We've reached the last 2 days of the Jewish Passover. Today the City was packed with Jews from all sects ... all coming to the Wailing Wall to pray. Security was super tight.
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| Swarths of wild mustard |
It's also the beginning of the Orthodox Christian Easter Triduum. The streets are packed ... but not with the annual Greek crowd. Rather it's the Copts from Egypt who're coming by the droves. That's because their pope Shenouda, just died. He had banned pilgrimages to Jerusalem in opposition to the State of Israel but now that he's dead, Copts have taken advantage of this interim and headed for Jerusalem. The Greek economy has dealt a harsh blow to those who would have normally made this journey to Jerusalem for Easter.
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| Wild wheat & mustard jostling |
Spring is giving one last push before the relentless Summer takes over. In every plot of land or crack in the pavement, a fight for survival has reached it's peak. Massive clumps of wild mustard smother everything in sight, while wild wheat ride high above them. Anemones are losing out ... being choked; and the cyclamen have called defeat once the heat came on a few weeks back. The clash of colours can be violent to the eyes ... but then, it only reflects the violent struggle for survival by the peoples of this region. It ultimately is a fight between life and death - as in the words of the Easter sequence Victimae Pascalis Laudes : "Mors et vita duello, conflixere mirando; dux vitae mortuus regnat vivuus".
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