Friday 28 March 1662
(Good Friday). At home all the morning, and dined with my wife, a good dinner. At my office all the afternoon. At night to my chamber to read and sing, and so to supper and to bed.
Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
(Good Friday). At home all the morning, and dined with my wife, a good dinner. At my office all the afternoon. At night to my chamber to read and sing, and so to supper and to bed.
Saturday 29 March 1662Thursday 27 March 1662
(Good Friday)…..,a good dinner. …..
…and sing,…
what? isn’t Good Friday a day of fasting and pennance?
Houses of Parliament : boys went home, but the Lairds meet.
To day the lords practice ecological engineering also the JESUITS and priests be warned.[there are too many on the streets ]
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=14309
Good Friday and Christmas Day were two common law holidays which the Commonwealth Govt of the 1650s banned - introducing normal working on those days. Sam seems to be in some form of compromise! He works after dinner, but he doesn’t go to Church. He does, however, seem to have regarded this as a day to stay quietly at home for at least part of the day - hedging his bets. Vincent comments above that the H of P are also in two minds: the Commons observed the holiday, the Lords didn’t!
Re: Good Friday and fasting. For us Catholics, at least, Good Friday is a fast day. That means no meat, and only one meal for healthy adults. If Sam was observing in the same way, it explains the “good dinner.” The single meal can be a good one, although meatless. (I grew up wondering how eating shrimp was considered a sacrifice?!?)
For Roman Catholics up to, I think, the Second Vatican Council every Friday was a day of abstinence, that is refraining from eating meat. The crucial difference with Good Friday is that it was a day of both fasting and abstinence. ( It goes without saying that on Good Friday one was expected to attend the fairly lengthy service that included both the reading/singing of the passion and the veneration of the cross. This latter must have been anathema to the Puritans ).
…eh, 3 days & 3 nights…
With advent of printing Protestants read the Bible themselves and counted. Matt 12:40
Good Friday,
Sam certainly wasn’t practising abstinence as suggested by Ann, above, as he mentions both the good dinner and his supper.
Moreover, thoughts of Holy Week were so far from his mind on March 24th that he went out to look for playbills on that day and was only reminded of the church calendar by the absence of them.
Re:
If our Sam was with J. Evelyn his sermon would be:012:010 “…And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn….”
12: Zach: 10 [good Friday]