Orthodox Christians celebrate holy fire rituals in Jerusalem
Published 10:40 pm Saturday, April 18, 2009
JERUSALEM — Thousands of Orthodox faithful, carrying torches and bundles of candles signifying the 33 years of Jesus’ life, packed into Christianity’s holiest shrine on Saturday to celebrate Easter Week’s holy fire ritual.
Christians traditionally believe Jesus was crucified and buried at the site in Jerusalem’s Old City where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands.
The holy fire ritual, celebrated the day before the Orthodox Easter, honors the belief that a holy fire appears spontaneously from Jesus’ tomb as a message that he has not forgotten his followers.
About 10,000 worshippers attended the afternoon ceremony, some arriving before dawn to make sure they would be able to enter the cavernous, heavily secured church. Believers who arrived too late celebrated outside in the church’s cobblestone courtyard, some of them beating on hand drums.
Inside the darkened church, worshippers clutching bundles of unlit tapers and torches waited expectantly as the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in the Holy Land, Theofilos III, descended with a group of Greek, Armenian and other Orthodox clergy into Jesus’ traditional tomb. After the flame appeared there, Theofilos passed it from the tomb to believers inside the church’s main hall, who cheered and wept, and rushed to light their own candles and torches.
Within seconds, the cavernous church was filled with a sudden burst of illumination and smoke. Many of the pilgrims held the light to their faces to bask in the holy glow.
“I feel very good and I feel the light, the light inside on our soul, the light,” said Georgios Papageorgiou, a Greek monk.
Tom Vomastik, an American tourist from Milwaukee, Wis., said he found the ceremony moving.
“To be here for the procession of the holy fire, which is probably the biggest event of the year, is pretty exciting.”
Light from the holy fire was taken afterward to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, where tradition holds Jesus was born, and aboard special flights to Athens and other cities.
Greek Orthodox, Armenians and other Eastern rite Christians mark Easter today, a week after observances by other Christian denominations, because they follow a different calendar.
