What's So Special About FRIDAY?

Right before I left to work this morning, I received a call from my sister. She greeted me with an enthusiastic “TGIF”! Of course, it’s Friday…

What’s so special about the day between Thursday and Saturday? Really, this just leads to more questions. And the answers are abundant. Even those of us who no longer work a Monday thru Friday job feel the exhilaration! 

Is it exhaustion or exhilaration or both at the same time?

Back in the days when I worked the Monday-Friday schedule, I remember the countdown officially started sometime during the day on Monday. By Friday, I was exhausted and ready for a break, a party or a date night.

This is because, in most Western countries, Friday is the fifth and final day of the working week. Research shows that people are happiest on Fridays. 

Though Friday has always been held an unlucky day in many Christian countries, still in the Hebrides it is supposed that it is a lucky day for sowing the seed. Good Friday in particular is a favorite day for potato planting — even strict Roman Catholics make a point of planting a bucketful on that day.

Is it one thing or is it everything?

In the United States, Black Friday is also the nickname of the day after Thanksgiving, the first day of the traditional Christmas Shopping Season.

Casual Friday (also called Dress-down day)) is a relaxation of the formal dress code employed by most employers for the last day of the working week.

POETS day is a term used by workers in the United Kingdom and Australia to refer to Friday, the last day of the work week. It commonly stands for “Piss Off Early; Tomorrow’s Saturday”.

Lakewood Church pastor and New York Times bestselling author Joel Osteen, published a book called “Every Day a Friday — How To Be Happy 7 Days a Week”. As a man who maintains a constant positive outlook in spite of circumstances, Osteen has described this message as a core theme of his ministry. With personal experiences, scriptural insights, and principles for true happiness, he shows you how to find the same opportunities for pure joy that you experience at five o’clock on Friday.

Friday is the most important and blessed day of the week for Muslims. This is because Muslims gather for prayer in congregation on Friday. Before the Friday prayer, Muslims listen to a lecture that is designed to permit them with important knowledge about Islam, Prophets and Allah Almighty.

Bob Glazer, the founder and CEO of global performance marketing agents, Acceleration Partners publishes a newsletter called Friday Forward that, largely to word of mouth, today reaches over 100,000 people each week in fifty countries on six continents through e-mail, company intranets and Slack channels. Bob loves hearing the stories of how Friday Forward is motivating teams, inspiring people to take action and apply the different concepts of capacity building, motivation, resilience and gratitude in their work and life. 

I was exhilarated to find out that the word for Friday in most Romance languages is derived from Latin dies Veneris or “day of Venus”. 

Friday is associated in many cultures with the love goddess Venus, and the planet named for her.

Now I get the lyrics to the 1990’s song by The Cure; Friday, I’m In Love…

“I don’t care if Monday’s black 

Tuesday, Wednesday, heart attack

Thursday, never looking back

It’s Friday, I’m in Love…”