Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Amba...a great black friday tradition

My family never went out of town during Black Friday unlike most of my friends from school. So every year, I got to see the "penitensya"(penitence) in the morning and the "prusisyon"(procession) in the early evening to re-enace the death and burial of christ.

The "amba" (no english translation that i know of) is like the christ's coffin. I've seen it being carried for many years. It's the main event of the evening's procession. Many barefoot devotees (probably 500) help pull the coffin using ropes. For several times in the past, I have seen some devotees get crushed while doing this. The coffin isn't really heavy (i once saw it being cheerfully pushed by 10 men). But the all the people pulling from all directions make it difficult to control. I'm not complaining though.

This tradition is very important for our town and will probably be done the same way.