Belated Easter

Happy Easter everyone! I know, I know, I missed it, but chronology doesn’t really bother me too much. When I got accepted to the program, Easter was one of the best events I looked forward to—it didn’t disappoint (although, I must admit I missed our family traditions quite a bit).

Let me begin with Palm Sunday, this is generally the starting point of our celebration at home anyway. We were scheduled to have class all morning, but after a bit of complaining and some professors sticking up for us we were able to shift some things around. There is a traditional celebration done here every Palm Sunday. The Christians begin on the Mount of Olives at Bethphage Church. Bethphage is a Catholic church that like most has all the official gear. There is a rock inside that apparently Jesus used when he got on the donkey.

There were thousands gathered there. We bought palms and all marched together; it as a moving experience for me. Oh and just for your information, there is an unofficial competition with who can get the largest palm. I was pretty sure I had it all wrapped up, but there was at least one that was larger than mine. Still, second is pretty good.

For part of the time we were singing and dancing with some of the evangelicals from somewhere in South America—their songs always come with drums and are really catchy. There were other times that we sang our hymns as well. One moment in particular comes to mind when we were singing Nearer My God to Thee and people from other groups began to sing with us. There were people from Korea, Norway, Germany, all singing with us. It was a wonderful unifying moment. We marched through Lion’s Gate and to the First Station of the Cross.

During the week we focused on a couple of other things in classes (not relating specifically to the life of Christ during that week). We did get to visit Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank. For the sake of time I will refrain from discussing the West Bank much, but I will post a few pictures from my trip there so you can get an idea about the idea.

This is the separation wall that divided East and West Jerusalem. It is kind of a scary deal. While this section isn't the part in Bethlehem it is pretty much the way it is all over.

For our trip to Bethlehem I decided to sport my Pro-Palestine gear. It was a great plan. Everyone on the street would yell how much they liked my shirt. People would tell me that they like Americans, just not America. I guess I can understand that.

This is inside the Church of Nativity. The spot that I am touching is the supposed exact location of where the manger was. There is actually some pretty good evidence of it, so who knows. I was a really neat place to be though.

This picture I found interesting just because of what it is. We visited a university in Bethlehem that is for the Palestinians. It was interesting to be able to interact with them. They had a panel discussion where we could ask them all sorts of questions. We did get in a little trouble because one of the people from my group called the shootings at the Jewish school an act of terrorism, thus inferring that they were terrorists. It was rather touchy. Anyway the picture is of a hole in the wall from some Israeli rockets launched at the university. They keep this hole there as a reminder. Really the whole situation is fascinating, but like I said, I really don't want to get too much into that.

The other great thing about going to Bethlehem was that we got to spend the evening on the Judean plains where the shepherds were when the angels announced the birth. It was wonderfully cold, but spectacularly beautiful.

The rest of the week we were prepping to go Galilee. We were actually scheduled to go travel on Easter morning. We all were a little upset about that—I mean honestly, who planned it like that? We were able to negotiate a few other activities to compensate. The night before we went to evening mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and on Easter morning we got up at 4 am to go the Garden Tomb. It was an interesting contrast as one can imagine, Catholic vs. Evangelical.

I have a couple pictures from the Garden Tomb. I hope they give you an idea of what it was like.

Well, that is rather long, but somehow I still feel very bare bones to what we did that week. I hope that we can talk about it more when I get back.