Good Friday
The one day of the year with no Mass anywhere in the world
Good Friday 2027 begins on Friday, March 26, 2027. Below: every key date for the season, what the Church asks of you, and the prayers that belong to it.
Good Friday 2027 — Key Dates
Good Friday Dates 2027–2035
The date moves each year because it is fixed to Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
| Year | Good Friday |
|---|---|
| 2027 | March 26, 2027 |
| 2028 | April 14, 2028 |
| 2029 | March 30, 2029 |
| 2030 | April 19, 2030 |
| 2031 | April 11, 2031 |
| 2032 | March 26, 2032 |
| 2033 | April 15, 2033 |
| 2034 | April 7, 2034 |
| 2035 | March 23, 2035 |
Counting the days? See how long until Easter — live, and free to embed on a parish site.
Walking the Way of the Cross? All fourteen stations in order — with the prayers at each, and it prints as a booklet.
Going to confession this season? A full examination of conscience — by the Ten Commandments, and it prints on a plain sheet.
What Is Good Friday?
Good Friday is the day the Church commemorates the crucifixion and death of Christ. In 2027 it falls on March 26, and the date moves every year because it is fixed to Easter. It is the only day in the entire year on which no Mass is celebrated anywhere in the world. That is not an omission; it is the most eloquent thing the liturgy does all year. On the day the sacrifice was actually offered, the Church does not re-present it. The altar is bare, the tabernacle is empty, and Communion is given from hosts consecrated the evening before. What takes place instead is the Celebration of the Lord's Passion, in three parts. The Passion according to John is read in full. The solemn intercessions are prayed for the whole world, including for those who do not believe, in a set of petitions of unusual scope. And the Cross is brought in and venerated, with people coming forward one by one to touch or kiss it. The liturgy has no opening rite. The priest enters in silence and prostrates himself on the floor before the bare altar, which is the single most striking gesture in the Roman rite. There is no opening because Good Friday is not a separate service; it is the continuation of Holy Thursday, which ended without a dismissal. The name is worth a note. Good here carries the older sense of holy, and the day is called Great Friday or Holy Friday in most other languages.
Observance & Rules
Good Friday is a day of both fasting and abstinence in the Latin Church, one of only two in the year alongside Ash Wednesday. Fasting means one full meal, plus up to two smaller meals that together do not equal a second full meal. It binds Catholics from their eighteenth birthday until their fifty-ninth. Abstinence means no meat, and binds everyone aged fourteen and older. Illness, pregnancy, nursing, heavy physical work and other serious reasons excuse a person, and nobody is expected to damage their health to keep a discipline. Many Catholics extend the fast through Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil. That is an ancient custom, encouraged but not obliged. Good Friday is not a holy day of obligation, which surprises people given that it is the most solemn day of the year. Attending is a matter of wanting to be there.
Practical Guide
Go, and go to the whole Triduum rather than only this. Good Friday is the middle movement of a single liturgy that begins on Holy Thursday evening and comes to rest at the Easter Vigil, and it is incomplete on its own. Venerate the Cross when the time comes. People hesitate at the queue, and it is the part of the day everyone remembers afterwards. Keep the hours between noon and three if you can, which is the traditional time of the crucifixion. The Stations of the Cross are commonly prayed then and many parishes offer them. Keep the day quiet. It is a working day in most countries now, which makes it harder, but what can be protected is the evening: no noise, no screens, nothing to fill it. The liturgy has already said everything, and the silence afterwards is doing work.
The Divine Mercy novena begins on Good Friday, and many pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at three in the afternoon, the hour the tradition keeps.
The nine days themselves, each with its own intention for a different group of souls, are set out in the Divine Mercy novena — from today to the Saturday before Divine Mercy Sunday.
From the cross Christ cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It is the first verse of Psalm 22 — and the reason the cry is a first line, not despair.
Prayers for Good Friday
Scripture for This Season
Bible Verses About Hope
Scripture for holding on when the future feels dark, the hope that does not disappoint.
Bible Verses About Trust
Scripture for learning to lean on God rather than on your own understanding.
Bible Verses About Death
Scripture for grief, for the dying, and for the Christian hope that death is not the end.
Where this falls in the year
- Part ofHoly Week
- See alsoHoly Days of Obligation
- EarlierPalm SundayMarch 21, 2027
- LaterEasterMarch 28, 2027
Frequently Asked Questions
Solemnity
All Saints DaySee the full liturgical calendar — every feast this year, and an embed for your parish site.