I can't imagine anything good about getting your hands and feet nailed to a cross -- especially on a Friday.
I agree Aphie....why is it called Good Friday? Nothing good about it really, especially for poor old Jesus.
Good Friday Definition and etymology. Good Friday, called Feria VI in Parasceve in the Roman Missal, he hagia kai megale paraskeue (the Holy and Great Friday) in the Greek Liturgy, Holy Friday in Romance Languages, Charfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German, is the English designation of Friday in Holy Week -- that is, the Friday on which the Church keeps the anniversary of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Parasceve, the Latin equivalent of paraskeue, preparation (i.e. the preparation that was made on the sixth day for the Sabbath; see Mark, xv, 42), came by metonymy to signify the day on which the preparation was made; but while the Greeks retained this use of the word as applied to every Friday, the Latins confined its application to one Friday. Irenaeus and Tertullian speak of Good Friday as the day of the Pasch; but later writers distinguish between the Pascha staurosimon (the passage to death), and the Pascha anastasimon (the passage to life, i.e. the Resurrection). At present the word Pasch is used exclusively in the latter sense. The two Paschs are the oldest feasts in the calendar. From the earliest times the Christians kept every Friday as a feast day; and the obvious reasons for those usages explain why Easter is the Sunday par excellence, and why the Friday which marks the anniversary of Christ's death came to be called the Great or the Holy or the Good Friday. The origin of the term Good is not clear. Some say it is from "God's Friday" (Gottes Freitag); others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag, and not specially English. Sometimes, too, the day was called Long Friday by the Anglo-Saxons; so today in Denmark.
Why do the markets close because of this religious holiday? What if I don't believe this obvious nonsense? I thought our government was supposed to keep religion separate. If people want to celebrate it, fine. However, I don't think the markets should be closed because of it. F. P.
They're closed on Christmas too. BTW, the markets aren't a government agency - so separation of church and state isn't an issue (although government agencies do close for Christmas). Markets close because the exchanges and the big trading houses have a lot of people who would take it off for religious reasons, even if it wasn't given as a holiday. Isn't it also a bank holiday? Doesn't matter what you believe or whether you personally want to trade on a particular day. You might not believe in Christmas either, but they're not going to run the exchanges when the big guys aren't going to show up to play. It's not much of a market without the market makers, specialists, and big futures traders.
msfe and ArchAngel have given two of the most direct and thorough responses you'll ever see on here (and in Chit Chat!) The market is not obligated to open on holidays you don't observe. If you feel the need to trade every day, learn the other markets so you could trade on Nikkei or HangSeng on these holidays. Or take up online poker or casino games, they never close! p.s. the markets are not a government agency, so Separation Of Church And State (first amendment) doesn't apply. However, putting "In God We Trust" on its currency is a government violation of the Separation, which only came about 50 years ago during the McCarthy Era anti-communism hysteria, as well as the insertion of the words "Under God" in the pledge of allegiance.