Good Friday: Meanings and Rituals

What does Good Friday mean to you?

For Christians, Good Friday is a holy day celebrated on the Friday before Easter or Pascha. It commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary. Special prayer services are often held on this day with readings from the Gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion.

For the Irish, a peace accord called the Belfast Agreement or the Good Friday Agreement, was signed on this holiday in 1998.

For Ontarion-Canadians, Good Friday is one of a dwindling number of statutory holidays for which we receive a day off! The others are: New Year's Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. (Ontarions and Quebecois get eight statutory holidays with pay. Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan and the three territories all have nine. There are seven in Manitoba, six in New Brunswick, and five in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and PEI.)

For me and the Peeps, pagan-Ontarions that we are, we are enjoying our day off with lunch and naps. We have our own rituals: a long lie-in (too much Corrie Street lingo there - we mean "sleeping in"), lunch, and naps. Holidays are usually filled with family and friends, but we have decided that since we are not visiting in-person this holiday with any of our family and friends (except for that pub crawl tomorrow with Ms. Blonde One), that we would have a virtual visit with an treasured individual.

Today's visitor is Joey, beloved feline friend of Ms. Firefly Knit. Sadly, Joey is no longer with us, but as this is a virtual visit, that is, ahem, immaterial.


Joey was born in Whitby in August 2000. His mom, a stray, lived across the road from Ms. Firefly Knit and her family. Joey's whole family was scheduled to be put down unless they were adopted. Sadly, we believe his mother was put down...but happily Joey found himself in a house chock full of crazy animals - human, feline and canine.

Ms. Firefly Knit's wee sister Emily named him Joey in honour of Joey Tribbiani from Friends, as well as the Sydney Olympics. His nickname was "Shmoo". [Ed: Not sure why. A shmoo is a fictional cartoon creature, created and first drawn by the cartoonist Al Capp in his newspaper comic strip Li'l Abner. The shmoo is shaped like a plump bowling pin with legs, but no arms. They reproduce asexually, and are very prolific. They require no sustenance other than air.]

Joey was a great fan of the outdoors (unlike myself). Unfortunately, his love of the outdoors was his downfall when he was shmucked by a car early one October morning in front of Ms. Firefly Knit's house. He is the only pet buried in the family backyard. He is greatly missed.

I am proud to have him as our inaugural virtual guest on this auspicious date.