Palm Sunday

 

Palm Procession yesterday

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. But because I'm not vaccinated, I cannot join in public celebrations. So I celebrated Mass on my own at 4.30am and stayed mostly in my room all day except to throw out the garbage at 6am. It was very heavy and consisted of a huge trash bag with 3 boxes of stuff. 

Everybody in the house however were busy preparing to go for the Palm Procession from the village of Bethpage up on the Mt of Olives down to the Old City. It's a little over 1km and roads are blocked by police to stop traffic from disrupting the procession. And this year it was packed with people ... since last year the procession was cancelled due to the pandemic lockdown. This year there were no tourists but local christians came in droves from all over the country to make up for it.

Patriarch enters the Old City

Though in my room, I could hear the singing and banging of drums from the Mt of Olives. It must have been very festive and joyous and I was tempted more than once to go down to Gethsemani and watch it as it passed by the basilica. But without vaccination, I risked catching the virus in such a huge crowd. So I stayed in my room.

Here are some photos taken by others of the procession.

Patriarch blesses
Jerusalem

Franciscans

At Bethpage before the start