Friday, 29 March 2013  Not So Good Friday  Here we see the
procession of the Epitaphios, which takes place around nine o'
clock in the evening of Good Friday in every district of every
town in Greece. It's a solemn funeral procession with candles
and chanting, creating a heavy, sombre atmosphere as it passes
below your balcony in a cloud of frankincense. Even if
Christianity ordinarily leaves you as cold as it leaves me, it
is impossible not to get caught up in the ever-darkening mood of
Holy Week, a mood that will be shattered at midnight on Easter
Saturday by rockets and fire-crackers and the proclamation that
Christ is risen. It's a great piece of stage management.  I went
up to Marks and Sparks a couple of hours ago. The pedestrianised
High Street was busy, even for market day, so summat was
obviously up. There began a solemn drumbeat of the kind that in
old movies accompanies the condemned to the gallows or the
guillotine, and the crowd parted to allow the passage of a
procession. I looked around for a f