Great Friday

April 18th, 2025
 

Today, funeral bell rings will awake you. The churches usually ring out the death toll throughout the morning - a steady toll of one ring of the bell.

Good Friday is a day of mourning and commemorates the execution of Jesus by crucifixion. The drama of the death of Christ is followed with great devoutness. On this day of bereavement, the devout Christians are supposed not to eat anything.

Churches are filled with people who witness the ritual of the Removal of the Lord from the Cross and the procession of the Holy corpse on a white sheet in a deeply emotional atmosphere. Early in the morning, young parish girls collect spring flowers to decorate the epitaph (a richly-embroidered icon on a cloth representing Christ laid in a Tomb), that symbolizes the funeral of Jesus Christ. The tradition wants the Crown of Thorns of Jesus to be covered with flowers. The epitaphs circumambulation begins early in the afternoon, based on a strict programme which derives from old protocols. It is accompanied by choruses and bands. The procession opens with the Cross and the cherubim . The choir comes next, singing honourable psalms to Jesus Christ, large fabric icons, standards (hangovers from the Byzantine era) and Venetian lanterns are carried. Schools, boy scouts and young girls, holding baskets of flowers, take part in every epitaph procession. There are processions taking place almost all day, the first one starting at 2pm and the last one finishing at midnight. All parish churches organize a procession of their epitaph, decorated lavishly with flowers and bearing the image of Christ, carried on the shoulders of the faithful in the neighborhood area. The streets of the town and every single village are filled with people holding lit candles and listening to chanters reciting the funeral psalms in a mystic atmosphere of devout concentration.

In the village of Varipatades the custom of snails takes place (the use of hundreds of snail shells filled with oil and cotton, which are lit and put on the path of the procession, creating a really devout climate).

The day comes to a grand finale when, at 10pm, the largest and the most impressive procession of town begins, that of the Corfu Orthodox Cathedral (Ag. Theodora) and some of the most beautiful music of the Corfiot Easter is performed. It is worth mentioning, that according to custom, each philharmonic orchestra has its own repertoire.  Listen to the music, which gives an ecstatic dimension in this mournful night: the “Old” Philharmonic (Red) performs Albinoni's Adagio, the “Mántzaros” Philharmonic (Blue) plays Verdi's Marcia Funebre, and the “Kapodistrias” Philharmonic plays Mariani's Elegia Funebre and Chopin's Marche Funèbre.