Time until Good Friday

Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday, marking the crucifixion. Because it is tied to Easter it moves each year between 20 March and 23 April. Holiday and closure rules vary by location and employer; this countdown identifies the date rather than whether a particular service will be open. This countdown works it out by computing Easter for the year and subtracting two days.

It is a public holiday across most of Europe, Latin America, Australia, Canada and much of the Commonwealth, while in the United States it is a state holiday in a minority of states only, though the stock markets close and bond trading is suspended. That mismatch is the usual scheduling problem: a meeting arranged from New York for the Friday will find European and Australian colleagues away. Trading and settlement calendars shift across the whole four-day weekend, so a payment started late in that week can take longer to clear than expected. Services are held in the afternoon in many traditions, marking the hours of the crucifixion, and in some countries public entertainment is restricted by law on the day. Fish rather than meat is the older convention for the meal.

In Bermuda the day is spent flying homemade kites on the beaches, a custom said to illustrate the ascension. Communities in Pampanga in the Philippines stage re-enactments that go as far as actual crucifixion, which the church there discourages every year. Malta and much of southern Italy hold slow evening processions with figures carried through the streets. The date surprises people at its early end: since Easter can come as soon as 22 March, this day can fall on the 20th and so arrive before the equinox, which makes a spring fixture that occasionally turns up while it is still winter.

The next one falls on Friday, 26 March 2027, and this page counts down to the midnight that starts it in whatever time zone your browser reports.

Good here is the older sense of holy or pious, the sense that survives in the Good Book and in good tide. Nothing in the name is a comment on the day's subject. German calls it Karfreitag, from an old word for mourning or lamentation, and the Romance languages call it holy Friday: Vendredi saint, Viernes santo, Venerdi santo. Fasting and abstinence from meat are the traditional observances, which is where hot cross buns and a fish supper both come from.

Where it is a legal holiday, some countries attach restrictions to it. Germany's Tanzverbot closes dance floors and bans public entertainment for the whole day in most states, with some extending it to the days either side, and the ban is challenged in court every few years. Ireland prohibited the sale of alcohol in pubs and off-licences on the date until 2018. Australian and Canadian rules vary by state and province. Those rules are why a bar or a cinema can be shut on a day when the shops are open.