GREECE: Orthodox Good Friday marked with a sombre candlelit procession of the Epitaph, the symbolic tomb of Christ, carried through the streets

Record ID: 713612

  • Title: GREECE: Orthodox Good Friday marked with a sombre candlelit procession of the Epitaph, the symbolic tomb of Christ, carried through the streets
  • Date: 14th April 2012
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (APRIL 13, 2012) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) EVENING SERVICE IN CHURCH WITH EPITAPH IN THE CENTRE PRIESTS AROUND THE EPITAPH PARISHIONERS HOLDING ICON OF VIRGIN MARY VARIOUS OF SERVICE CANDLES WOMAN HOLDING CANDLE, BLESSING HERSELF VARIOUS PEOPLE KISSING BIER ADORNED WITH FLOWERS VARIOUS PEOPLE OUTSIDE CHURCH AWAITING PROCESSION TO START (SOUNDBITE) (
  • Embargoed: 29th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece, Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Economic News,Politics,Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVADGGQTS8VNUFWLYXV2DNFOK6TB
  • Story Text: As part of Orthodox Easter celebrations hundreds of Athenians took part in the Good Friday (April 13) procession of the Epitaph.
    Friday of Holy Week, traditionally been called Good Friday, is a day of mourning in church. It commemorates the execution of Jesus by crucifixion.
    The Epitaph or Epitaphios is an elaborate wooden bier adorned with fresh flowers which symbolizes the tomb of Jesus after he has been crucified and taken down from the cross. In the middle of the bier is placed an icon of Christ.
    The Epitaphios is carried through the streets in a candlelit procession. The local residents all participate in adorning the Epitaphios with fresh flowers beforehand.
    In Athens, the procession converged in front of the country's parliament building led by the Archbishop of Greece, Ieronymos, and included several epitaphs from the different churches in Athens.
    But the festivities this year have been overshadowed by the tough economic squeeze and the sombre mood of the event echoed the mood of the people who came to the main square in Athens.
    "It is different, it is very different (holiday). Things are very different in the world and in Greece even more so," said Athens resident 70-year-old Dimitra Mantzouni.
    "I'm very sad with what I see around me. Personally, I'm OK, I'm not starving but what I see around me makes me very sad," said a retired school teacher Rena Vasilatou.
    After almost two years of austerity, Greece is going through its worst post-Second World War recession with record unemployment and painful cuts in pensions and salaries.
    Reforms demanded by the European Union and International Monetary Fund along with deep budget cuts have provoked serious violence in Athens.
    "I came here today and I think the reason is symbolic that we all came here today so that the people inside the parliament can't look down below and see us all and find the way to get us out of this dead end that we are in," said 49-year-old Athenian Christos Kukulis.
    Resentment is growing in Greece over repeated rounds of wage and pension cuts that have compounded the pain from a slump which has seen the economy shrink by a fifth since 2008.
    Unemployment has surged to a record 21.8 percent - twice the euro zone average - with one out of two young people without a job.
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