Holy Week: Christmas for Fake Blood Retailers

From the Tennessean:

At Performance Studios costuming shop, high season for fake blood is right now, and the biggest buyers are churches.

"At Halloween, we sell blood by the ounce. At Easter, we sell blood by the gallon," says Gary Broadrick, owner of Performance Studios.

The churches that do Passion plays depicting Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection come in search of biblical attire and stage makeup, including plenty of stage blood.

This is fascinating to me. Mainline congregations (at least the ones I've been a part of) tend to find less bloody ways to tell the Passion story. I understand wanting to vividly illustrate Jesus' suffering and sacrifice, but the idea of a pastor or worship leader purchasing "gallons" of fake blood is funny to me.