Thursday, May 28, 2009

easter fun

we’re sitting in our apartment on good friday. i hear this strange sound floating up from the streets below: a sort of chanting.

sure enough, as i open the window and listen more closely... there is chanting. about a hundred people were walking up and down the streets chanting and there as someone with a microphone talking.

it took me a second to figure out what was going on... but then it hit me. it was an easter processional. i followed one of these on my mission, that was a bit more elaborate, and done by the kids of the parish... some of them the kids of an inactive member that we’d been working with.

i took whitney down to see it. we followed for a bit, and i managed to sneak a few pictures.






for those who are unfamiliar with this sort of thing, it’s a processional that tells the story of the last bit of christ’s life. hence the cross and the pascal timeframe.

if you’ve ever been to a cathedral (well... all the churches i’ve been to here in france... not only the cathedrals -- which is a church that has a bishop... kinda the catholic equivalent of a stake center), around the walls they have the same events in picture format. i think there’s twelve of them... i don’t remember.

the processional follows the same story line, and they stop every now and again, and the priest tells the story a bit, and they sing something and chant a bit... and then walk to the next station.

it’s pretty cool, really.

1 comments:

Danielle said...

How come that the date indicated is Thursday May 29 as we're still Wednesday May 28? Is Vichy one day ahead of the rest of France then? Weird... Why "greasy goat"?
Anyway, thx for your wonderful pics.
There is a cathedral only in big cities (yes Aix is not THAT big but there was a strong religious life when it was built).
Bisous,
Danielle