Good Friday is observed by Christians ahead of Easter Sunday as a solemn day focused on the crucifixion and death of Jesus, according to the Gospels. This year, Catholics and Protestants mark it on April 3, while Orthodox Christians observe it on April 10, according to the calendar used by each tradition.
Across denominations, Good Friday services stand out from most other church days. Worshippers attend liturgies that can include ancient prayers and fasting practices, and many communities also stage public rites in the streets, including elaborate processions and other forms of popular devotion.
In Catholic practice, Good Friday is the one day of the week without a Mass, reflecting the church’s understanding of the Eucharist. Orthodox Christians also do not celebrate the Eucharist on what they call Great and Holy Friday, while mainline Protestant denominations and Evangelicals hold distinct services focused on the biblical accounts of Jesus’ last words on the cross, with fasting levels that are described as less strict than in Catholic and Orthodox observances.
Church services typically start at 3 p.m., a time associated in tradition with Jesus’ death, and they can run more than an hour. Even though Good Friday is not a day of obligation and is treated as a workday in the United States, churches often draw packed congregations.
The Rev. John Baldovin, a professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College, said that “The most solemn days tend to retain the oldest ceremonies,” pointing to practices such as priests and ministers prostrating themselves at the beginning of the service. Baldovin also described the extensive prayers of the faithful that include genuflections, noting that the intentions can range from prayers for the pope to prayers for the Jewish people and for those who do not believe in God.
Another element of Good Friday worship is the adoration of the cross, where in many cases the cross is held near the altar for the faithful to kiss or touch in reverence. Baldovin said that among the earliest documents of this practice is the diary of a pilgrim in the 4th century who traveled from what is today Spain to Jerusalem, where he wrote that a bishop held up the cross for several hours as the faithful venerated it.
Beyond church walls, sacred images and processions are used to make the “passion” story feel immediate for global worshippers. In Seville, southern Spain, tens of thousands watch images of Jesus and Mary being carried in hourslong processions throughout Holy Week, and in Miami the organizing brotherhood is carrying Seville-made statues from Corpus Christi church through the Wynwood neighborhood, according to the reporting.
Organizers and participants tied the procession to the emotional meaning of the day as well as to its visual traditions. Manuel León, 22, a member of Miami’s Corpus Christi Catholic Church youth group, said, “The time leading up to Good Friday is a big reflection on sacrifice — what he did for me and what I am doing in return,” adding, “Pushing that statue from the back and seeing how torn up he is, what he did for us really becomes real.”
Procession imagery can also draw from traditions that create visual patterns along the route. In Miami, as statues exit the palm-fringed church, they are carried over intricate carpets made of colored sawdust and flowers, a detail described as a nod to a practice in Antigua, Guatemala, where such carpets are created for Holy Week twice on Good Friday.
Silvia Armira, who prepared the carpet drawings for the Miami procession and arrived in the city from Guatemala in the 1990s, said, “On Good Friday, we feel the pain of Mary, Jesus’ pain, his surrender for love,” and added, “It’s the great love of God, who gave up his only son for us.”
Across other countries, Good Friday devotions range from the pope’s traditional “way of the cross” in Rome to a trek to the adobe sanctuary of Chimayo in New Mexico and to practices described as self-flagellation and even crucifixion in the Philippines. For clergy, processions can also serve as a way to take the faith into public view and to emphasize that the crucifixion is not the last word in the story.
The Rev. José Luis Menéndez, the Cuban-born, Spanish-raised pastor at Corpus Christi in Miami, told more than 100 faithful at the last rehearsal for this year’s procession, “May your entire attitude be a living prayer.” Menéndez also framed the procession as an outreach, saying, “Our procession is a cry to the world — ‘get out, look at what is the way, the truth, the life,’” as participants prepared a float covered in silver-plated ornaments, flower vases and candlesticks.
For many participants, the procession’s central appeal is the movement from Good Friday’s suffering toward Easter joy. Manolo Gobea, who heads the brotherhood that organizes the Miami procession, said, “To the weeping Mary, we put flowers, we sing hymns, and that’s because we know how it ends — which is the resurrection.”