Thousands Join Good Friday Procession in Jerusalem
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
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.
Christians Mark Good Friday
1/11Lebanese Christians take part in a reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday beside Mar Joseph Chruch, Dhour Sarba, Lebanon, April 18, 2014.
2/11Pakistani Christians attend a Good Friday service at the Saint Anthony Church in Lahore, Pakistan, April 18, 2014.
3/11Serbian and Spanish U.N. peacekeepers carry a cross with a statue of Jesus Christ during a Good Friday ceremony in Kalayaa, Marjayoun countryside in south Lebanon, April 18, 2014.
4/11Young men dressed in traditional Paloc folk costumes pour water from a bucket on a young woman performing a folk tradition, the Easter sprinkling, in Kazar, some 100 kilometers northeast of Budapest, Hungary, Good Friday, April 18, 2014.
5/11Polish devotees play out the Way of the Cross on Good Friday at the Sanctuary of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska near Krakow, southern Poland, April 18, 2014.
6/11Catholic faithful walk in the rain during a procession reenacting the death of Jesus Christ, on Good Friday in Lagos, Nigeria, April 18, 2014.
7/11Catholic devotees attend a procession at the Cruzeiro mountain to mark Good Friday in Goncalves, in the state of Minas Gerais, southwestern Brazil, April 18, 2014.
8/11Christian worshippers lock arms during a procession along the Via Dolorosa on Good Friday during Holy Week in Jerusalem's Old City, April 18, 2014.
9/11An Orthodox nun handles colored eggs at the Timiseni Monastery, outside Sag, western Romania, April 18, 2014.
10/11A dog sleeps on the ground during a church service at the peak of a coal mine dump in Bottrop, Germany, on Good Friday, April 18, 2014.
11/11A pilgrim holds a cross as he attends the annual Good Friday "Stations of the Cross" procession at the Champs de Mars near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, April 18, 2014.
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“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.
