I don’t wish to bore you with too many Good Friday pictures, so this is my last of the series – even though I have taken hundreds of shots. I took this shot as soon as we found a place along the pavement surrounding the village square. These men dressed like Roman soldiers were escorting the statue of the Veronica out of the village church and would continue to escort her throughout the procession.
Good Friday processions in the Maltese Islands are taken very seriously and are more like a pageant . Man dressed like Roman soldiers or in beautiful clothing of personages out of the bible like Moses, Abraham , Pilot, Herod, ect have their set places in the procession together with statues relating to Christ’s sufferings up to his crucifixion and burial. The basic set of statues with human-sized figures would be:
1. Christ praying in the Garden of Olives
2. Christ’s flagellation
3. Christ falling under the cross
4. Christ’s crucifixion
5. Christ’s burial
6. Our Lady of Sorrows.
Some of the churches that hold these manifestations have added other representations such as the Last Supper, Christ betrayed by Judas, Christ meeting the weeping women, Christ before Pilot.
Many thanks for viewing and for all the lovely comments and the fav's on yesterday's picture.
This is simply lovely, as is your description, as is the tradition. There are similar traditions in our area which used to be populated by simple folk, unable to read, and with no access to books even if they could have. Traditions like this helped people to know and appreciate the Bible stories.
Great capture.