Today is Great Friday, or Good Friday, or Veliki Petak. Today is the day our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, the same cross we, Christians symbolize. Through that cross we make big sacrifices and never waver, from the beginning and ends of our temporal but important lives.
I experienced numerous Great Fridays, especially when I was a Roman Catholic, if there's something me and my family do as a unit during those days, and now as an Orthodox Christian with my wife, here are some:
With my family members, there's a mass in Good Friday, and there's this thing that among my people that stop taking a bath around 3pm, fish is still allowed to be consumed, and we watch various Christian shows on tv. Dad once went in the province alone for the usual Good Friday procession, and brought home a rice cake wrapped in banana leaves.
My first Orthodox Good Friday, I tried what the folks in monasteries did, to the detriment of my body and that day, I don't have work. The next two Great Fridays I had work, so I ate breakfast and lunch but made sure to avoid fish, meat and dairy products(except this year for coffee for work purposes) and every night from work, I cook the Easter food as well, made from lamb/mutton with vegetables. With my wife this year, she will bring as well her own Easter food, prepared two days prior.
Of course, when there's darkness, there's light. When sacrifice is made, blessings will arrive. Everyone will realize it when they step inside the church, both help through the Easter preparations, as well as the Vespers and Matins of Veliki Petak.
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