Eastern Christendom mourns redeemer on Good Friday

Eastern Christendom has Good Friday, the most mournful day of the Christian calendar--the day the Redeemer died on the Cross "for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whatsoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jn 3:16). The Shroud is taken out of the altar in all Orthodox Christian houses of prayer toward Good Friday evening--a painted or embroidered length of fabric representing the Deposition from the Cross. It symbolises the cloth in which the body of Christ lay wrapped in the Sepulchre. Spread on a table in the centre of the church, the Shroud of Christ remains there for worship up to the Easter midnight liturgy, when it returns to the communion table.