There is much else that Qormi has every reason to be proud of, in addition to the statuary groups and the ornate platforms beneath them. The Old Testament figures and New Testament characters associated with each act of the Passion - live groups of prophets, priests, and kings! - are among the chief attractions of the pageant. Especially since 1957, now that there are no less than 70 "actors" playing leading roles in this religious procession, it is no wonder that it should take some five hours to wend its way through the meandering streets of Qormi. Qormi's town plan may have lacked sophistication, but its Good Friday pageant dose not - as someone has wittily observed. Participation in the Good Friday procession is traditional in many of the town's families. It takes about eighty minutes to watch the entire pageant, for, all told, no less than 550 persons - not exclusive of bandsman or devotee - participate in this colourful religious display.
PRELUDE
This huge purple flag belong to the lay religious brotherhoods or trade guilds under whose care this Good Friday procession had originally been placed.
The very beginning, we are told, is a very good place to start. And salvation-history, like all history, has to start with ADAM. Here he comes , an outcast ( Genesis 3:23-24 ), to remind us of "man's first disobedience." The Church, nevertheless, in her Easter Vigil liturgy, describes Adam's fall as a "happy fault",for it "won for us so holy and so great a Redeemer !" In the New Testament, in fact, Adam is portrayed as a figure of Christ : through the obedience of this second Adam came the life of grace, just as spiritual death had come through the disobedience of that first Adam (Romans 5:14-19). Whereas the first Dam was from the earth, a man of dust (Genesis 2:7), the Second Adam is from heaven, for He is the Son of God (1 Corinthians 15:47).
Abel, a keeper of sheep, was murdered by his brother Cain, a tiller of the ground (Genesis 4:1-12). Original sin had paved the way for the many personal sins that would be committed over the years. Christ died for the sins of one and all. the shedding of Abel's innocent blood heralded the shedding of Christ's precious blood. With such shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22).
A banner with the Latin words, words quoted from that magnificent Easter chant, the "Exsultet", where we read:
" Great need was there of Adam's transgression, so that Christ might die for its atoning."
Scout Association (Qormi's Group)
Banner: That say " The passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ"
The title, as it were of these pictures.
Scene 1 - Part B - Continue >>
E-mail Danny Apap: dannyapap@maltesemail.com
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