yesterday for my israel: place and culture class, we went to the old city to view the greek orthodox easter celebration at the holy sepulchre. it's quite a bizarre celebration. there was a procession into the apse of the church which the patriarch led while chanting and singing in latin. there were many people in the church as well, visiting the calgary and the stone upon which jesus was anointed before burial. people crowded around the stone tablet, laying candles and various knickknacks, covering them in the oil and fragrance laid out on the stone. my teacher, doron, told us there was another celebration earlier called the miracle of the holy fire. a holy blue fire descends from heaven to the tomb of jesus, which the patriarch catches with two candles. as he appears among the people, the crowd goes crazy in chant and praise, vying to light their own candles with this holy fire. it is also the only time in the year where the holy sepulchre is open late.
today and tomorrow are the holocaust memorial days. tomorrow morning at 10 am, a siren will go off in which people will completely stop what they're doing for two minutes to remember the tragedy. many will be flocking to the yad veshem, the holocaust memorial on mt. herzl. the radios will only play sad songs... and people will be in mourning.
next week wednesday is israel's independence day. so that will entail a lot of fun, i hope.
i also realized that the semester is quickly coming to a close and i have yet to print any of my photos. i'm disliking my digital camera and from now on will only shoot analog.
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