Thursday, April 2, 2009

Good Friday and Easter in Birgu

The Good Friday procession in Birgu used to take part before 1749/50; this procession was not complete with the statues as we know it today. Since 1975 this procession in Birgu has taken a form of a pageant with the traditional unique statues including personages dressed in robes of biblical characters of both Testaments. Very recently in 1999 even women took part on show with these beautiful robes in the procession. The earlier statues that were brought from Spain were the responsibility of Maltese seafarers after seeing Good Friday processions in Barcellona Spain with statues dressed in real attire in a Spanish style. They were so impressed with the statues that they brought over some like them to Malta in Birgu. The Good Friday procession is a liturgical activity to commemorate the Passion and Death of Our lord Jesus Christ, this solemn and mourning event changes to a real joy on the Resurrection of Christ because Easter is the climax of this great event.
Four types of processions
During the Good Friday Week in Birgu used to organize four types of processions and these used to start from different churches and chapels. The first one used to take place on Holy Wednesday and started from Mount Carmel church at the wharf. This procession was known as the Black Procession because the seamen employed with the fleet of the Order of the Knights took part in it. They accompanied with black attire and with faces concealed, this was the sole reason why the name Black Procession was organized. The crews of the Order’s galleys took part in this procession. There used to be included baptized slaves, forzati and even condemned individuals for any crime wearing and dragging a chain. In fact this had been the origin of the practice that survived to this day with penitents in the procession dragging by each heel a heavy length of iron chain.Another procession used to start from the Annunciation church on Maundy Thursday, and on Good Friday two other processions used to take part, one started from the Greek chapel and in the evening another one took part and used to start from the Parish church of St Lawrence. The chapel of the Greek community was dedicated to Our Lady of Damascus where today stands the Church Museum in the oratory of St Joseph. All these processions do not take part any more today and they stopped functioning in 1869 and today only one is left, the one from the Parish church.