Italy Part 3: Easter Friday

The last week of lent and the week before Easter is known as Holy Week. Good Friday, the day which Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus, is part of this week. In Italy, Christians celebrate Good Friday with the celebration of Passion and the Way of the Cross. In Barletta, the procession of bishops, priests and clergymen ways through the streets before ending with prayers in a beautiful square in the town. A piece of holy wood (Luigi told us it was a piece of the True Cross) is also carried through the streets. Solemn music accompanies the procession and it was such an experience to be able to watch it.

Our Good Friday began with breakfast in a little coffee shop just around the corner from Anna's apartment. Everyone had croissants with exciting fillings (cream! chocolate! lemon!) while I had a white chocolate biscuit. That sentence looks almost as ridiculous as my little biscuit did compared to everyone else's croissants. It's okay though, my cappuccino was the same size as everyone else's so my breakfast wasn't too laughable (I hope).

After our breakfast we decided to make the most of the sun by walking around the castle grounds. We even stopped and listened to some music while McPake chased after butterflies. (Sometimes I wonder if McPake comes across as our pet puppy or something - I always seem to say things like "chased after butterflies" or "led on the floor outside a University").

We had lunch a bit earlier than usual so that we would be able to watch the procession. Our lunch was a very varied mishmash of food, all totally delicious. Desert was strawberries with lemon juice. I was a bit unsure of this strange combination (I'm not exactly adventurous when it comes to food) but one bite showed that this was a fantastic partnership. It tasted like I was eating sweets rather than fruit.

We left to watch the procession at around 2pm. The streets were full of people, talking, waiting for the procession and eating ice cream. We found a space next to the Colossus of Barletta and settled down to watch. We moved further down the main road at one point and poor Meryn ended up right on the edge of the procession while she was trying to take pictures. I had McPake's camera but I only managed to get two usable shots since I was being majorly put off by the two little old Italian ladies behind me tutting.

The procession ended with prayers in a beautiful courtyard. When it was over, the boys went to the beach while Meryn, Anna and I walked to her uncle's ice cream shop with her family. If there's one thing better than free ice cream, it is free Italian ice cream. The three of us had a photo with our ice creams and if you look closely at my eyes, you can see the faint hint of panic that it as beginning to drip all over my hand. It also turns out that I absolutely suck at eating ice creams. I managed to get mine all over my hands and the floor. It was not my proudest moment.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the apartment, relaxing before we went back out that evening. We would be watching the evening procession before meeting up with Anna's friends.

How To Eat Ice Cream with Sass by Meryn

The night before Good Friday, Luigi sat at the foot of the dinner table and told us all about the history of the evening procession that we would be watching. During 1656, the plague was killing the city of Barletta. The Canons of St Mary (a canon is a priest) walked through the streets of Barletta bare feet, asking for the termination of the disease. Luigi told us that the after this, the city no longer suffered because of the plague. This led to the city government resolving that Barletta would celebrate this during the evening of Good Friday every year hence. This  has been upheld and every Good Friday for the last 400 years, the citizens of Barletta line the streets to watch the evening procession, celebrating the procession that ended the plague so many years ago.

We were lucky to be able to watch both processions, the one that took place in the afternoon and the one that took place in the evening. It was very humbling to witness something so weighted with history. At one point during the evening procession, the crowd around us began to sing and hum a long to the song being sung by the clergymen. It was an eerily beautiful moment.