For a 19th year in a row, believers from the village Uzarici are marking the Good Friday with a prayer walk from the local church of St. Anthony of Padua to the Church of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary in Siroki Brijeg, and thus remember the suffering of Christ and his Path of the Cross.
A large number of the faithful, led by the Guardian of the Franciscan Monastery Siroki Brijeg Fr. Tomislav Puljic, and Fr. Vitomir Musa, in the prayer walk besides the 14 stations of the Path of the Cross sang Lady’s cry and other songs.
The Good Friday marks the commemoration of Christ’s death, and it represents a day of mourning and strict fasting. The church keeps the tomb of Jesus on that day. There is no Holy Mass on the Good Friday, just the rituals of the Good Friday. The priest wears red clothes, which is the symbol of martyred death.
Faithful used to fast on the Holy Saturday even before. On that day were cooked, dyed and painted eggs, which was especially joyous to children. Eggs used to be dyed with natural ingredients like onions, and decorated with melted wax. Today, the eggs are colored by artificial colors and special acids.
On days of the Good Friday and Saturday no one was working, especially not on land. It reminded of Jesus on the cross, when the earth shook, the rocks cracked, and graves got opened. Faithful practice strict fast on the Good Friday by eating only bread, onions, low-fat beans or cabbage, and some of them fast only on bread and water.
(Source: bljesak.info)
