Sooooo Holy

One of the things I was most looking forward to about this study abroad experience was being in Jerusalem during Easter. Well, Holy Week has arrived and it is even more insane than I expected. The Old City is absolutely packed, there is security everywhere, hundreds of tour buses line the streets of the city, and signs directing pilgrims and/or tourists to all major sites in the Old City have been specially posted for the occasion. I’ve tried to take full advantage of being here during this special time, and though it means being pushed and shoved and groped and yelled at and suffering through surprisingly irreverent crowds, it’s been awesome. Here’s a recap of what I’ve done so far:

Thursday morning began with a Jewish event actually, the twice-yearly Birkat Kohanim. During Pesach and Sukkot a special blessing is given out to the Jewish community by the Kohanim (priestly class). Thousands of religious Jews gather at the Western Wall for this priestly blessing so I went down to check it out. A news report I read said 10,000 people were there throughout the day, reciting their own prayers, receiving blessings, or just watching. It was a very cool event to witness. I took a video but it didn’t come out well so I’ll just give you a link to my friend Cody’s video because his camera is way better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ru5IhojZRk&feature=player_embedded

From the kotel we headed to the Coenaculum, or the room of the Last Supper, the site tradition recognizes as the location of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples. It being Maundy Thursday and all, a visit to the room of the Last Supper was a must.

That afternoon we attended a Feet Washing Mass in the bascilica of the Ecce Homo convent in the Old City. It was one of the few English masses we found for Holy Thursday so I thought it was going to be really crowded but it wasn’t at all. It was actually a really nice, small, peaceful service. Since it was the feet washing mass the priests washed 12 peoples’ feet in the front of the church and then set up hand washing stations for the rest of the people in attendance. Each person went up to the table, had their hands washed, and then stepped to the other side of the table to wash the next person’s hands. In that way we were all being served and then serving ourselves, taking the words of John 13:14 to heart. Despite not being incredibly familiar with the procedure of Catholic Mass, I really enjoyed the service a lot. The church itself was also gorgeous.

From this mass we walked from the Old City to the Garden of Gethsemane (just like Jesus did...minus the cars and streetlights and city walls and tour guides to dodge of course). Here was our first experience with the Holy Week mob scene. They had not yet opened the gates to the garden so there were tons of people just waiting outside. Once the gates opened we rushed into the church and despite getting there an hour early just barely managed to find seats in the Church of All Nations (the church inside the Garden). Also known as the Basilica of Agony, this church is absolutely beautiful, but I have never seen it so full as it was Thursday night. The Holy Hour we attended consisted of scripture readings, singing, and prayers, but they were conducted in about 7 or 8 languages. First would be a song in Latin, then a reading in French, a song in Arabic, a prayer in Italian, another reading in English, and so on. It was a really interesting idea and a very beautiful event.

The next morning, Good Friday, we again went down to the Old City to take a walk down the Via Dolorosa led by a group of Fransiscans. The Via Dolorosa follows the path of the 14 stations of the cross (which, not being something really discussed or emphasized in the Protestant church, I didn’t know too much about in detail before I came to Jerusalem). At each “station” there is a marker on the wall and a church belonging to various Catholic and Orthodox denominations. We had a hard time navigating the Old City because lots of streets had been blocked off by police barriers but made it to the first station just in time for the procession to begin. At each station one of the brothers would read allowed what the station was in Latin, then English, then Spanish, and between each station the whole procession would speak or sing Our Fathers and Hail Marys. While it’s difficult to be particularly reverent while in a huge procession through streets that are now packed with stands selling falafel and baklava and stores hawking kitch touristy merchandise, being part of this huge institutional event was so awesome. The last 5 stations take place inside the church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was an absolute zoo. I definitely almost got trampled several times. But that’s okay because it was really cool anyway.

Today was the event I have been REALLY looking forward to: the miracle of the Holy Fire. Every year on Holy Saturday there is a procession into the Church of the Holy Sepluchre, during which an Orthodox priest enters the sepluchre itself holding a bundle of candles (after being checked by an Israeli soldier to ensure he has no matches or a lighter) and after saying a special prayer, comes out with the candles lit. He then leads a procession around the sepluchre and passes the fire to the thousands of people gathered. Witnesses say the fire doesn’t actually burn you. This fire from God is supposed to be the oldest regularly recurring miracle in Christianity (it’s been recorded as occurring yearly since 1066). While I’m not sure I buy the whole miraculous fire bit I was still really really excited about going to the ceremony and being a part of the event. This morning we got to the Old City with about 3½ hours to spare, allowing us plenty of time to navigate the crowds and hopefully secure some kind of place in the church. What we were met with, however, were worse crowds than I have ever seen in my life (we were at a standstill for a good 20 minutes on one street) and every single pathway to the Christian quarter blocked. We tried literally every possible street and route to where we needed to go but kept finding ourselves trapped by police barriers. After over an hour of wandering we finally asked one of the policemen who informed us that we were not allowed to go into the Christian quarter because only those with a police pass were allowed entrance, and the police passes were given out to only 30,000 people thus we could not get one and therefore we were not getting into the sepluchre, or really any part of the Christian quarter until after the Holy Fire ceremony was over. This was certainly news to us because in all our reading about the ceremony and talking to people about it (including the folks at the Christian Information Center in the Old City) we had NEVER heard of this pass business. We found out later that passes are distributed by local parishes, and since none of us belong to an Orthodox parish we probably couldn’t have gotten one anyway. REALLY???? Jesus died for me too, people. Come on now. Anyway, super disappointed we dejectedly left the Old City making lots of bible puns about being denied three times and having no room at the inn and other such witticisms. Holy fire fail. I’ll settle for a poor-quality video instead.

http://www.oodegr.com/english/ekklisia/holylight.htm

The plan for tomorrow is to attend a sunrise service at the Garden Tomb and attempt again to get into the Sepluchre. We’ll see if they have room for us this time….

I feel like this post is ending on a sour note and I don't want that. Holy Week stuff has been AWESOME so far. This small disappointment is just a little glitch in the plans, and my most anticipated event (tomorrow's sunrise service) is still to come. I'll be back tomorrow with (hopefully) good stuff to tell. Happy Easter to all!!