Friday
 |
The goddess Freya, after whom Friday is named. |
Friday (
pron. IPA or ) is the fifth day of the week, falling between
Thursday and
Saturday. In countries that adopt a
Sunday-first convention, it is commonly considered the sixth day of the week. (see
Days of the week for more on the different conventions.)
Friday can be many parts of speech. It can be a noun, or an adjective.
The name Friday comes from the
Old English frigedæg, meaning the day of
Frige, the
Germanic goddess of beauty, with similar cognates existing in most Germanic languages. The word for Friday in most
Romance languages is derived from the name of Venus (
vendredi in
French,
venerdi in
Italian,
viernes in
Spanish,
vineri in
Romanian etc.), while in
Germanic languages it is named after Freya (
Freitag in Modern
German,
vrijdag in
Dutch,
fredag in
Swedish,
Norwegian,
Danish etc.) .
In
India, Friday is
Shukravar. It is based on
Shukraâ€"
Vedic god of
Venus.
In most countries with a five-day work week, Friday is the last workday before the
weekend and is therefore viewed as a cause for celebration or relief. In some offices, employees are allowed to wear less formal attire on Fridays, known as
Casual Friday or Dress-Down Friday.
In
Alaska in 1867, Friday 6 October was immediately followed by Friday 18 October due to the adoption of the
Gregorian calendar and shifting of the
International Date Line after the United States
acquired it from Russia.
In Christianity
Good Friday is the Friday before Easter. It commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus.
In
Islam, Friday is the day of public worship in mosques (see
Friday prayers). In some
Islamic countries, the week begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday, just like the Jewish and Christian week. In most other Islamic countries, such as
Saudi Arabia and
Iraq, the week begins on Saturday and ends on Friday.
The
Jewish Sabbath begins at
sunset on Friday and runs until sunset on
Saturday.
Some
Catholics and
Prayer Book Anglicans will refrain from eating the meat of warm blooded animals on Fridays, and will often choose
fish instead.
Quakers traditionally refer to Friday as "Sixth Day" eschewing the
pagan origins of the name.
Parasceve
Parasceve (Greek
paraskevé) seems to have supplanted the older term
prosábbaton 'pre-sabbath', used in the translation of Judith, viii, 6, and in the title â€"not to be found in Hebrewâ€" of Psalm xcii (xciii). It became, among Hellenistic Jews, the name for Friday, and was adopted by Greek ecclesiastical writers after writing of "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles". Apparently it was first applied by the Jews to the afternoon of Friday, then to the whole day, its etymology pointing to the "preparations" to be made for the Sabbath, as indicated in the King James Bible, where the Greek word is translated by "Day of Preparation". That the regulations of the Law might be minutely observed, it was made imperative to have on the Parasceve three meals of the choicest food laid ready before sunset (the Sabbath beginning on Friday night); it was forbidden to undertake in the afternoon of the sixth day any business which might extend to the Sabbath; Augustus relieved the Jews from certain legal duties from the ninth hour (Josephus, "Antiq. Jud.", XVI, vi, 2).
Parasceve seems to have been applied also to the eve of certain festival days of a sabbatic character. Foremost among these was the first day of the unleavened bread, Nisan 15. We learn from the Mishna (Pesach., iv, 1, 5) that the Parasceve of the Pasch, whatever day of the week it fell on, was kept even more religiously than the ordinary Friday, in Judæa work ceasing at noon, and in Galilee the whole day being free. In the schools the only question discussed regarding this particular Parasceve was when should the rest commence: Shammai said from the very beginning of the day (evening of Nisan 13); Hillel said only from after sunrise (morning of Nisan 14).
The use of the word Parasceve in the Gospels raises the question concerning the actual day of Christ's crucifixion. All the Evangelists state that Jesus died on the day of the Parasceve (Matthew 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14, 31), and there can be no doubt from Luke, xxiii, 54-56 and John, xix, 31, that this was Friday. But on what day of the month of Nisan did that particular Friday fall? St. John distinctly points to Nisan 14, while the Synoptists, by implying that the Last Supper was the Paschal meal, convey the impresion that Jesus was crucified on Nisan 15. But this is hardly reconcilable with the following facts: when Judas left the table, the disciples imagined he was going to buy the things which were needed for the feast (John 13:29)â€"a purchase which was impossible if the feast had begun; after the Supper, Our Lord and his disciples left the city, as also did the men detailed to arrrest Himâ€"this, on Nisan 15, would have been contrary to Ex., xii, 22; the next morning the Jews had not yet eaten the Passover; moreover, during that day the Council convened; Simon was apparently coming from work (Luke 23:26); Jesus and the two robbers were executed and were taken down from the crosses; Joseph of Arimathea bought fine linen (Mark 15:46), and Nicodemus brought "a mixture of myrrh and aloes about an hundred pound weight" (John 19:39) for the burial; lastly the women prepared spices for the embalming of the Saviour's body (Luke 23:55)â€"all things which would have been a desecration on Nisan 15. Most commentators, whether they think the Last Supper to have been the Paschal meal or an anticipation thereof, hold that Christ, as St. John states, was crucified on the Parasceve of the Pasch, Friday, Nisan 14.
In astrology Friday is connected with the planet Venus. This associates Friday with love, peace and relaxation, but also of emotional intensity and quashed dreams.
In some cultures, Friday is considered unlucky, especially regarding
Friday the 13th. This is particularly so in maritime circles; perhaps the most enduring sailing superstition is that it is unlucky to begin a voyage on a Friday. In one story a
Royal Navy ship HMS
Friday was laid down on a Friday, launched on a Friday and captained by a Captain Friday and was never heard of again.
However, this is not universal, notably in Scottish Gaelic culture::"Though Friday has always been held an unlucky day in many
Christian countries, still in the
Hebrides it is supposed that it is a lucky day for sowing the seed.
Good Friday in particular is a favourite day for
potato plantingâ€"even strict
Roman Catholics make a point of planting a bucketful on that day. Probably the idea is that as the
Resurrection followed the
Crucifixion, and Burial so too in the case of the seed, and after death will come life." (Reference:
Dwelly's [Scottish] Gaelic Dictionary (1911): Di-haoine)
The phrase
TGIF is a popular acronym for
Thank God (or Goodness) It's Friday, expressing relief at the end of the working week and anticipation of relaxing or partying over the weekend. The phrase has spawned several variations and corruptions, see
TGIF.
Another phrase in pop culture has come out, "Happy Friday".
In the popular rhyme,
"Friday's Child is loving and giving".
Man Friday / Girl Friday - A man Friday is: "An efficient and devoted aide or employee; a right-hand man." Friday is a character in the novel
Robinson Crusoe. The protagonist Robinson Crusoe rescues a young native man, and calles him 'man Friday' because he met him on a Friday.[
1] 'Girl Friday' is a term, now frowned upon, for a resourceful female assistant, made popular by the classic 1940 comedy adaptation of '
The Front Page' (
His Girl Friday) starring
Rosalind Russell as an ace reporter and
Cary Grant as her cynical editor and ex-husband.
Friday is a novel by
science-fiction author
Robert A. Heinlein.
Friday is also a movie featuring
rapper Ice Cube and has spawned several sequels.
Freaky Friday is the name of a 1972 children's novel made into three films.
Friday is a Hong Kong based weekly magazine.
"
Friday on My Mind" was a worldwide 1967 hit by
The Easybeats.
Friday is the
Pastafarian Sabbath.
*
Good Friday is the Friday before
Easter in the
Christian calendar. It commemorates the
crucifixion of
Jesus.
*
Black Friday refers to any one of several historical disasters that happened on Fridays. Black Friday is also the nickname of the day after Thanksgiving, the first official day of the Christmas shopping season when most commercial businesses gain enough profit to come out of overall loss (out of the "red" and into the "black") for the year.
*
Casual Friday is a relaxation of the formal
dress code employed by some
corporations for one day of the week.
