It is one of the distinguishing events of the Village of Westbury, an act of faith and renewal.

Each year on Good Friday more than two dozen locals ¬ landscapers, professionals and businessmen and women, put aside their everyday concerns and transform themselves into the historical figures from the start of the millennium.

Before an audience of close to 1,000, these "actors" became Roman soldiers, various middle easterners, the apostles, and Jesus Christ himself. Their mission, to faithfully re-create the Stations of the Cross starting at St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church and proceeding through a large portion of the neighborhood known as Breezy Hill.

"What time are they going to start?" a man carrying a small child on his shoulders asked a priest as they stood on the lawn outside St. Brigid's.

"It was supposed to start around six," the priest said. "But, it'll probably start a little later. Keeping to a strict schedule is not what's important though, what's important to everyone taking part in this is that we be true to the events portrayed."

With that, however, the cast began pouring out of the St. Anthony Society Hall across the street from the church and ¬ yes, even Roman Centurions cross at the green ¬ made their way to the first several "stations."

But if tradition and religious observance are the focal point of this annual ritual, it also serves a vitally important secular function, being the first major outdoor gathering of the year by area community members.

As The Last Supper was being re-created, for instance, in both Italian and in English, the rapt attention of the audience was from time to time leavened with the greetings of old friends.

"Look at you!" a middle aged man said with glee to an approaching family.

"I'm so glad you came," said one young mother to an older couple.

In rapid succession those taking the starring roles in the procession depicted Jesus' Betrayal at the hands of Judas Iscariot, and his subsequent trial before the Romans.

By the hundreds they then took over Post Avenue, parishioners following the cast in a somber procession, their voices raised in prayerful song.

Turning west at Butler Street and climbing the gentle slope into the highest reaches of "the Hill," the crowd, led by a group of children carrying an "Italian Community of St. Brigid" banner, grew serious as Jerry DeLucia, as Jesus, took up his large wooden cross and began marching slowly toward the penultimate act, the Crucifiction.

"We're immersing ourselves in the suffering of Jesus on Good Friday," a priest explained to a reporter who was marching along with the procession. "Participating in this ritual is to remember that what happened to Jesus is part of our lives as Christians. It reminds us that we have to carry the cross with him and walk with him every day. When we act out the stations, we bring them to life."

Elsewhere in Westbury, those of the Jewish faith gathered around their seder tables in observance of the First Night of Passover. Unlike the Stations of the Cross, which are recalled in a very public fashion the world over, Passover is centered in the home, where one generation is required to pass on to the next the story of the Jewish exodus from slavery in Egypt.

It was well past nightfall when the parishioners of St. Brigid's watched three crosses rise in the light of the full moon. For each, it was a moment of personal and spiritual significance.

It was only then, close to two hours after they'd assembled at St. Brigid's that the crowd slowly began to disband and families headed home to await Easter.