Easter Celebrations Part 1 (Good Friday - Easter Sat morning)

On my earlier post of 3rd April I gave this link which gave some interesting information on the traditional Easter celebrations. I've been lucky enough to take part in & witness many of these celebrations & traditions this year.

Over the next few posts I hope to give you a flavour of Easter from Good Friday (6th April) through to Easter Sunday (8th April)

You will find plenty of photos too further down this posting.

As I said in the earlier post, I had arranged to go into town late in the evening of Good Friday. I headed in & met up with my friends Jassy & her fiancé, Alex, at around 11,30 pm ( a late start I know) We had a few drinks while we passed away a pleasant few hours chatting & generally having a good time. As time went on we made our move down towards St Marcos Square as this was where most people would congregate for the start of the 'funeral procession of Christ' When we arrived the square was already busy & bustling with people but we managed to secure a cafe table to sit & were joined by some friends of Jassy & Alex.
It was quite atmospheric with the priests voice being broadcast from the nearby church out into the square.
At around 4am !!!! the procession left the church & headed on it's traditional route around the town. From where we were sitting we were unable to see it at this stage but were assured it would be returning to the square later, which it did.
I had also been told about the pot smashing which was to come later & there were a few stalls on the streets selling small terracotta pots. Smashing your pot is supposed to bring good luck so I'd already decided I'd better buy a pot to smash , bearing in mind the recent news I'd had about my house sale (going to pot - sorry couldn't resist)
Here are a few pictures from the night/morning:

A bustling St Marcos Square in the early hours of the morning.

Part of the solemn procession for the 'funeral of Christ'

The bands followed.

The effigy of the 'body of Christ' is carried around the streets having been taken down from the cross in the church.

As daylight started to appear Alex ushered us to get up as the pot smashing was about to start & we had to make our way over to the area of the square where this would happen. Jassy had become very attached to her pot & was expressing reluctance to smash it. The previous year she had taken her pot home intact but this year we managed to persuade her to smash it.

It seemed as though everyone in the square was trying to get to the one small area where the pots were smashed. We kept making our way forwards & eventually could see the circular area that people were casting their pots into.

Alex said he would take photos on my camera of me smashing my pot & as we got to the edge of the circle he told me to cross it to the other side so he could get the picture. I thought he was joking, as pots were being thrown into the circle from all directions & smashing on the ground. I saw pots flying up into the air & raining down too. Alex told me not to worry ha ha & so I quickly dashed across the smashed pieces of pot & on reaching the other side, raised my pot high & smashed it to the ground - all caught on camera as you will see on the following photos.

On the left of this photo is Jassy, her friend's are in the middle & I'm on the right, all with our pots intact.

The crowds around the area where the pots are smashed with the broken pieces in the centre.

Someone has a lot of clearing up to do later.

Alex, that's a bit too close with that camera.
This was just before Alex asked me to run across the circle.

There I am, safely on the other side with my pot held aloft - seconds later it was smashed into tiny pieces on the ground.
People were also picking up pieces of the broken pots to take away with them, we assumed that this must be part of the good luck thing too, so I have a piece of broken pot sitting on the top of my fridge now.

Here is our little group, with our pieces of broken pot (minus Alex who was taking the picture)
As you can see it's daylight now & we've all gone right through the night with no sleep so I think we look remarkably well considering that.

The final highlight for me was on walking back along the harbour to the car to return home. As anyone with a serious interest in photography will know, the early morning light is probably the best for photography. When I saw the light I wished I had taken my digital SLR instead of my little compact camera but even taken on that I think you can see what I mean about this magical end to a fantastic night. Here are the morning light harbour photos, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed seeing the scene in real life.

I will hopefully be posting more Easter celebrations over the next few days.