A Friday every year is devoted to the solemn ceremonial recollection of a death — the death of Jesus Christ.

Christ’s death on the cross was a decisive act that has motivated millions of people in the last two thousand years to identify themselves with the sorrows of this world and struggle for a more just society. 

Most Christians go on a 40-day fast, known as the lent, that culminates with Easter. The last week before Good Friday is called the Passion Week when people make their food austere and some even fast on Good Friday or simply subsist on hot cross buns and lime juice.

“We fast a little longer than usual on Good Friday. The idea is to experience that pinch of hunger. To carry on usual work feeling the inconvenience of hunger and thirst,” Rev Fr Ronnie Prabhu, Director, Fatima Retreat House explains. 

Catholics, protestants, Jacobites and every other Christian sect attend a three-hour church service — a special service that traces the seven stations of the cross. The seven words that Christ uttered on the cross.

Good Friday is a time to remember Christ's death on the cross to atone for mankind’s sins and it is a time when the cross becomes a ransom which Jesus has paid for people's sin. “Good triumphs over evil. It’s a test of  how faithful we can be to goodness despite evil around us. It’s a time of reconciliation,” says Thomas Mathew, an advertising professional.

Rev Vincent Rajkumar, presbyter of St Mark's Cathedral, reasons that the more common understanding is that “crucifiction was given to Christ as a punishment for his solidarity among the poor and needy of his time and these people were sinners and a cursed lot. The message is that there is a God who is with the poor through their pain and struggle.”