This year marks the 50th year anniversary since the Last Supper statue, by Salvatore Bruno, was brought to Qormi from Bari, Italy.

The statue is made of papier mâché and was funded by parishioners. A similar one can be found in Żebbuġ, Gozo.

The Good Friday procession in Qormi is thought to have been among the earliest. The exact date of the first procession is unknown but the earliest documented date is that of April 15, 1764, Palm Sunday.

There was a time when the statues used to be carried in procession on each of the four or five Sundays in Lent.

It is thought that, in 1788, the eight-statue procession started being held on Friday. In 1907, Qormi became the first village with nine statues, when the effigy of the Betrayal of Judas was introduced in the procession.

The original scope of such processions was a purely penitentiary manifestation. Along the years, the Qormi procession was transformed into a pageant made up of 12 statues and over 600 participants.

There are 120 statue bearers and it takes 12 men to carry the heaviest ones: the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Deposition. For the participants, Lent events are part and parcel of their life. Some insist the enthusiasm runs in their bloodline.

Alfred Mangion, 69, has been a statue bearer for nearly 50 years. “I’ve followed in my father’s steps and carried all 12 statues over the years,” he said enthusiastically, adding his father had been one of the main procession’s organisers.

This year, Mr Mangion has also mounted a Good Friday exhibition. To recordings of funeral marches, the exhibition, called The Road To Salvation In Qormi, is being held in the church of St Francis de Paule where a pungent smell of burning spices permeates the air.

Mr Mangion, from Qormi, has been building this replica of the village’s passion for the Good Friday procession in his free time since 1994. The 650 figurines are made of clay, papier mâché, wood and cloth, among others.

This is not the first time Mr Mangion worked on a similar project.

Another 500-figurine exhibition traces Jesus’ route from Jerusalem to Cavalry.

The Road To Salvation exhibition will be open today between 9 a.m. and noon and from 5.30 p.m. onwards. Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, it will be open between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. It will also be open from 5.30 p.m. on May 7 and between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on May 8 during the Spring Festival to be held in Qormi.