April 15, 2001

Al-Masih Qaam. Haaqan Qaam. Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed.

Last night was the larger of the Easter services. Today was no different than the usual Sunday morning Mass, except the service began with the return of the sanctuary items - the Bible, cross, etc. - and a brief explanation of their symbolism. There were also a few more people than usual. Many, many people returned to town from other parts of Palestine (Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jerusalem) to visit their families in Zababdeh.

Fr. To’mie plays Easter Bunny.

After church, we stopped by to visit the Orthodox priest Abuna To'mie. He was at home resting after the Orthodox Easter vigil, which begins at 3:00 am and goes until sunrise (about 6:30). After last night's celebration, though, we couldn't quite convince ourselves out of bed to attend. Hopefully next year. He gave each of us an Easter egg, and then informed us that the eggs needed to battle. This is an Orthodox tradition of some sort, where eggs are tapped tip to tip. The smashed egg is the loser (we tied, for those of you keeping score at home).

The faithful gathered at the Holy Sepulchre.

Armenians praying in front of the tomb.

After a traditional Easter meal of lamb and stuffed grape leaves and squash, we made one final holiday dash off to Jerusalem to connect with the events at the Holy Sepulchre. We missed most of the late Saturday/early Sunday moments, but caught an interesting juxtaposition of Franciscans and Armenians processing around the church. The Franciscans prayed together in monotone Latin chant, the Armenians in Armenian chant. Both seemed to spend a great deal more time honoring Christ's crucifixion than the resurrection, which seemed somehow odd given that we had just spent 40 days of Lent focused on the Passion.

Al-Masih Qaam! Haaqan Qaam!