When does Good Friday 'start?'

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Aeden

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So, I just want to know something real quick: did the period of fasting and abstinence of Good Friday start at 4PM on the 24th or midnight on the 25th? Cause I just had dinner composed of meatballs, as well as an appetizer and dessert. That’d be meat, one meal and two snacks. I’m also having company for dinner tomorrow, so I’d hate to be stuck serving food and not eating if I just exhausted my three meals of Good friday on account of the beginning of vespers.
 
I am not positive but for some reason I want to say midnight to midnight.

I’m think that is what I was told when I was in RCIA
 
I’m not 100% sure about this either but I think 4PM is when it does liturgically start.
 
I am not positive but for some reason I want to say midnight to midnight.

I’m think that is what I was told when I was in RCIA
That’s what I always heard until I came across the concept of vespers for many liturgical days that are great feasts tonight while googling when lent ended.
 
I think it starts at midnight. I have never heard anything else.
 
I’m not 100% sure about this either but I think 4PM is when it does liturgically start.
No, because the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, for Holy Thursday, is after that - my parish had it at 7 PM.

A liturgical day is midnight to midnight. The Church allows us to fulfill our obligation for Sunday or a holy day of obligation on the evening before. But, requirements of fast and abstinence do NOT extend to the evening before the day itself.
 
I am not positive but for some reason I want to say midnight to midnight.

I’m think that is what I was told when I was in RCIA
This is what I thought as well. I mean, this is the most usual way days are understood as well, even outside of a religious context. 🤷
 
So, I just want to know something real quick: did the period of fasting and abstinence of Good Friday start at 4PM on the 24th or midnight on the 25th? Cause I just had dinner composed of meatballs, as well as an appetizer and dessert. That’d be meat, one meal and two snacks. I’m also having company for dinner tomorrow, so I’d hate to be stuck serving food and not eating if I just exhausted my three meals of Good friday on account of the beginning of vespers.
The day is midnight to midnight and so is the fasting and abstinence obligation.

Don’t overthink it.
 
While the Triduum begins at evening mass on Thursday, Good Friday begins at midnight. Because there is no Mass, there is no “vigil of Good Friday”.

ICXC NIKA
 
Good Friday is from midnight to midnight as well as the prescribed fasting & abstinence.
 
If I may restate what I said earlier to be a little clearer.

To the OP, you seem to be confused between what the Church allows and what the Church requires.

For a Mass obligation, the Church allows us to meet the obligation on the evening before; e.g. Saturday evening for Sunday, or the evening of December 24 for Christmas Day.

For a fasting or abstinence obligation, the Church DOES NOT require us to begin observing the obligation on the evening before. As others have stated, it is midnight to midnight on the day itself.
 
Right - it’s a tad bit confusing. The Good Friday fast/abstinence is midnight to midnight. But, when liturgically talking about the Triduum, it’s more like evening to evening. So. The fast/abstinence is midnight to midnight - BUT - liturgically, the Triduum is considered to be Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter, not Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday. Why? Because it mirrors the Jewish feast of Passover (in fact, it IS Passover). And Jewish days are sundown to sundown.

It gets confusing, because Jesus’s Passover seder with his apostles (the Last Supper) took place on the same Jewish day as His Passion. But it was a different day on the Roman calendar (which went midnight to midnight). And so the Triduum, liturgically, follows the Jewish calendar, while the fast and abstinence of Good Friday follows the Roman calendar.

It’s also why Easter moves all over the place - it’s originally based on the date of Passover, but since the Church found it ridiculous to ask Jews when Passover was so that we could celebrate Easter (and because the Jews themselves couldn’t agree - besides, they would probably were offended themselves), we decided to calculate the date of Easter for ourselves (the differences between the Western Easter and the Eastern Easter have more to do with the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars on the exact date of the first day of spring). This is why Easter and Passover usually fall around the same time, but not always.
 
In fact, the Triduum begins in the evening of Maunday Thursday and is the only Church season that does not begin at midnight.

It seems then that two seasons overlap in a sense, as Easter Sunday is of course, the beginning of Eastertide, but is still Triduum.

ICXC NIKA
 
No, because the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, for Holy Thursday, is after that - my parish had it at 7 PM.

.
Except, The Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper does not end. Its the one day where the Priest does not conclude the Mass (The Mass is over…). Instead the Blessed Sacrament is taken in a procession to lie in repose.
 
Wow. Talk about overthinking things, sheesh :rolleyes:

Holy Thursday is a solemnity. Vespers of Holy Thursday is Vespers of Holy Thursday – NOT Vespers 1 of Good Friday.

Good Friday does not begin until midnight.

And the Triduum absolutely begins on Holy Thursday, not Good Friday (sorry, Powerofk). Because Holy Thursday is a solemnity, it is not “bumped” by the vigil of another solemnity (Good Friday). At the mass on Holy Thursday evening, we do not anticipate Good Friday. We celebrate Holy Thursday.

We are not Jewish. Regardless of how Our Lord and his disciples celebrated Passover, we as Catholics follow the teachings of our Church – Holy Thursday is Holy Thursday.

And the Triduum is Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. 'Nuff said.
 
That’s what I always heard until I came across the concept of vespers for many liturgical days that are great feasts tonight while googling when lent ended.
They are 2 different issues.

The fasting & abstinence requirement applies to the calendar-day which is midnight to midnight on Good Friday.

Beginning great Feasts with vespers is a different issue.
 
Right - it’s a tad bit confusing. The Good Friday fast/abstinence is midnight to midnight. But, when liturgically talking about the Triduum, it’s more like evening to evening. So. The fast/abstinence is midnight to midnight - BUT - liturgically, the Triduum is considered to be Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter, not Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday. Why? Because it mirrors the Jewish feast of Passover (in fact, it IS Passover). And Jewish days are sundown to sundown.

It gets confusing, because Jesus’s Passover seder with his apostles (the Last Supper) took place on the same Jewish day as His Passion. But it was a different day on the Roman calendar (which went midnight to midnight). And so the Triduum, liturgically, follows the Jewish calendar, while the fast and abstinence of Good Friday follows the Roman calendar.

It’s also why Easter moves all over the place - it’s originally based on the date of Passover, but since the Church found it ridiculous to ask Jews when Passover was so that we could celebrate Easter (and because the Jews themselves couldn’t agree - besides, they would probably were offended themselves), we decided to calculate the date of Easter for ourselves (the differences between the Western Easter and the Eastern Easter have more to do with the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars on the exact date of the first day of spring). This is why Easter and Passover usually fall around the same time, but not always.
The start of a day varied in different places: in the ancient Church, the day was defined differently:
  • Umbrians: noon to noon
  • Romans: midnight to midnight
  • Athenians: sunset to sunset
  • Babylonians: sunrise to sunrise
Christians were known for gathering together before sunrise and after sunset. The time for celebration of the Eucharist in the ancient Church was different than today.
 
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