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Jerusalem fills with worshipers

Tens of thousands of pilgrims converge in the walled Old City, where calm prevails this year.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 8, 2007

JERUSALEM - Worshipers filled Christianity's most revered church on Saturday, lighting rows of candles, dripping hot wax on their faces and dancing in celebration of the Orthodox Easter holy fire ritual.

Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus Christ was crucified and buried where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands, and that the fire appears spontaneously from his tomb on the eve of Easter as a message that he has not forgotten his followers.

The event dates back at least 1,200 years.

The fire ceremony started with the entrance of Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theofilos III.

He descended into the church's underground tomb to bring out the flame. When he emerged, church bells pealed and flames were passed around to the thousands of faithful, filling the church with light and smoke.

The "holy fire" is taken aboard special flights to Athens and other cities, connecting many of the 200-million Orthodox worldwide to their spiritual roots.

Outside the church in Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police helped worshipers light candles from the flame, many of the faithful stretching their arms across barricades erected to keep back the surging crowd.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims packed into the walled Old City for Easter, and many said they had been unable to get past the barriers to reach the ceremony.

A local Greek Orthodox woman, Reem Carmi, 27, said she and two friends shouldered their way through police lines and into the crush of candle-waving celebrants.

"This is a beautiful occasion for me," she said. "Christianity is based on light and resurrection."

Last year, tempers flared as thousands waited to pass through security barricades into the Old City. Some priests and pilgrims shoved and punched police, and there were scuffles inside the church. No disturbances were reported this year.

Fast Facts:

Packed Jerusalem

Although police could not give an exact figure, the number of Easter pilgrims in Jerusalem is higher than normal because the calendars of five major Christian faiths coincide.

[Last modified April 8, 2007, 00:59:03]