a two-part post:

Part I

I just had someone walk by my cube talking about how it is Good Friday today (which I knew) and that most businesses not run by jews are have today off.

Question: Do you have today off work?

I would imagine that most of the folks in Utah don't...which leads me to the second part of my post...

Part II

I was discussing the atonement with my sunday school class (10-year-olds) and to give them some context discussed the calendar of events known to many in the Catholic/Christian world as holy week. I didn't call it holy week, I called it simply the last week of Christ's life on earth (Doesn't have the same ring to it). They started flooding me with questions about why we don't talk more about Palm Sunday etc.

This all got me thinking that our focus is entirely on the ressurection of Christ as it pertains to our Easter celebration and we don't really touch on Palm Sunday, Good Friday etc. There's no lent, nothing like that, and I was just curious if anyone could point me to any kind of explanation behind this...or, is it simply that we would just rather focus on the ressurection?

[Clark Addison]

I don't have much to say on part 2, but on part 1, very few businesses here are off today, and I live in the South. Most schools do try to include Good Friday as part of their spring break, thought they don't call it Good Friday.

[hostile]

My office is closed today. I guess it is because of the predominant Catholic influence here in SLC. I am working, however, as this most recent storm resulted in a few car accidents and ski/snowboard accidents.

As to part II of your question, I'm not sure why there isn't more focus on other aspects of "holy week." For a gospel doctrine lesson one year I looked at the percentage of chapters in the four gospels that dealt with the last week of Christ's life. If I remember correctly the numbers ranged from 25-50%.

[Surfah]

I'm at work. It's one of the few holidays not recognized at the federal level. Kind of surprising since they have every other holiday off.

[CJF]

Funny that you brought this topic up. I just finished updating my blog entry for this week and was thinking about both of your questions. I am sitting in my office right now looking out over the city and it is literally dead. Holy Week is a big deal in the Philippines. They take it very seriously. When I worked for the Unversity of Phoenix, they gave us half day off on Good Friday. That was the first and only time I had some time off.

As for the second question, I'm trying to find answers myself. The only thing I can think of is that the Church really focuses on the entire life of Christ and the resurection more than the other events that week leading up to His resurection. However, that is simply a guess and I wonder why we don't take Holy Week as seriously as other faiths.

[Solon]

Funny that you brought this topic up. I just finished updating my blog entry for this week and was thinking about both of your questions. I am sitting in my office right now looking out over the city and it is literally dead. Holy Week is a big deal in the Philippines. They take it very seriously. When I worked for the Unversity of Phoenix, they gave us half day off on Good Friday. That was the first and only time I had some time off.

As for the second question, I'm trying to find answers myself. The only thing I can think of is that the Church really focuses on the entire life of Christ and the resurection more than the other events that week leading up to His resurection. However, that is simply a guess and I wonder why we don't take Holy Week as seriously as other faiths.

I think Southern Utah University is closed today (at least, there are no classes).

I imagine it has to do with early Mormonism's generally Protestant bent. Many of these rites and institutions are predominantly Catholic.

[pellegrino]

I think Southern Utah University is closed today (at least, there are no classes).

I imagine it has to do with early Mormonism's generally Protestant bent. Many of these rites and institutions are predominantly Catholic.

This is what I think too. In the past half century or so more American protestant churches are changing from their low church traditions and starting to incorporated more high church elements. Mormonism was founded in a time period when catholics were viewed as papists and a threat to Americanism and so they (and nearly all protestant religions of the time) rejected any sort of liturgical calendar, which is really where we get the Holy Week. Add to that Mormonism's isolation and just general insistence on differentiating itself from other traditions by rejecting them wholesale and there's the story.

I do think that the church could do a lot to better celebrate Easter. They could start by starting a new tradition of not holding general conference or stake conferences on Easter sunday. I hate it when Easter falls on the first Sunday of April or if Stake Conference coincides with it. We would never dream of scheduling a conference for Christmas, but as far as what we preach about the living Christ and the importance of the atonement Easter should be far more important than Christmas.

[wuapinmon]

I will have Good Friday off til Kingdom Come. Small private college in the South.

As part of my job, I teach my students about Semana Santa (holy week). They are always amazed at the celebrations, and how Viernes Santo is like Christmas, New Years, and the Fourth of July rolled into one. Lent's over. Time to party.

[I.J. Reilly]

This is what I think too. In the past half century or so more American protestant churches are changing from their low church traditions and starting to incorporated more high church elements. Mormonism was founded in a time period when catholics were viewed as papists and a threat to Americanism and so they (and nearly all protestant religions of the time) rejected any sort of liturgical calendar, which is really where we get the Holy Week. Add to that Mormonism's isolation and just general insistence on differentiating itself from other traditions by rejecting them wholesale and there's the story.

I do think that the church could do a lot to better celebrate Easter. They could start by starting a new tradition of not holding general conference or stake conferences on Easter sunday. I hate it when Easter falls on the first Sunday of April or if Stake Conference coincides with it. We would never dream of scheduling a conference for Christmas, but as far as what we preach about the living Christ and the importance of the atonement Easter should be far more important than Christmas.

Yeah, I think the Church could do better with Easter stuff, too. I mean, I'm sure we'll get a bunch of He Is Risen talks this weekend and stuff, which is good, but, for some reason the balance just seems a little off. For example, I went to church this past Sunday expecting some sort of Easter something, if not talks, then Easter hymns or something, since we were having Conference on Easter Sunday.

Instead, what did I get? Joseph Smith. A whole sacrament meeting about Joseph Smith. Hymns, talks, everything. I was very, very surprised. If we weren't going to do something Easter, I would have thought we would have gone with F&T meeting, as we normally would when we have a large meeting on the first Sunday of the month. Nope. I was really disappointed. I like a lot of the Easter hymns and my bet is that we won't sing any this year.

[Fiyero]

Someone in the Q12 said in a GC talk a few years ago that the reason why our churches don't contain crosses is because we don't want to focus on Christ's suffering and death, but on the "good news" that he lives. Not that he died for us, but that he currently, actively lives for us, seeks to mediate for us, and seeks to communicate with and bless us because the heavens are not closed. Instead of having our churches be dark, somber, candle-lit, stained-glass halls of incense smoke, they are bright, clean and lively.

[beefytee]

I don't get Good Friday off, but my boss coincidentally being based in Canada gets it off. I guess the corporate holidays in Canada for my company are different than here.

Growing up in Canada, I never remember getting the Friday off but always getting the following Monday off and it was labeled Easter Monday.

[jay santos]

This is a two-part post:

Part I

I just had someone walk by my cube talking about how it is Good Friday today (which I knew) and that most businesses not run by jews are have today off.

Question: Do you have today off work?

I would imagine that most of the folks in Utah don't...which leads me to the second part of my post...

Part II

I was discussing the atonement with my sunday school class (10-year-olds) and to give them some context discussed the calendar of events known to many in the Catholic/Christian world as holy week. I didn't call it holy week, I called it simply the last week of Christ's life on earth (Doesn't have the same ring to it). They started flooding me with questions about why we don't talk more about Palm Sunday etc.

This all got me thinking that our focus is entirely on the ressurection of Christ as it pertains to our Easter celebration and we don't really touch on Palm Sunday, Good Friday etc. There's no lent, nothing like that, and I was just curious if anyone could point me to any kind of explanation behind this...or, is it simply that we would just rather focus on the ressurection?

I was teaching a 10 yo Primary class last year. I can't imagine ever in a million years one of them pondering on why we don't emphasize Palm Sunday more in the Mormon church.

[UtahDan]

I was discussing the atonement with my sunday school class (10-year-olds) and to give them some context discussed the calendar of events known to many in the Catholic/Christian world as holy week. I didn't call it holy week, I called it simply the last week of Christ's life on earth (Doesn't have the same ring to it). They started flooding me with questions about why we don't talk more about Palm Sunday etc.

This all got me thinking that our focus is entirely on the ressurection of Christ as it pertains to our Easter celebration and we don't really touch on Palm Sunday, Good Friday etc. There's no lent, nothing like that, and I was just curious if anyone could point me to any kind of explanation behind this...or, is it simply that we would just rather focus on the ressurection?

I think this has to do with our overall emphasis being the Book of Mormon rather than the Old or New Testament. Other churches that don't have three other canonical works to teach and consequently focus much more on the life and ministry of Christ and the Apostles.

For example, someone once pointed out to me that most LDS can give you a pretty accurate summation of the geographic movement of the early church off the tips of their tongues, but if you ask them to describe the geographic movements of the Lord during his ministry (there is a time line and not that many locations to recall, I've learned) most, like me, will stare blankly and wonder what you are talking about. We are in, general, woefully ignorant of the New Testament, both the facts and the doctrines, compared to others. Again, just a result of the BOM focus.

I personally think this ought not be so (I don't think there is anything in the scriptures that remotely touches the inspirational power of the stories and teachings of Jesus). I think we could do more in this vein and not loose our focus.

[DrumNFeather]

I was teaching a 10 yo Primary class last year. I can't imagine ever in a million years one of them pondering on why we don't emphasize Palm Sunday more in the Mormon church.

Well, I just gave them the context that it was Palm Sunday and we talked a little about what it was, and then one of them asked why we don't talk much about it etc...etc...

[TripletDaddy]

As long as I can remember, Good Friday has never been a school holiday in SoCal, unless it happened to coincide with Spring Break. Today is a normal work and school day.

Growing up in T.O, we did get Rosh Hash and Yom Kippo off. September was awesome...welcome back to school and here are a bunch of 4-day weeks. Thank goodness for Judaism!