Today is Holy Saturday which is traditionally the Harrowing of Hell. That's when Christ descended into Sheol to release all the souls of the past, awaiting the redemption of the messiah. It's in the Apostles' Creed. Orthodox icons show Christ stomping on the gates of hell while raising up Adam and Eve.
The Easter Vigil, strangely enough, is celebrated not at night as with the rest of the world, but in the morning today in the Holy Sepulchre. So Easter has already started for us here on Holy Saturday morning.
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| Coptic Orthodox procession |
For the Orthodox churches, it's the beginning of Palm Sunday - the Saturday liturgy being Lazarus Day and the Palm procession in the Holy Sepulchre taking place in the afternoon. There was a crowd but much smaller than the Roman liturgy last week.
The difference of one week between our Easter and the Orthodox is a relief, as the crush of devotees is much more controllable and the confusion and babble of liturgies taking place at the same time is much lessened.
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| My Easter hot cocoa |
I have not been feeling well the past 2 days. That's because I forgot to close the windows when I slept on Thursday night. We're having a hamsin (heatwave) here with temperatures going up to 28 degrees. But then I caught a dreadful cold with fever the next morning. Then I had the diarrhea as well. So I had to avoid long liturgies. Then this morning I hurt my back while cleaning my room. Painful. Anyway being stuck in my room all this time in the heatwave is awful while everyone else was out in the Holy Sepulchre celebrating. So I went out for a short walk to the Holy Sepulchre in the afternoon and had a hot cocoa at the pizzeria in Latin Patriarchate street. The guy did up a cross on the froth because it was Easter.
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