Friday is the subject of today’s blog. Frankly, I’ve been having trouble conjuring up topics to write about, so sometimes I have to dig deeply into the cesspool of my mind. The idea for this column came in a roundabout way. I went to a doctor’s appointment in Austin on Good Friday (April 4, 2026), saw a local catfish restaurant that had a 4.6 rating on Google, and decided to have lunch there. We pulled up at 10:50 a.m., and there was already a line to get in! I realized that the religious holiday meant many people would be eating fish. Then, I started thinking about Fridays.
WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF THE NAME FRIDAY?
Etymonline says:
Friday(n.)
sixth day of the week, Old English frigedæg “Friday, Frigga’s day,” from Frige, genitive of *Frigu (see Frigg), Germanic goddess of married love. The day name is a West Germanic translation of Latin dies Veneris “day of (the planet) Venus,” which itself translated Greek Aphrodites hēmera.
Compare Old Norse frijadagr, Old Frisian frigendei, Middle Dutch vridach, Dutch vrijdag, German Freitag “Friday,” and the Latin-derived cognates Old French vendresdi, French vendredi, Spanish viernes. In Germanic religion, Freya (q.v.) corresponds more closely in character to Venus than Frigg does, and some early Icelandic writers used Freyjudagr for “Friday.”
A fast-day in the Church, hence Friday face (17c.) for a gloomy countenance.
OK, that’s your education for the day because, as far as I’m concerned, Friday means no work the next day if you are working a traditional work week.
FRIDAY AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Friday is designated as the day that Jesus died on the cross to save us. According to the Bismarck Catholic Diocese, the day is a reminder to mold ourselves to God’s will and suffer with Christ as he did on the cross for the good of the Church.
(Not to be sacrilegious here, but not being Catholic, I thought it was a day to let my hair down and live a little.)
FRIDAY IS AN ISLAMIC HOLY DAY
Did you know that Friday is a holy day for Muslims? The day is the most important one of the week. Muslims pray together and listen to a lecture beforehand that educates them about God and their religion.
FRIDAY AND FISH DAY
I’ve known for years that Catholics were to eat fish on Fridays because at the public schools I attended (and Friday slumber parties), fish sticks were a mainstay. Today, however, abstaining from meat (fish are not considered meat because they are cold-blooded rather than warm-blooded) is observed only on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent.
The idea is that meat is considered a food of the rich folks, and by eating fish, you are denying yourselves the riches of the world and are therefore able to receive the riches of life with God.
Now, for some gossip here. Did you know that when Henry VIII became king and broke from the Roman Catholic Church, eating fish became a political “no-no”? It was considered “popish flesh”. The fishing industry took it in the shorts, so, in 1547, meatless days were mandated by English law.
FRIDAY AND BAD LUCK
The origins of Friday the 13th are murky, at best. Morse Myth? Knights Templar apocalypse? Last Supper disaster? Christ’s day of death? Who knows? One author contends that the earliest references he has located to unlucky Friday the 13th are from French works in the 1800s.
One thing is certain, however, is that the Tarot Death Card contained the number 13 as early as 1565.
LAST THOUGHTS ON FRIDAY
I’ll leave you with some fishless food for thought with a quote from Abhysheq Shukla: “People wait all week for Friday, all year for summer, all life for happiness.”
What are you waiting for?
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