March 20.] GOOD FRIDAY.
March 20.]
GOOD FRIDAY.
The term Good Friday is erroneously said to be peculiar to the English Church; but it is certainly an adoption of the old German Gute Freytag, which may have been a corruption of Gottes Freytag, God’s Friday, so called on the same principle that Easter Day in England was at one period denominated God’s Day.
In a manuscript homily, entitled Exortacio in die Pasche, written about the reign of Edward IV., we are told that the Paschal Day “in some place is callede Esterne Day, and in sum place Goddes Day.”—Harl. MSS. Cod. id. fol. 94.
Another MS. quoted by Strutt (Horda Angel-Cynna, vol. iii. p. 175) says it is called Good Friday, because on this day good men were reconciled to God. The length of the services in ancient times on this day, occasioned it to be called Long Friday, the Lang Frigdæg of the Anglo-Saxons, which they probably received from the Danes, by whom at the present time the day is denominated Lang Freday.—Med. Ævi Kalend. 1841, vol. i. p. 186.
The old ceremony of Creeping to the Cross on Good Friday is given from an ancient book of the ceremonial of the Kings of England, in the Notes to the Northumberland Household Book. The usher was to lay a carpet for the king to “creepe to the Crosse upon.” The Queen and her ladies were also to creepe to the Crosse.
In an original Proclamation, black letter, dated 26th February, 30th Henry VIII., in the first volume of a Collection of Proclamations in the archives of the Society of Antiquaries of London (p. 138), we read:
“On Good Friday it shall be declared howe creepyng of the Crosse signifyeth an humblynge of ourselfe to Christe before the Crosse, and the kyssynge of it a memorie of our redemption made upon the Crosse.”
Anciently it was a custom with the kings of England on Good Friday to hallow, with great ceremony, certain rings, the wearing of which was believed to prevent the falling sickness. The custom originated from a ring, long preserved with great veneration in Westminster Abbey, which was reported to have been brought to King Edward by some persons coming from Jerusalem, and which he himself had long before given privately to a poor person, who had asked alms of him for the love he bare to St. John the Evangelist. The rings consecrated by the sovereign were called “Cramp-rings,” and there was a special service for their consecration.
Andrew Boorde, in his Breviary of Health, 1557, speaking of the cramp, says, “The Kynge’s Majestie hath a great helpe in this matter in halowyng crampe-ringes, and so geven without money or petition.”
Good Friday has now almost ceased to be considered a fast by a great number of people. By many indeed its solemn significance is by no means neglected; but while these attend the churches others make high holiday. On this day excursion trains begin running, foot-races are advertised, donkeys and gipsy drivers make their first appearance for the season on heaths and commons, and Cornish and Devonshire wrestlers struggle for muscular triumphs in the presence of excited multitudes.—N. & Q. 5th S. vol. i. p. 261.
In many parts a small loaf of bread is baked on the morning of Good Friday, and then put by till the same anniversary in the ensuing year. This bread is not intended to be eaten, but to be used as a medicine, and the mode of administering it is by grating a small portion of it into water and forming a sort of panada. It is believed to be good for many disorders, but particularly for diarrhœa, for which it is considered a sovereign remedy. Some years ago, a cottager lamented that her poor neighbour must certainly die of this complaint, because she had already given her two doses of Good Friday bread without any benefit.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 155; see N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. iii. pp. 262, 263; see also [p. 157].
In London, and all over England (not, however, in Scotland), the morning of Good Friday is ushered in with a universal cry of Hot cross buns! A parcel of them appears on every breakfast-table. It is rather a small bun, more than usually spiced, and having its brown sugary surface marked with a cross. The ear of every person who has ever dwelt in England is familar with the cry of the street bun-vendors:
“One a penny, buns,
Two a penny, buns,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot Cross buns!”
Book of Days, vol. i. p. 418.
The following lines are taken from Poor Robin’s Almanac for 1733:
“Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs
With one or two a penny hot cross buns,
Whose virtue is, if you believe what’s said,
They’ll not grow mouldy like the common bread.”
It seems more than probable that the cross upon the Good Friday bun is intended to remind the devout of a Saviour’s sufferings. The following extract in illustration of the ancient name and use of the bun is from Bryant’s Analysis of Ancient Mythology, 1807, vol. i. pp. 371-373: “The offerings which people in ancient times used to present to the gods were generally purchased at the entrance of the Temple, especially every species of consecrated bread, which was denominated accordingly. One species of sacred bread which used to be offered to the gods was of great antiquity, and called Boun. Hesychius speaks of the Boun, and describes it as a ‘kind of cake with a representation of two horns.’” Julius Pollux mentions it after the same manner, “a sort of cake with horns.” It must be observed, however, as Dr. Jamieson remarks, that the term occurs in Hesychius in the form of βους, and that for the support of the etymon Bryant finds it necessary to state that “the Greeks, who changed the nu final into a sigma, expressed it in the nominative βους, but in the accusative more truly βουν.” Winckelman relates this remarkable fact, that at Herculaneum were found two entire loaves of the same size, a palm and a half, or five inches in diameter; they were marked by a cross, within which were four other lines, and so the bread of the Greeks was marked from the earliest period.—Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 187.
The Romans divided their sacred cakes with lines intersecting each other in the centre at right angles, and called the quarters Quadra.
“Et violare manu malisque audacibus orbem
Fatalis crusti, patulis nec parcere quadris.”
Virg. Æn. lib. vii. 114, 115.
“Nec te liba juvant, nec sectæ quadra placentæ.”
Mart. lib. iii. Epig. 77.
In the North of England a herb-pudding, in which the leaves of the passion-dock (Polygonum Bistorta) are a principal ingredient, is an indispensable dish on this day. The custom is of ancient date, and it is not improbable that this plant, and the pudding chiefly composed of it, were intended to excite a grateful reminiscence of the Passion, with a suitable acknowledgment of the inestimable blessings of the Redemption.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. 1849, vol. i. p. 150.