Religious obligations

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We started walking at dusk. The magical time when the town lights are glowing their pale yellow light and the sky is a dark, saturated blue. Moving slowly on the streets of the oldest districts in a dragging, yet reverent way.

I am not much into religion but the Epitaph procession on Good Friday is a ritual that I usually attend. For those unfamiliar with Christianity, it is practically a representation of Jesus Christ's funeral. There is a supposed coffin decorated with flowers, that six or eight men are carrying on their shoulders from the church, on a circular route through the streets of the town. People are walking behind it holding candles while the residents on the route are in front of their houses or on the balconies waiting for the procession to pass.

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This year was a bit windy so there weren't many lit candles but there were plenty of mobile phones instead. Not quite the same but they did glowed in the dark.

This is supposed to be the saddest moment in the christians calendar but after 2000 years of repetition, it has become more of a social gathering or a typical obligation rather than a moment of grief and mourning.

At least that was my feeling as I was walking and photographing among the crowd. Maybe I am wrong.

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Every parish has its own Epitaph going around on a different route. We chose this one because it passes from the most scenic parts of the old town and the neighbourhoods that the last residents still live. I have told you before that this is an extremely touristic part of the town and most of the houses are turned into hotels or guest rooms.

The lady on the balcony, in the picture below, is one of those last residents that refuse to leave their homes and sell or commercialise their houses. But her children or grandchildren will most probably do.

A couple of minutes before I arrive under her balcony, she was throwing rose petals on the passing by people. A lovely image that I missed!

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Before we reach the main square we were crossed with the Epitaph of another parish and the two processions mixed into one big crowd. The last meters we were moving really slowly till we got to the square were the archbishop gave a short speech about the meaning of the day and we all left for dinner or a nightcap, having fulfilled our religious obligations for the day.

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_{And the nerdy info of the day :)
The camera that I used is a Canon EOS 6D mark II with an EF 24-105mm f4L lens attached, set on 40000 ISO sensitivity. I edited the photographs in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic, using the Denoise tool.}

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All the pictures and the words are mine.

Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.

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