> (…) the meaning of the name Good Friday can be understood as historically meaning ‘holy’. The use of ‘good’ denotes that this is a day of religious observance (…)
English-speaking eastern christians call it this too. But every day of holy week is named like that, holy tuesday, holy saturday, etc. Easter/Pascha is the one exception in the week.
In Dutch those have all their own somewhat cryptic names: Goede Vrijdag (Good Friday), Witte Donderdag (White Thurday), Stille Zaterdag (Silent Saturday).
At risk of being a pedant, Pascha would not be the exception to Holy Week but rather after the conclusion of Holy Week. The end of week is sundown on Saturday.
After Holy Week has ended on Saturday, The Resurrection (i.e. Pascha), occurs on the first day of the week - Sunday. :)
(you are right it is slightly tedious those details, but well done) Overall it seems striking to me that the seven day week itself is one of the enduring and fundamental features of the ancient world that has so thoroughly formed the fabric of modern life in the West and elsewhere.
Liturgically, the day begins at sundown and both the Holy Week and Paschal services are moved to the beginning of the Liturgical day “in anticipation”. So the Lamentation service of Holy Saturday will have been said on the calendar-Friday and the first services of Pascha, the Rush Procession and Orthros (Matins), will start on calendar-Saturday. So, Pascha begins on Saturday, but also on Sunday depending on your reference point.
