the events of Great Friday are represented not only through words but through dramatic actions. The Epitaphion – an oblong piece of stiffened cloth on which is painted or embroidered the figure of the dead Christ laid out for burial – is carried in pro­cession from the sanctuary to the center of the church, and is then venerated by the faithful. There are few more moving moments in the whole of the Church’s Year.

(K. Ware, The Lenten Triodion).