Good Friday Marked Around The World
Posted April 10, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Good Friday is being marked around the world, with observances that run the gamut from the sacred to the extreme.
In the Phillippines, recreations of the final hours of the life of Jesus Christ include actual crucifixions. Five men were nailed to crosses, including an Australian.
Elsewhere, in Rome, Pope Benedict conducted two Good Friday services, including a Way of the Cross procession in the Colosseum.
In another annual tradition, Good Friday was marked by hundreds of pilgrims and clergy members at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where according to Christian tradition Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
Roman Catholic friars entered the church Friday morning, followed by pilgrims and other worshippers. Some fell to their knees to kiss a stone marking the spot where it’s believed Jesus’s body was placed after he was crucified.
Inside the church were stairs leading to Golgotha, marking the site of the crucifixion.
Good Friday processions involve following Jesus’s footsteps through Jerusalem’s Old City.
Typically, pilgrims solemnly carry crosses as they walk the Via Dolorosa, otherwise known as the Way of Sorrows, where 14 stations commemorate events that befell Jesus leading up to his death.
Roman Catholic clergy men hold candles as they circle the aedicule during the Holy Thursday Easter procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City on April 09, 2009. (GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images)
