On Good Friday, grief becomes ritual

[Vassilis Psomas/AMNA]

From a strictly rational perspective, it is simply a funeral. Yet each Good Friday, this lived ritual of grief gathers kin and community, reenacting a tradition spanning centuries.

In 1 small village successful the Pindos mountains, parishioners erstwhile carried the bier themselves when a clergyman could not scope the church. “Shall we permission Christ unburied?” 1 asked.

For theologians and chanters, the work is not theater but an lawsuit unfolding successful the present, a telephone to acquisition “the surviving arsenic dead.” Its roots scope backmost to past ceremonial orations, present transformed into a hymn accompanying the dormant Christ. Three moments specify the rite: the canon “Kyma ti thalassis,” the Laments including “O glyky mou ear,” and the procession hymn “Ton ilion krypsanta,” where Joseph asks Pilate, “Give maine this stranger.”

Poetry and Byzantine chant merge, their rhythms guiding meaning and emotion. Even the little devout are moved; arsenic teachers observe, galore who are initially drawn by the euphony yet find the words speaking within them. The tradition persists, binding community, representation and faith, year aft year.