SLICE
Thank GOD
By Farhan Shah
It’s GOOD
The week before Easter Sunday is the holiest week of the year for Christians all over the world, who hold prayers to
mark the death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ. The week begins on Palm Sunday, seven days before
Easter Sunday. Then, the days between Palm Sunday and Good Friday are known as Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday,
Holy Wednesday and Holy Thursday. No surprises there.
However, many people have wondered why Good Friday is named as such since that is the day Jesus allegedly dies.
There are a few explanations for this. One of the most widely accepted is that the word “good” actually means holy or pious, as
Jesus’s ultimate sacrifice showed his love for man. Another alternative clarification put forward by the Catholic Encyclopaedia
is that the word “good” was corrupted from the German phrase Gottes Freitag, or God’s Friday, while others contend that the
English term was adopted from another German phrase Gute Freitag, or Good Friday.
IDAY
GOTOEDRFRTING
ES
IN
TRIVIA
CO MM UN IST CU BA CE LE BR AT ES
GO OD FR IDA Y
pra ctis ing
one for
201 2 was a sig nifi can t mil est
mu nis t cou ntr y
Chr isti ans in Cub a, as the com
ida ys afte r the
had can cel led all reli gio us hol
r the for me r
195 9 rev olu tion . How eve r, afte
to the cou ntr y and
pop e Ben edi ct XVI pai d a visi t
be rec ogn ise d,
req ues ted for Goo d Fri day to
d the req ues t to
the Cub an gov ern me nt gra nte
ent al nat ure of the
“co mm em ora te the tra nsc end
ern me nt dec lare d
pop e’s visi t”. In 201 3, the gov
y for the sec ond
Goo d Fri day a nat ion al hol ida
yea r in a row .
MOMENTOUS
GOOD FRIDAY
EVENTS
A BBC Radio newscaster
went on air and famously
announced: “Good evening.
Today is Good Friday. There is
no news.” Apparently, the
media giants had judged
that nothing newsworthy
had occurred on that day.
The station then played
piano music for the news
segment until regular
scheduling took over.
18 April 1930
8
Family & Life • Mar 2014
Dr Denton Cooley became the
first surgeon to controversially
implant the world’s first artificial
heart into Haskell Karp. The
machine kept Karp alive for three
days while he was waiting for a
heart transplant, and although
Karp died less
than two days
after receiving
his new human
heart, it opened
the world to the possibilities of a
fully-functioning artificial heart.
The operation also sparked a long
famous feud between Dr Cooley
and his rival Dr Michael DeBakey,
which was only resolved close to
four decades later in 2007.
4 April 1969
IT’S AN EGGY
EASTER!
THE EASTER EGG ROLL AT THE
WHITE HOUSE
On Easter Sunday, children in America are invited to
roll their eggs at the White House Lawn to celebrate
the occasion. The event, which began in in 1878 during
President Hayes’s administration, was the result of a few
intrepid egg rollers who asked President Hayes whether
it would be possible to roll their eggs on the South Lawn
after they were banned from doing this activity at the
Capitol due to the damage it caused.
Initially, President Hayes was unaware of this activity and
asked his staff about this tradition. After he was told about
the Capitol ban, the President issued an official order that
children would be welcomed to roll their eggs at the White
House Lawn.
An estimated 70,000 people linked arms to
form a human chain between three nuclear
weapons centres in Berkshire, England as
part of an anti-nuclear demonstration. The
unbroken human chain stretched for an
incredible 21 kilometres along Kennet Valley.
When the protesters finally broke the chain to
go for a rally, the chairman of the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament said: “It is a great
victory, and especially a victory over the
Government’s propaganda. We have defeated
the Government today.”
1 April 1983