From Jerusalem to the World's Liturgies

Much of the observance descends from fourth-century Jerusalem, where the pilgrim Egeria describes the faithful venerating a relic of the cross on this day. The Reproaches (Improperia), in which the crucified Christ is imagined reproaching his people, entered the Western rite in the medieval period and have since been revised or dropped in several churches because of a long history of hostile reading against Jews; that editorial sensitivity is itself part of the modern life of the day.

Practice varies widely. The Stations of the Cross are walked in Catholic churches; Tenebrae services of extinguished candles are kept in several traditions; three-hours devotions on the "seven last words" are common in Anglican and Protestant use. In much of the Christian world it is a public holiday, and in places such as the Philippines, Spain and Latin America it anchors large penitential processions. Eastern Orthodoxy keeps the corresponding day as Great and Holy Friday, with the burial procession of the Epitaphios. Across all of them the day is deliberately unresolved: it holds the death in view without yet announcing the resurrection.