The Friday before Easter Day is the day when the church remembers Jesus’ crucifixion. In the Episcopal Church, it’s a day of fasting, discipline and self-denial. In the early church, candidates for baptism fasted for a day or two before the Paschal feast. In the west, the first of those days eventually acquired the character of a historical reenactment of the passion and death of Christ. The liturgy of the day includes John's account of the Passion gospel, a solemn form of intercession known as the solemn collects (dating from ancient Rome), and optional devotions before the cross (commonly known as the veneration of the cross).

From the glossary of the Episcopal Church.