Good Friday Word Search

This Good Friday word search holds the words of the day Christians mark the crucifixion: the Stations of the Cross, Tenebrae and the Three Hours of devotion, the veneration of the cross, hot cross buns, Calvary and Golgotha, and the tomb at sundown.

The Three Hours run from noon to three, the hours when the Gospels say darkness covered the land; churches fill them with the seven last words Jesus spoke from the cross, one sermon or hymn for each. The Stations follow fourteen moments from Pilate's sentence to the burial, a devotion the Franciscans spread and Pope Clement XII fixed at fourteen in 1731. There is no Mass in Catholic churches that day; instead the cross is carried in, veiled, and people come forward to kneel before it or kiss it while the choir sings the Reproaches.

The Gospels supply the names: Simon of Cyrene made to carry the cross, the two thieves, the sponge of vinegar, the centurion's words, the temple veil torn in two, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who wrapped the body and laid it in a new tomb before the Sabbath. Hot cross buns are an English custom; a London rule of 1592 let bakers sell spiced buns only on Good Friday, at Christmas and for burials. The day is a public holiday in Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany and most of Latin America, though not a federal one in the United States.