Christian worshippers hold crosses as they take part in a procession along Via Dolorosa on Good Friday during Holy Week in Jerusalem's Old City April 18, 2014. Christian worshippers on Friday retraced the route Jesus took along Via Dolorosa to his crucifi
Thousands Join Good Friday Procession in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM —
Christians around the world are observing Good Friday, the day that Jesus was crucified.
Thousands of pilgrims packed into Jerusalem’s Old City for the traditional Good Friday Procession. They marched through the narrow cobblestone alleyways of the Via Dolorosa - the Way of Sorrows - many of them carrying big wooden crosses. Singing hymns and reading from the Gospels, they retraced the footsteps of Jesus to the 14 Stations of the Cross.
The faithful came from all over the world, including Michael Wade from Florida in the United States.
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Christians Mark Good Friday
“It’s very nice to be here in a location where everything happened," he said. "It’s one thing to sit in a church in the U.S. and hear about everything that happened 2,000 years ago, and it’s a very different feeling to be in the place where it actually did take place. I think there’s definitely much more of a connection.”
Yohanna Defar, who came from Ethiopia, said Jerusalem on Good Friday is a revelation.
Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Metropolitan Theophilos (R) outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, April 17, 2014.
“You feel the agony of our Lord. You feel it inside. So it’s wonderful. So from now on, we feel our Lord not in words only, but even in his spirit down in my heart,” said Yohanna Defar.
It was a huge crowd this year as the calendars of the Eastern Orthodox and Western Churches coincide, and they celebrate Easter and Holy Week at the same time.
