Christians around the world commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. While the day is an official public holiday in many countries, it is just a regular working day for most people in Belgium.
Belgium has ten official public holidays, and six of them have a religious origin. Most people in the country have the day off on Easter Monday, Ascension, Whit Monday, Assumption Day, All Saints' Day and of course Christmas, but Good Friday – on 3 April this year – will still see them going to work.
In several Catholic countries (such as Spain), Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are official holidays, but they do not get the day off work on the Monday after Easter. In Belgium, it is the other way around: the Thursday and Friday before Easter are regular working days, while Easter Monday is a public holiday.
The reason for this is quintessentially Belgian: the country is not only rooted in a Catholic tradition, but also in a liberal one. These two movements had to reach a compromise and settled on Easter Monday.
While some argue that opting for Good Friday would have been a more logical public holiday than Easter Monday, the reasoning was that Easter is the absolute highlight of the Christian calendar. And because Easter always falls on a Sunday, it was decided to make the following day a public holiday.
Credit: Belga/Thierry Roge
While employees can of course opt to take a day off from work on the Friday before Easter, Belgian law does not define Good Friday as a public holiday – meaning it does not count as one of the country's ten official days.
Businesses and (government) services will operate as normal on Friday, but banks will be closed. This is not because they are more religious than the rest of the country, but because they use the day to replace 15 August (Assumption Day) – which falls on a Saturday this year.
Most churches will offer a special service on the day, but there are no specific widespread religious traditions in Belgium.
Still, many people – particularly elderly Christians – choose to mark the day with fasting in the morning and then a simple meal later in the day, often consisting of fish.
What is Good Friday?
On this day, Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday).
The date of the holiday varies every year, as it is linked to Easter (which, in turn, does not have a fixed date but always falls on the first Sunday of the first full moon in spring).
While many would hardly call the death of Jesus a "good" thing, the holiday's name reportedly comes from the word's interpretation as "pious, holy" – similar to "the good book" for the Bible or "good tide" for Christmas.
Many believe that the name Good Friday is a corruption of what used to be "God Friday," but this is incorrect.
In Old English, the day was called Long Friday – which referred to the prolonged observances of fasting and religious services, making it a day of extended devotion.
To this day, some predominantly Christian countries have laws prohibiting certain acts on Good Friday. In Germany, for example, public dancing and horse racing are forbidden to respect the sombre nature of the day.
