Good Friday is, of course, the Friday before Easter Sunday, the date of which is determined by mathematical calculations based on the lunar calendar – or, in other words, the phases of the Moon – and can fall on any one of thirty-five dates between March 22 and April 25. By contrast, the feast day of St. Stephen, known as St. Stephen’s Day, or Boxing Day, always falls on single, fixed date, namely December 26. Consequently, Good Friday and Boxing Day could never coincide, so the answer to the headline question is “Never!” I hear you cry.
And, of course, you would be absolutely correct if the question was purely about chronology, but it’s not; it is, in fact, something of an ‘old chestnut’ in horse racing circles, but that hasn’t stopped it becoming a favourite of quiz masters over the years. For the record, the horse Good Friday ran, and fell, in the Thorneycroft Chase at Wolverhampton – Dunstall Park staged National Hunt racing until 2002, believe it or not – on December 26, 1899; Good Friday did, literally, fall on Boxing Day that year. Click through for more fun and factual horse racing answers.