Holy Week celebrations are expected to peak tonight as devout Christians around the world commemorate Good Friday.The
festival, which marks the trial, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
culminating in Easter Sunday, has been met with mesmerising religious
parades across five continents since the start of the week.
Yesterday
in contrasting displays of Christian devotion, Pope Francis washed the
feet of inmates in a Rome prison, while thousands of penitents in the
Philippines whipped and beat themselves bloody in keeping with their
annual tradition of self-flagellation.
After
celebrating the Holy Thursday Mass of the Last Supper at a jail on the
outskirts of the city, the Argentine pontiff knelt over a basin to clean
the feet of 12 prisoners - mimicking Jesus' washing of his apostles'
feet on the Thursday before his death.
Meanwhile,
across the Philippines bare-footed men with bloodied backs lay on roads
being beaten with sticks or marched through the streets while whipping
themselves with chains - many completed the ritual penance by kneeling
on the ground to pray before chapels.
In
Indonesia, Catholics, who make up just three per cent of the
population, gathered for an alarmingly realistic reenactment of the
crucifixion as three men were strung up on crosses in the jungle of
Wonogiri in central Java.
In
Spain, haunting marches of Christian brotherhoods continued last night
as hundreds of cloaked and hooded penitents bearing candles made their
way through the streets of Zamora, in the west of the country.
In
Uruguay, Christian commemorations took on a more carnival-like
atmosphere as fearless cowboys known as guachos competed in the annual
Easter rodeo tournament in the capital Montevideo.
Effigies
to Jesus and mock crucifixions drew mass crowds in Central American
countries including Nicaragua and El Salvador where thousands gathered
in the indigenous town of Izalco to witness the procession of Los
Cristos led by members of the Nazareno Christian brotherhood.
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