Good Friday is an Easter tradition that is followed by millions of people across the globe.
It is a day that marks the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, before Easter Sunday marks his subsequent resurrection.
And it is for this reason that many people observing Good Friday eat fish instead of meat, the Mirror reports.
It is believed that Jesus suffered and died on the cross on a Friday - Christians during the early says set aside this day to remember this and ‘unite their suffering’.
This resulted in the church marking every Friday as ‘Good Friday, where people remember the passion by offering ‘penance’.
Meat was seen as a worthy sacrifice as it was linked with feasts and celebrations.
In ancient cultures meat was seen as a delicacy and "the fattened calf" wasn't slaughtered unless there was something to celebrate.
Fridays were seen as a day of penance so eating meat on a Friday to "celebrate" the death of Jesus didn't sit well with the Church.
So why is fish not seen as meat?
The Church law specifically said "land animals".
"Abstinence laws consider that meat comes only from animals such as chickens, cows, sheep or pigs — all of which live on land. Birds are also considered meat."
Fish aren't seen as the same classification.
The distinction is mostly down to the Latin where the word used for meat is carnis, which means 'animal flesh'.
Importantly, while meat was seen as celebratory, fish was seen as an 'everyday thing' with most people being fishermen.
The reason it may seem strange today is the cultural change in how we see meat, which has now become more of an everyday meal choice. It's why people are often confused, as fish is now seen as more of a luxury.
Can you eat meat on Good Friday?
For Catholics observing Good Friday, the answer is no.
Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday, marks the day Jesus Christ was crucified.
The Catholic law of abstinence says that Catholics aged 14 and older refrain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent, including on Good Friday.
As well as this, Catholics aged 18 to 59 fast on both Ash Wednesday and Good Friday - a rule within the Roman Catholic church that means you can only consume only one full meal, or two smaller meals in the day.
Why is it called Good Friday?
It may seem weird to call the day when Jesus was flogged and executed "good", but there's a reason behind it.
Some say it's "good" as it's holy, others say it's a weird corruption of "God's Friday".
It's technically neither, the Oxford Dictionary states the use is down to the actual meaning of the word, good "designates a day on (or sometimes a season in) which religious observance is held".
So good means when there's a religious day. The lesser known Good Wednesday, the Wednesday before Easter, follows the same principle.
Saying this, there is documentation of it being Gottes Freitag aka God's Friday .
In Greek literature it's Holy and Great Friday, Holy Friday in Romance Languages and Karfreitag Sorrowful Friday in German.
