AP Images: Greek Orthodox mark Superior Friday with solemn bier processions
NAFPAKTOS, Greece — The procession of “Epitaphios,” symbolizing the bier that carried the human body of Jesus to his grave, took position throughout Greece on Friday, which was Superior Friday in the Orthodox Christian calendar.
The solemn processions, with the flower-adorned biers adopted by the clergy and the trustworthy, are frequently magnificent, specially in sites wherever bier processions from just about every parish converge into a central sq..
The city of Nafpaktos, in western Greece, is one particular this kind of town. At the time element of the Byzantine Empire, it was afterwards hotly contested between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetians, who referred to as the city Lepanto. One of the greatest ever naval battles, the Fight of Lepanto, involving almost 450 ships, was fought in the nearby Gulf of Patras on Oct. 7, 1571. A coalition of Western states defeated the Ottoman fleet.
Partly in commemoration of that event, neighborhood fishermen put their possess stamp on the Fantastic Friday bier procession by lighting fires on the battlements of the Venetian-built fortifications. The celebration was revived in the 1950s and, each and every yr it follows a very similar script: Though the processions from the two key parishes get underway, fires are lit on the battlements at sunset and a chorus sings hymns. This calendar year, choral function by a contemporary Greek composer was performed.
A substantial cross was erected in the port’s entrance with wire and adorned with lanterns, introducing to the atmospherics of the function.
Soon after a sermon by the regional bishop, the processions departed from the port for their respective parishes close to 10 p.m. and fireworks lit up the sky.
A town official said attendance was substantially bigger this 12 months, with several site visitors coming to watch the procession, in addition to a sizeable part of Nafpaktos’ 25,000 citizens.
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Nellas documented from Athens, Greece.
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NAFPAKTOS, Greece — The procession of “Epitaphios,” symbolizing the bier that carried the human body of Jesus to his grave, took position throughout Greece on Friday, which was Superior Friday in the Orthodox Christian calendar.
The solemn processions, with the flower-adorned biers adopted by the clergy and the trustworthy, are frequently magnificent, specially in sites wherever bier processions from just about every parish converge into a central sq..
The city of Nafpaktos, in western Greece, is one particular this kind of town. At the time element of the Byzantine Empire, it was afterwards hotly contested between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetians, who referred to as the city Lepanto. One of the greatest ever naval battles, the Fight of Lepanto, involving almost 450 ships, was fought in the nearby Gulf of Patras on Oct. 7, 1571. A coalition of Western states defeated the Ottoman fleet.
Partly in commemoration of that event, neighborhood fishermen put their possess stamp on the Fantastic Friday bier procession by lighting fires on the battlements of the Venetian-built fortifications. The celebration was revived in the 1950s and, each and every yr it follows a very similar script: Though the processions from the two key parishes get underway, fires are lit on the battlements at sunset and a chorus sings hymns. This calendar year, choral function by a contemporary Greek composer was performed.
A substantial cross was erected in the port’s entrance with wire and adorned with lanterns, introducing to the atmospherics of the function.
Soon after a sermon by the regional bishop, the processions departed from the port for their respective parishes close to 10 p.m. and fireworks lit up the sky.
A town official said attendance was substantially bigger this 12 months, with several site visitors coming to watch the procession, in addition to a sizeable part of Nafpaktos’ 25,000 citizens.
___
Nellas documented from Athens, Greece.