Palm Sunday - 2004

 040630 – Palm Sunday

Albert & I, together with a few friends, had the privilege of visiting a village in Upper Egypt over the Palm Sunday weekend. The time was filled with new experiences but the one aspect that stood out from all else were the Palm Sunday celebrations themselves. It really set the stage for an Easter with a difference! We took part in a street procession where the Bishop entered the village amidst a sea of people fervently waving palm leaves whilst dancing and singing enthusiastically, enroute to the service at their local church. The atmosphere was one of great joy as the villagers re-enacted Jesus' triumphal entrance into Jerusalem and which itself, heralded Passion Week. The street celebrations were no sooner started than they were finished due to the short distance of the Bishop's walk - even so, much time and energy had been expended to prepare for this tradition. Immediately following the street procession, was the Church Service, which lasted about 2.5 hours. After about 2 hours [maybe a little less], the Bishop and Elders retreated to the Vestry and at the same time, the youth [men only] were engaged in "dressing the Church in black", as they call it. Armed with dozens of black "flags" and drapes, they wrapped them around every pillar in the church, across the width of the church, down the side walls and also covered the Alter curtain with a black cloth. The significance of this "act" was the heralding of Passion Week, where the Church would be in mourning for the whole week. Then, “our” service continued – the church went into a period of mourning and would stay in that phase until Easter Sunday. During this part of the service, prayers were said for the whole village, including for any person who should die in that week. We were told that should anyone die during the Passion Week that their body would be wheeled into the church and within a few minutes would be wheeled out again – without any public service or prayers – the prayers said on Palm Sunday would suffice! Apparently, it is an 'honour' to die within Passion Week. The Church would remain “dressed in black” until Easter Sunday when a Resurrection service would be held to celebrate Christ's victory over death. We found it a very moving and symbolic re-enactment of the events of olde. As the visiting "dignatories" we were invited to sit at the very front of the church, which of course provided an excellent view of the whole service. 

Albert was busy seeing the whole service from his usual position of behind the lens of his camera - with some excellent photos to share with friends. He was also honoured to be asked to read a passage from the Bible [in English], as the Bishop tried to include his international guests in the service where he could. What a day! What an impact!  

We went to several different church services the following weekend, being Easter itself, ranging from our own Community Church through to an Orthodox service where they 'undressed' the church. However, instead of returning to the red curtain, a white one was hung which would remain in-place for 40 days until the Resurrection, when the red would return to its usual place. On Good Friday Albert and I went and saw the film, The Passion of the Christ". There was something unreal about seeing the movie on that particular day and being in the Middle East to boot! So endeth an Easter not to be easily forgotten!