Good Friday his advisers, decreed that Good Friday that year would be a holiday. This was Castro's response to a request made personally to him by Pope Benedict XVI during the latter's Apostolic Visitation to the island and León, Mexico that month. The move followed the pattern of small advances in Cuba's relations with the Vatican, mirroring Pope John Paul II's success in getting Fidel Castro to declare Christmas Day a holiday. Both Good Friday and Christmas are now annual holidays in Cuba. In Hong Kong, despite the transfer of sovereignty from the UK to China in 1997, Good Friday continues to
The Long Good Friday The Long Good Friday The Long Good Friday is a British gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. It was completed in 1979, but because of release delays, it is generally credited as a 1980 film. The storyline weaves together events and concerns of the late 1970s, including mid-level political and police corruption, IRA fund-raising, displacement of traditional British industry by property development, UK membership of the EEC, and the free-market economy. It was voted at number 21 in the British Film Institute's list of the "BFI Top 100 British films" list, and provided Bob Hoskins with his breakthrough