21 December 2007

Veliki Petak (Great Friday)

It is Veliki Petak today. It is the last Friday before Christmas. I was totally confused . I didn't hear of Veliki Petak before especially not in Singapore. Mum told me on this day, they have to abstain from meat. However we are having Tuna today. I'm going to cook Tuna! YAY!! :D
So I sat down in front of my computer and did a search. I typed Veliki Petak in the google search box and all I got were in Croatian. Well.. that will take me an entire day to translate or even finding the article that explains the origin of the festival. So next thing I tried was on wikipedia. No luck for Big Friday. Frustrated I looked up the online dictionary which gave me the phrase "Good Friday". Well isn't that supposed to be on Easter??? We have Good Friday public holiday in Singapore. I knew a thing or two about the festival being associated to Jesus' suffering and resurrection... that's how much I know. So I wiki-ed the term Good Friday. And there it was the answer! Apparently in this part of the world (Roman Catholics) celebrate Great Friday as it is associated with too much suffering and sadness if celebrated at Easter (Or as the article stated). I will include the Wiki link below for you to read more about it!
So this is the day to remember Jesus' suffering on behalf of all humans. In certain countries, they fast the whole day. Thank goodness.. they only abstain from meat (but not fish) today. Have I bored you enough with my tiny adventure? So here's the Wikipedia link.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi you got me perked with Veliki Petak! I just submitted a new discussion at blogcatalog asking bloggers to PLEASE enlighten me about Veliki Petak!

i'll get back to you as soon as I have the info. And by the way, Easter is the last Sunday of lent which is supposedly the end of the lenten season.

SheR. said...

Thanks. Merry Christmas to you!

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas! Croatia sounds like an awesome place to be :)

kopidunia said...

Not sure I can enlighten you on the Good Friday + Christmas combination, but from my childhood in Germany I remember that as a good Catholic you were supposed to abstain from meat every Friday, not just on Good Friday. Merry Christmas from Kopi Dunia :-)

SheR. said...

Thank you all for dropping by Joel and Kopidunia. :) Much appreciated. Have a merry christmas and happy new year.
Love from Croatia!