Good Friday – Procession
Taormina, April 3 2015 – Late afternoon/night
Good Friday is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday.
In Taormina, the event starts in the late afternoon just before dusk, as hundreds of women clad in black, carrying orange-colored lanterns, descend the narrow steps linking the main streets, and begin the procession. A group of women support on their shoulders a statue of the blessed mother engulfed by flowers. A band playing somber music processes behind them, while the men of begin their march, bearing the statue of Jesus on their shoulders. The entire group slowly walks to the duomo and back. 
All shop’s lighting and all street illumination on the Corso Umberto will be switched off, as soon as the procession is arriving. Only the candles of the procession give some low light. When it is passed by, the shopkeepers switch on the lights again.
Whether you’re Catholic or not, you can’t help but get caught up in the beauty, the history and the solemnity of the occasion.
(credit: Ciao Chow Linda and others).
Here the program of the Holy Week in Taormina (in Italian)
Click on the image to enlarge
