Good Friday and Easter Monday are two critical celebrations for the Christian community apart from Christmas. People all over the world recognize the importance of these Good Friday and Easter Monday and celebrate them in the appropriate way as per the significance attached to each of these events.
It is quite possible to think that the word “Good” for Good Friday may indicate a certain amount of festivities, and hence certain assumptions may be raised if Good Friday and Easter Monday are identical. However, pertinent to note is the fact that Good Friday and Easter Monday are different.
Key Takeaways
- Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, while Easter Monday marks the day after Easter Sunday, celebrating Jesus’ resurrection.
- Good Friday is a solemn day of mourning and reflection, with many Christians attending church services, while Easter Monday is a day of joy and celebration.
- Good Friday and Easter Monday are observed by Christians worldwide and are often recognized as public holidays in countries with Christian traditions.
Good Friday vs Easter Monday
The difference between Good Friday and Easter Monday is that on Good Friday, Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, while on Easter Sunday (Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday), he was resurrected, i.e. Jesus Christ came back to life.
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However, the above is not the only difference. A comparison between both the terms on certain parameters can shed light on subtle aspects:
Comparison Table
| Parameter of Comparison | Good Friday | Easter Monday |
|---|---|---|
| What does the day signify? | It indicates the day when Jesus Christ was crucified (nailed) on a cross; it indicates the extreme suffering of Jesus Christ as he was crucified. | Day after Sunday with Sunday refers to the day when Jesus Christ was resurrected. |
| On which day does it come? | Friday | Monday, i.e. the day after Easter Sunday |
| Does Good Friday include Easter Monday and vice versa? | No | Easter Monday includes Good Friday and even Easter Sunday |
| Does this day mark the end of lent or the fasting period? | No | Yes, Easter Monday comes after Easter Sunday, and fasting ends here |
| How many days of fasting does this day precede? | 37 | 40 |
| Is it a happy day or a sad day? | Sad day; it is a day of mourning and remembering Jesus Christ as he was crucified. | Happy day as it indicates the beginning of the Easter Season |
| Is it the day immediately after Maundy Thursday? | Yes | No |
| Was Jesus crucified on this day? | Yes | No |
| Does this day signify the death of Jesus Christ? | Yes | No |
| Was Jesus Christ raised from the dead on this day? | No | Yes |
| Is it a holiday ideally in all countries on this day? | Yes, with some exceptions | No, because some countries will only have a holiday on Good Friday (example-India) |
| Is it a day of reflection and more church rituals? | Yes | No |
| Is fasting performed on this day? | Yes | No |
| Introspection and Festivities | Good Friday is a day of sorrow; hence people don’t celebrate it as such. It can be considered a day of reflection. | Easter Monday is a day of festivities. |
What is Good Friday?
Good Friday is also known as Holy Friday. Good Friday is the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified (an ancient punishment).
Basically, on this day, Jesus Christ was nailed to death on a cross by subjecting extreme cruelties by certain rulers. Good Friday is a day before Easter Sunday or Easter Monday.
Good Friday is a day when people fast. Good Friday is the day when people recall and show respect for the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
This commemoration is done by performing various rituals in the church. Good Friday is not a day on which people will perform any celebration.
It is a day of fasting. It can be considered a holy day as people introspect in God’s name.
What is Easter Monday?
Easter Monday is the day after Easter, i.e. Easter Sunday, which happens to be on the immediate Sunday after Good Friday. On this day, i.e. Easter Sunday, it is believed that Jesus Christ was resurrected, i.e. he came back to earth or became alive again.
Easter Monday denotes the victory of life over death. Easter Monday is celebrated with easter eggs.
History indicates that in the olden times, when people were fasting during lent, they were not able to eat eggs, so the eggs were boiled and preserved and later presented as gifts to friends, families, and others on Easter. It is believed that the easter egg is a symbol of the revival of Jesus Christ, with the eggshell crack indicating the resurrection.
Main Differences Between Good Friday and Easter Monday
- Good Friday indicates the day when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross. Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday, on which Jesus Christ was believed to be restored to life.
- Good Friday signifies the agony and pain faced by Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made for humanity. Easter Monday signifies the fact there could be a life after death or the victory of good over evil or life over death.
- Good Friday is a day signifying pain and sorrow. Easter Monday is a day of festivities.
- Good Friday is a day of fasting. Easter Monday is not a day of fasting.
- Good Friday is normally a holiday in most countries. Easter Monday may not be a holiday in some countries.
- Good Friday is a day of modesty, showing great respect for Jesus Christ and church rituals. Easter Monday is a day of celebrations to signify the coming back(resurrection) of Jesus Christ.
- https://www.christianity.com/god/jesus-christ/what-s-so-good-about-good-friday.html
- https://www.nyulawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/NYULawReview-73-1-Brookman.pdf
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
I am not Christian as I follow Budh religion. We have holidays for Good friday and easter monday in my country and didn’t know the difference between them before reading this article
Cheers Paul, happy to help you
Good friday vs easter monday has been explained very well here. Usually I go to wikipedia for this kind of information but the addition of comparison table is more helpful than wikipedia
our mission is to explain every difference in best possible way with the help of tables, bullet points, FAQ, Infographic, images, video and of course text 🙂
Dear Sir/mdm,
you are doing great job in putting together these comparisons here
your love makes our team put together this kind of content (a lot of effort goes into it)
I am from the USA and Good Friday + Easter Monday both carry equal weight here. Some companies do come up with discount deals on Easter Monday. You have given the correct information here in the above article.
You are right, I have registered for some digital products like video editor and audio processing softwares and I always get good deals on Easter Monday.
to me as a Christian, both days are important. As a matter of fact, I observe a fast on Good Friday.
Hi David,
It’s good that you observe fast on Good Friday. Fasts keep up the religious beliefs in us.
I am a Christian and I know the difference between the two but I have never come across such a good way to show the comparison of GF to EM.
Great!! If we can grab attention of Christians who already know about Good Friday and Easter Monday then we are definitely doing some good stuff.
Your way of writing articles and the representation of key differences made me read whole of the article.
It’s our mission to explain all the differences in great detail that can be understood by everyone
In Switzerland, Good Friday is full of exciting deals on electrinics.
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this page and I find It really useful
& it helped me out a lot. I hope to give something back and help others like you
aided me.
Easter Monday is full of discount deals here in the UK.
And the fun part is that stores run of deals but not the internet based on personal choices.
What’s Taking place I am new to this, I stumbled upon this I
have found It was positively helpful.
We hope that soon both good friday and cyber monday become an integral part of our society.
In the USA, there is one Friday which is so excited for spending money and that is Black Friday.
You said it very well.!
If we want to save this Earth from destruction, then all of use should follow the traditions set by our ancestors because these days like Good Friday and easter Monday have been existing since so many centuries
I have to agree here because even if we buy the best cars, they cnannot be part of attraction unless shown to other people.
I have traveled the world a lot and the lesson learned is that Christians are the best.
Everybody is the best bro, the only requirement is to first become a human being.
I wonder since hos many years, people have been celebrating the Good Friday?
I doubt if anybody will be able to provide the exact answer to that.
Good friday has always been special to me because of Jesus Christ’s birth.
Then the question arises “what is more important day?”
How do Christians celebrate Chritmas Holidays?
They celebrate by going to Church and then feast at the dinner time.
for me, both Good Friday and cyber mondy are precious days to celebrate hr
Great to know about your faith.
You are so awesome! This site is one thing that’s needed on the web, someone with some originality!
Howdy! This post could not be written any better!
GF and EM have been explained very well.
who says that Good Friday and cyber Monday are not wort p gave india a death
My spouse and I absolutely love your blog and find most of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for.
Hi there, I read your blogs daily. Your writing style is awesome, keep it up!
Fine way of explaining, and nice content to obtain data concerning my presentation topic, which i am going
to present in academy.
Appreciate the recommendation. Let me try to remember it till next year.
Since everyone is sharing their experience with Good Friday, I would also like to say that Good Friday is like extra fun for all of us due to the spirituality attached with it.
If you would like to improve your experience only keep visiting this site and be updated
with the most recent topics posted here.
An inspiring article there. people need to know about the difference in full detail and this article is good.? Good luck!
Hi! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering
which blog platform are you using for this website?
I’m getting fed up of Wordpress because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives
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hi!,I like your writing so much! I always thought about the difference of terms and now we have askanydifference website on this
May be that is you, Piyush Yadav! Having a look forward to see you.
Had there been no Good Friday, I would not have been so special because I was born on Good Friday,
hy\ey, Piyush you are doing a great job.
Lesson learned, never underestimate the power of the web and the differences of ask any difference.
The cake my wife cooks on Easter Monday is out of the world. ALl of you guys should visit my home on Easter monday for a feast.
The quality of your articles is too good. To me, Good friday and Easter monday were two public holidays where eat and enjoy. Never knew about the difference in so much detail
The eggs on Easter Monday are the special ones and they look so good in different colors.
oh yes they do come in all colors including Red, Green, Yello, Blue, Pink and multi-colored.
haha 😉 the friday is always good and monday is so boring at workplace.
lol 🙂 but we are talking about Good Friday and Easter Monday here.
These two days are important to me after Christmas. The Almighty is always there with all of us.
Definitely and also do pass on these values to your next generations.
The glory of Jesus goes past religious barriers. I like to know about all religions and finally concluded that all religions are teaching a very similar way of life.
The ways of Almighty are so unique and different. The people look and behave differently but ultimately everything originated from the same energy resource at the start of the world (also known as Big Bang Theory)
Peculiar article, exactly what I needed.
Happy to help you today
Your website is loading very fast for me. Congrats on providing a good user experience.
Hi Amit,
It’s great that someone from Tryootech is appreciating the loading speed of askanydifference website
I live in California and have been following your website for so long now. The best thing I like about the website is that you have table for comparing Good friday and Easter Monday and on top of that there is also bullet point list.
Hi there!
We are delighted to note that you like our website content.
Good friday has always been special to me because I was born on Good friday
Hi Vinod,
that is really a special day for you!!
Its the Good Friday that I knew about since childhood (I am not Christian). As I grew up and started my online presence and dealt with USA based companies, I came to know that there is a day named Easter Monday also. So today I decided to lookup the difference between these two and landed on this page. Now I know the difference.
Thanks for sharing your story. Good Friday is world-famous. Apart from Easter Monday, there are many days that are not known to non-Christians like All Saints’ Day, Epiphany and Advent Sunday etc.
Both these days do fill me up with so much +ve energy and also wanted to say that you have done good job explaining the difference.
Thanks for the kind words.
Hi Piyush,
Thanks for writing about good friday. People shouldn’t confused good friday with black friday and similarly, easter monday is different from cyber monday.
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for making this clear for our audience here.
I am Muslim but I also follow Christianity. There are churches around my home and I do visit them quite often. Been there on Good Friday and it was great experience.
Its people like you who make a positive difference in this world.
I like Easter monday because it reminds me of cyber monday 😉