Good Friday processions in the canton of Fribourg and Ticino

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• The beginning of Easter was celebrated throughout Switzerland with numerous processions.
• In Romont FR, mourners commemorated the suffering of Christ in a Passion procession as a penitential exercise.
• Good Friday processions also took place in Ticino and Zurich.

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In Romont FR, the "Pleureuses", the mourners, continued a custom that dates back to the 14th century. They commemorated the suffering of Christ in a Passion procession as a penitential exercise.

Traditionally, the 14 mourners dressed in black follow behind a young woman dressed as Mary. They carry Jesus' instruments of torture on cushions: crown of thorns, scourge, nails, hammer, pincers and an image of St. Veronica's shawl. A man with a cross invites the people to pray. The procession begins in the church with the reading of the Passion story.

Processions attract tourists

After being canceled last year due to bad weather, the processions on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, which have been held in Mendrisio TI since 1798, took place again. They attract several thousand tourists each year.

Several hundred people, including many children, take part in the Good Friday procession in the southern Ticino town. It is called "entierro" - Spanish for the burial of Christ. It dates back to 1659. The processions take place in the light of illuminated pictures artistically painted with symbolic or biblical motifs, the so-called trasparenti, which are hung along the procession route. The street lighting is switched off during the procession.

In Zurich, the 30th ecumenical Way of the Cross was on the program. The participants gathered at noon at the Dreikönigen church and made their way to St. Peter's church via several stations in the city center.