Can Catholics Count to 3?

I had always wondered about how Catholics said that Jesus died on Good Friday and then rose on Sunday.  That is clearly 2 days later.  One day after Friday is Saturday, two days after Friday is Sunday and 3 days after Friday is Monday.  All of the prophecies said "on the 3rd day" or "in 3 days".  It is important to note that (at least in my opinion) "in" and "on" mean different things.  To me, "in" would fit in the "tomorrow is 1 day later" category, and "on" says that we count "today is day 1".  English is hard...

Ultimately this didn't pass the "who cares" test.  Whether he died on a Thursday and rose 3 days later on Sunday or died on a Friday and rose 2 days later on Sunday, didn't compel me to look into it any more.  The day of the week didn't matter to me as much as whether it DID happen.  But, nevertheless, it has been a lurking question in the back of my mind, just not one I devoted any thought to.  So, here is the solution that I stumbled upon that actually solve both problems:

1) He definitely died on a Friday:
In Luke 23 we see that they were in a hurry to get Jesus down off of the cross and into a tomb.  They had to do it before nightfall because it was going to be the Sabbath.  That is, Saturday.  So, he clearly died in a Friday, because the Sabbath began on Friday evening (as we would call it today).  Their days went evening to evening, not midnight to midnight.  So, it was definitely Friday.

2) "On the 3rd day".
This is the one that I had a little trouble with.  The bottom line is that "3 days and 3 nights" was an idiom for "at least part of 3 days".  After all, "night" was the beginning of the next day.  We can see a precedence for this Esther chapters 4 and 5, when she fasts for "3 days" but starts late on the first day and quits early on the 3rd day.  If you fasted for any part of one day, then that counted as a "day".  The bottom line is that they started counting at 1 not 0.  Tomorrow was day 2 of today, not 1 day after today.  That wasn't the language that they used; they counted the 'of', not the 'after'.  Just think 12 days 'of' Christmas.  Day 1 is the first day and day 3 is the 3rd day of Christmas.

Put all of that together and you get: Jesus died on Good Friday, and rose again on the 3rd day, Sunday, the Lord's day.  It goes to show you that it is important to read the bible from the perspective of a person reading it in the first century.  I can imagine them reading the lyrics to a Michael Jackson song and thinking, "Wait, it is good to be 'bad'?"