JOIN USOn Good Friday, most people take time off their busy schedule and spend a better part of the day in church. The week before Good Friday is called the ‘Passion Week’ and that’s when people make their food austere.
Some even fast on Good Friday or simply subsist on hot cross buns and lime juice. Metrolife asks people in the City what Good Friday means to them.
Catholics, Protestants, Jacobites and every other Christian sect attend a three-hour church service — a special service that traces the seven stations of the cross and the seven words that Christ uttered on the cross. Churches in the City have been holding services throughout the week.
The week before Easter is considered holy by the Christians and Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary.
On this day, people abstain from eating meat as all kinds of luxuries are given up. Good Friday is spent in the church and traditionally, no bells are rung on Good Friday or Holy Saturday till the Easter vigil. The ‘Station of the Cross’ and ‘The Crucifixion of Christ’ are an integral part of the church service.
Most Bangaloreans say that they spend almost half the day in the church and stick to a simple diet.
A few eat one meal a day. All this is done as a symbolic gesture of the remembrance of Christ’s death on the cross. It’s a time of reconciliation for many.
Fr Augustine George with Kristu Jayanti College feels that Good Friday is a day of sacrifice. “At least for Catholics, the whole day is spent in fasting and prayer irrespective of whether one attends church services or not. People value this as the act of sacrifice. There are a lot of people who try to imitate Jesus in some sense on Good Friday,” reasons Augustine.
Fr Roy, presbyter-in-charge of Infant Jesus Shrine, observes that people stream into church all through the day. “Every Christian values and respects the sacrifices made by Christ for mankind. People set apart their work for a day and devote their time to recollecting the meaning and symbol of the cross,” he says.
Youngsters too give a lot of importance to religious values. Karun C, a student of St Joseph’s College of Commerce, recollects that, as a child, he always argued that ‘Good Friday’ should have been called ‘Bad Friday’. “I particularly dreaded the four stewing hours in church and having the kanji.
But over the years, as the significance of God’s ‘history-altering’ death became more real to me, I began to respect the concepts of surrendering one’s will, of unconditional forgiveness, and that of love beyond measure, and I try to work them into my own life,” reasons Karun.
Joby V, a social worker, thinks that more than sacrifice, it’s a day for introspection. “Christ never wanted us to sacrifice anything, he only wanted us to show kindness and mercy to the poor and the less fortunate. I think people must practice that,” Joby
sums up.