Friday, April 10, 2009

Good (Friday) Olde Violence

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Birgu Exhibit

I have got a few bones to pick.

Is it me or is the ritual side to Catholisism increasingly visible on this island? Back in the UK, a friend of mine once invited me to a High Church mass in London and I could not help thinking my friend was more interested in the ceremonial vestiture and the trimmings rather than the spiritual side of it. Could it be that the increase in the ceremonial is a deliberate attempt at blinding the people into submission, the same way that Baroque was used in churches in the past to dazzle the faithful poor into obedience? This is a great dilemma for me. I have been promoting this side of tradition through my blog as I find it a fascinating subject anthropologically. It is a well known fact that it is also a crowd puller, regardless of one's beliefs. But is it a harmless pursuit or does it have a slightly more sinister agenda?

I was not sure I wanted to go see any of the great number of the exhibits that litter the island on Good Friday. The blood and gore on show can be rather disconcerting to someone like myself who could not deal with watching the whole of Apocalypse Now. Mr man and I decided to visit the exhibit under the walls of Vittoriosa. The statues representing the Passion of Christ were rather realistic and looked great beneath the olive trees in the moat. There were a lot of children present and this triggered off a discussion between us. Violence in films is usually kept away from children via cinema ratings. Is the violence in the story of a man who lived 2000 years ago any different? Should children be shielded from violence and suffering in general?


Birgu Exhibit


Violence in public Good Friday Pageants

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