By Karla Jiao
A great number of devoted pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre to catch a sight of the Holy tomb last April 5, marking it as a sacred part of Easter and Palm Sunday celebration in the Old City.
As to those who take celebrations in the formal manner of worshipping, to some taking “selfies” has more significance than a somber religious event. Most members of the crowd outside the church even stood atop the steps of Golgatha to have a better shot of the prestigious processions. Some couldn’t help but put out their monopods (selfie sticks) and Go-Pros to get a better view out of their souvenirs.
“Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his death. Most Christians believe that this event occurred in the Old City of Jerusalem, namely, atop Golgotha at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” based from Israel news.
According to the Western calendar, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday of April. In the Eastern Orthodox Christian calendar, however, Palm Sunday is only celebrated then and Easter is to be celebrated on the next Sunday. Since Jerusalem is a place where majority of Christians gather, both events were celebrated on that Sunday (April 5).
Easter, being the most holy day in the Christian calendar, had pilgrims came as far as Russia to celebrate the momentous holy holiday. Mass services were translated in different languages such as: Arabic, Hebrew, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, to accommodate the vast international viewers.
Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the mass, it seemed as though half of the people were more focused on getting a digital souvenir of a patriarch exiting Jesus’ tomb than being a part of the meditation at hand. While colorful eggs and chocolate bunnies may not be very popular in Jerusalem during this event, selfie sticks were in for certain, as worshippers made an effort to catch the year’s Easter Sunday celebration on film.
Based on one of Israel’s newspapers: a Consecrated woman, Jennifer Ristine, who celebrated Easter as well in Jerusalem, mentioned that the place held the most essential mysteries of the Christian faith, hence, finding a deeper meaning within its grounds and worshipping on the path of the Lord.
“The most essential part of whether you walk through the stations where Jesus fell or where Simon helped him carry the cross is that you’re doing an interior act of faith and something that happened to Jesus two thousand years ago,” Ristine said.
“So it is a spiritual walk that you take with him. You can do it in your house, you can do it in a church, but it is very special to do it near and around the place it actually happened to Jesus.”
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