Public holidays · 2024
Good Friday falls on Friday, 29 March 2024 in France in 2024.
A public holiday in some regions of France only: Moselle, Alsace, GP, MQ, Polynésie Française.
In 2024 it falls on a Friday, a working day.
The date changes from year to year.
Saturday and Sunday · A public holiday does not always close every business. Essential services, shops and some industries keep working, and pay rules differ by country and contract.
Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary and his death. It is the most sombre day in the Christian calendar and the centre of Holy Week, between Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday. Catholic and Protestant churches hold services of readings, prayers and veneration of the cross, often at three in the afternoon, and many believers fast or abstain from meat. In the Orthodox churches it is called Great and Holy Friday, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated, and the evening service features the procession of the epitaphios, a cloth icon that represents Christ's burial. Whatever the denomination, the day's mood is subdued.
The name uses an older sense of good meaning pious or holy; the folk explanation that it refers to the good outcome of the Passion is not accepted. In Old English the day was called Long Friday, and equivalents survive in the Scandinavian languages and Finnish. Customs include processions in Spain, Italy, Malta and Portugal, hot cross buns in Britain, fish dishes in many countries, and in some Protestant countries a strong tradition of quiet, with legal limits on public dancing and similar events. In Spain and Italy the processions with hooded penitents are the best-known sight, and in Jerusalem pilgrims walk the Via Dolorosa.
Moselle, Alsace, GP, MQ, Polynésie Française
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Questions
A public holiday in some regions of France only: Moselle, Alsace, GP, MQ, Polynésie Française.
Friday, 29 March 2024.