Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Black Friday, or Easter Friday, is a Christian religious holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). On this day, which is considered the saddest one in the church year, the Orthodox Christians fast strictly. Contacted by IPN, priest of the Chisinau Church “Saint Hierarch Nicolae” Petru Storoja said that no liturgical service is held in churches today. The parishioners can yet come to church to listen to sections read from the gospel.

The pries said Good Friday actually starts at midnight, where the liturgy’s main feature is the reading of 12 sections from the gospels, all of which are accounts of Jesus Christ’s passion. Good Friday is a day of mourning and sorrow over the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and a reminder that the sins of all people made it necessary for him to die in the first place. It’s also a day of gratitude for the supreme sacrifice that he made.

On this day we commemorate the sufferings of Christ: the mockery, the crown of thorns, the scourging, the nails, the thirst, the vinegar and gall, the cry of desolation, and all the Savior endured on the Cross.

On Good and Holy Friday, the parishioners can attend the taking of the Holy Air out of the chancel. This means the burying of Christ and the requiem for God.