One celebrates the Passion of Christ.
The other, the passion for shopping.
And both bear a name that is never translated.
Good Friday: the “good” Friday of a sacred drama.
In English, Good Friday refers to the day when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Christ.
A strange, almost paradoxical name. How could this Friday of suffering be good?
The answer lies in Anglo-Saxon culture: here, good does not mean “joyful”, but “holy”, “just”, “redemptive”. It is a “good” Friday because it leads to salvation.
Languages do not merely reflect words; they reveal a worldview. Where French speakers emphasise the pain (Vendredi saint), English speakers highlight the bright outcome: the good achieved through sacrifice.
The same reality, two different sensibilities.
Black Friday: the “Black Friday” that was never translated
A few months after Easter, another “Friday” takes centre stage: Black Friday.
But this time, no more crosses, no more contemplation… just full baskets and overloaded servers.
The term first appeared in the United States in the 1960s, in Philadelphia: the police then spoke of a “Black Friday” to describe the chaos in the streets after Thanksgiving — traffic jams, crowds, incidents.
Then marketing changed everything: “black” became the colour of profitability.
And when the concept arrived in France, the term “vendredi noir” seemed too catastrophic, almost anxiety-inducing.
So the English was kept: more marketable, more “American”, less guilt-inducing.
When language reveals marketing
On one side, Good Friday, the drama of faith.
On the other, Black Friday, the festival of consumption.
Two “Fridays” that have become untranslatable.
And it’s no coincidence.
Every word carries an emotional, cultural, symbolic weight.
Translators know it well: to translate is to arbitrate between meaning and feeling.
The linguistic lesson
👉 In French, Friday evokes the Passion and contemplation.
👉 In English, it evokes redemption… or reduction.
The untranslatables tell us what cultures prefer to highlight:
– the tragic or salvation,
– the symbol or the promotion,
– the sacred or the average basket.
At Alpis
At Alpis, we know that a faithful translation is not enough. It must also be right — culturally, emotionally, symbolically.
Because between a Good Friday and a Black Friday, there is a whole world…
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