Today there are stations of the cross presentations in public spaces.
It's a very brutal spectacle around which our culture has been built. You've got children watching as a choice is made between brutalizing one of two people, then soldiers whipping Jesus in public, then all the violence to come...
The sheer hypocrisy of so much Western outcry over children being allowed to learn about other violence in their national histories, or different forms of love, when *this* is annual pageantry.
@MLClark Speaking of brutal spectacles ... Earlier this week I popped into the Catholic church where I was raised. The Stations of the Cross was a routine event, especially as an altar boy.
While inside the church, I was reminded that the windows are marked for the twelve Stations of the Cross. I remembered having to pray on a rosary at each station.
Catholic rules are complicated.
But I did notice the confessionals are gone, so there's that.
What an uncanny experience, to return to a place that was once a whole world, and now doubtless feels all the smaller for the wealth of life lived well beyond its walls.
Hope it was a lovely visit to the region, all the same!