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MIAMI — <\/span>MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Good Friday<\/a> is a unique \u2014 and uniquely solemn \u2014 day in the Christian calendar.<\/p>\n It commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus, ahead of what\u2019s a central tenet of faith for believers \u2014 his resurrection two days later on Easter Sunday, according to the Gospels. <\/p>\n This year, it falls on April 3 for Catholics and Protestants, and April 10 for Orthodox Christians.<\/p>\n Across Christian denominations, Good Friday services are unlike those on most other days. They often include centuries-old, once-a-year traditions both during the liturgy and out in the streets, where elaborate processions and other rituals of fervent popular piety are held.<\/p>\n While Catholics gather, it\u2019s the only day without an actual Mass, because there’s no sacrament of the Eucharist, which is the transformation of bread and wine into Jesus’ body and blood according to the church. Orthodox Christians don\u2019t celebrate the Eucharist either on what they call Great and Holy Friday. <\/p>\n Most mainline Protestant denominations and Evangelicals also hold unique services, like the Lutheran devotion focused on the biblical accounts of Jesus’ last words on the cross, though they are not as strict on fasting as Catholics and Orthodox Christians. <\/p>\n Church services tend to last more than an hour, usually starting at 3 p.m., when tradition says Jesus died. But even though it\u2019s not a day of obligation, and it\u2019s a workday in the United States, churches tend to be packed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe time leading up to Good Friday is a big reflection on sacrifice \u2014 what he did for me and what I am doing in return,\u201d said Manuel Le\u00f3n, 22.<\/p>\n A member of Miami\u2019s Corpus Christi Catholic Church youth group, he will carry a grimly realistic statue of Jesus crucified in procession through a hip central neighborhood on Good Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cPushing that statue from the back and seeing how torn up he is, what he did for us really becomes real,\u201d Le\u00f3n added.<\/p>\n Some of the most ancient liturgical practices define Good Friday service for Catholics, said the Rev. John Baldovin, a professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most solemn days tend to retain the oldest ceremonies,\u201d he added, including as example the fact that the priests and ministers prostrate themselves in front of the altar at the beginning of the service.<\/p>\n Another ancient tradition is the extensive prayers of the faithful, interspersed with genuflections, which today include intentions as varied as praying for the pope, for the Jewish people, and for those who do not believe in God.<\/p>\n Up until Holy Week reforms introduced by the Vatican in the 1950s, Communion wasn\u2019t distributed on Good Friday, though now it is with hosts consecrated a day earlier on Holy Thursday, Baldovin said.<\/p>\n But the highlight of the ceremony is the adoration of the cross, which in many cases is held up near the altar as the faithful line up to kiss it or touch it in reverence.<\/p>\n Among the earliest documents of this practice is the diary of pilgrim who in the 4th century went from what\u2019s today Spain to Jerusalem, Baldovin said. There, at the present-day Church of the Holy Sepulchre<\/a>, a bishop held up the cross for several hours as the faithful venerated it.<\/p>\n Life-sized statues of Jesus crucified, the weeping Virgin Mary, and representations of scenes from the Gospels\u2019 accounts of Jesus’ torture and death on a cross are carried in large processions in different parts of the world.<\/p>\n Some of the oldest and most awe-inspiring are in southern Spain\u2019s Seville<\/a>, where tens of thousands of people watch much-venerated images of Jesus and Mary being carried in hourslong processions throughout Holy Week.<\/p>\n \u201cNot all of us have the ability to look at the sky and feel fulfilled. Others like me need the images,\u201d said Manolo Gobea.<\/p>\n He moved from Seville to Miami three decades ago and now heads the brotherhood that organizes the Good Friday procession starting from Corpus Christi church and winding its way through the graffiti-splashed neighborhood of Wynwood.<\/p>\n As the main, Seville-made statues exit the palm-fringed church, they\u2019re carried over intricate carpets made of colored sawdust and flowers. That\u2019s a nod to another tradition that\u2019s perhaps most exuberantly followed in the colonial city of Antigua, Guatemala<\/a>, where miles of these carpets are created for Holy Week \u2014 twice on Good Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Good Friday, we feel the pain of Mary, Jesus\u2019 pain, his surrender for love,\u201d said Silvia Armira, as she prepared the carpet drawings for the procession in Miami, where she arrived from Guatemala in the 1990s. \u201cIt\u2019s the great love of God, who gave up his only son for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Solemn and popular rituals on Good Friday vary from the pope\u2019s traditional \u201cway of the cross\u201d<\/a> in Rome to a trek to the adobe sanctuary of Chimayo in New Mexico<\/a> to self-flagellation and even crucifixion in the Philippines<\/a>. <\/p>\n For many priests, they are all opportunities to take faith out of church and into streets to evangelize \u2014 and to point out that the gruesome death on the cross isn\u2019t the end of the story.<\/p>\n \u201cOur procession is a cry to the world \u2014 \u2018get out, look at what is the way, the truth, the life,\u2019\u201d said the Rev. Jos\u00e9 Luis Men\u00e9ndez.<\/p>\n \u201cMay your entire attitude be a living prayer,\u201d the Cuban-born, Spanish-raised pastor at Corpus Christi in Miami told more than 100 faithful at the last rehearsal for this year\u2019s procession.<\/p>\n Carefully watching over the SUV-sized float covered in silver-plated ornaments, flower vases and candlesticks, Gobea said the main appeal of Good Friday celebrations is that they lead from death to Easter joy.<\/p>\n \u201cTo the weeping Mary, we put flowers, we sing hymns, and that\u2019s because we know how it ends \u2014 which is the resurrection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n