Janna's Jerusalem Journies: Easter in Jerusalem--where all the action happened! (March 24th, 29th, and 31st)

I mentioned in my Odds and Ends and Seder blog that Christian holidays in Israel are almost non existent. When Easter crept up, I assumed it would be the same, especially with all the passover talk. But then at church one week they announced all these different events and activities, so we decided to join a few.

On Palm Sunday we joined a gigantic procession at the top of the Mount of Olives, where they believe Jesus told his disciples to get the donkey. The procession began with tons of girl and boy scouts of all ages followed by hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the world with many different religions. There were Catholics, Protestants, Americans, Arabs, Asians, Africans, and Europeans all over! People were singing and playing instruments, and many people were carrying palm branches. People sang in English and some sang in their native languages. It was quite amazing. It was exhausting and crowded, but a good experience nonetheless. We ended that day with gelato!

Then on Good Friday we decided to join another procession. It was a procession through the old city on Via Dolorosa stopping at each station of the cross. This one was very crowded as well, and was difficult because the streets of the old city are very narrow and crowded as it is. It also didn't seem very organized, it was hard to know what was actually going on. Palm Sunday was equally disorganized, but it's just a procession, there isn't as much needed information. Regardless, it was a cool thing to be able to do and I'm glad we had the opportunity.

Right after the procession we headed to Christ Church (an evangelical Anglican church in the old city) for a Good Friday service. The service was long, but it was very good. It was well done, well organized and a nice remembrance of what happened that Friday. During one part of the service, there were seven candles burning, each one represented the seven last things that Jesus said. Each one was read, and afterwards a different speaker said a few words about it, then one of the candles was put out. This was to remind us that Jesus, the light of our world, was about to go out. We sang some good songs, but one of my favorites, Oh the Wondrous Cross, was sang to a different tune! That was disappointing, but a minor disappointment, and we enjoyed the service anyways.

Easter Sunday itself had many options for services. We chose to go to the sunrise (or Son-rise as they called it) service at the Garden Tomb with some friends from church. I mentioned the Garden Tomb in my recent 'Gems' blog, and if you remember my blog from months and months ago when we first arrived, the Garden Tomb is where the protestants believe the Crucifixion, Death, Burial and Resurrection happened (it's in Old City Adventures part 4 if you care to take a look at the Garden Tomb blog). The Garden Tomb is beautiful and peaceful, and growing up, it's how I always pictured the area would be like. But as the speaker at the service reminded us, it's not important where it happened, it's important THAT it happened. So it was really the perfect place for a sunrise service. It's set up for services so a lot of people can fit. And a lot of people there were!

We arrived 15 minutes early and still had to stand in line outside. Once we got in there was only standing room left. But it was ok, I nudged my way to an area where I could see the podium perfectly. This was my favorite of all the Easter events by far! We sang some old Easter hymns, those always make make so happy, and some new songs that were also great. The band was very talented and apparently there was a key-tar (we couldn't actually see the band from where we were.)! We read scriptures and heard a sermon, we were even able to take communion! As people came in they passed out little tiny disposable sealed communion cups complete with grape juice and a wafer. They also passed out a tiny goblet made from olive wood as a keepsake, so that was fun. AND we even got a little book about the Easter story on our way out. The weather was beautiful too which is something that is extremely hit or miss in all the places I have lived! In fact, nice weather on Easter was something that rarely happened in all the places I've lived!

After the sunrise service we had everyone over for an Easter potluck brunch. I miraculously found legitimate bacon at the Russian store, so I made a yummy breakfast casserole (you can't have easter without some sort of pig meat!). Dan and Veronica brought some delicious homemade muffins, and Michael and John brought some amazing fresh fruit. We had tons of coffee and juice and ate until we couldn't fit anymore in. It was a very nice time.

After everyone went home, Skye and I watched an awful and creepy Easter claymation movie, during which I took a little nap! haha! Then I convinced him that it was wrong for us not to be eating chocolate on Easter so we took a walk to the store and loaded up on some German chocolate.

I was SO happy with all our Easter celebrations here! We even got to throw in a Passover meal! It was fantastic! I wasn't expecting it to be good at all, none of the other Christian holidays had been! Thankfully Easter was the opposite! It was very powerful to be in Jerusalem over Easter, where everything happened! It may not be the exact location for any of it, but it sure was as close as we could possibly get!