Good Friday 2028: Date, History & Significance

There is no Mass on Good Friday; instead the Liturgy of the Passion is held — the Gospel account of the trial, scourging and crucifixion is read or sung, the Cross is unveiled and venerated, and communion is given from the reserved sacrament. Bells are silent, the altar is stripped, and many keep a strict fast. In India, churches hold the Way of the Cross (fourteen Stations), and in Goa and Kerala there are enacted Passion plays and processions.

By the Gospels, Jesus was arrested after the Last Supper, tried by the Sanhedrin and by Pontius Pilate, condemned, scourged, made to carry his cross to Golgotha, and crucified between two thieves. He died after about six hours, saying 'It is finished'; the veil of the Temple tore. Christians hold his death as the atoning sacrifice by which sin is forgiven and death is defeated — completed by the Resurrection on Easter.

Source: The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles; the liturgical calendar of the Church

The Friday of the Passion has been kept since the earliest church; the name 'Good' is thought to mean 'holy' or to point to the good that the day's sorrow brings about. It is a gazetted holiday in India.

• Indian Christian community practice (Latin, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, CSI, CNI, Orthodox)
• The Roman Missal / liturgical calendars

1. Churches hold the Liturgy of the Passion in the afternoon, around the hour of Christ's death: the Passion narrative is read, the cross is venerated, and communion is given from the previous day's reserve.
2. Many parishes walk the Way of the Cross, the fourteen Stations, through the streets or the church grounds.
3. Altars are bare, bells are silent, and the day is kept in quiet and prayer.

• Goa, Kerala, Mangalore, the cities. The Way of the Cross, the Passion liturgy at 3 p.m., strict fasting, and Passion plays; hot cross buns and, in Kerala, a bitter kanji.
• Northeast India. Solemn services and community fasting in the Christian-majority states.

• A simple meal — Meatless, plain food; in Kerala a bitter drink of kanji and vinegar recalls the gall offered to Christ.

Good Friday falls on Friday, 14 April 2028. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

at sunrise

Good Friday is dated by The Friday before Easter Sunday (movable; March or April). The movable feasts of the Christian year (Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost) are all reckoned from Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox; the fixed feasts (Christmas, Epiphany, the Annunciation, All Saints and All Souls) keep the same civil date each year.

The date is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar and shifts against the Gregorian year.