Christian Pilgrims Retrace Jesus’ Path Down Mount Into Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Christian pilgrims from around the world opened the Easter season by singing hymns and waving palm fronds as they retraced Jesus’ footsteps down the biblical Mount of Olives on Palm Sunday.

Foreign pilgrims, encouraged by the Middle East peace talks, came in larger numbers this year for Easter observances at holy sites. More Palestinian Christians also participated than a year ago, when an Israeli ban on their travel was still in effect from the Gulf War.

A dust storm cleared as about 2,500 worshipers set out along the path Jesus is said to have traveled on a donkey in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Moving with a cacophony of hymns, chants and the peal of church bells, the procession wound through the ancient olive trees of the Garden of Gethsemane, where tradition says Jesus met his disciples and was ultimately betrayed.

A dozen Palestinian priests accompanied by the Roman Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabah, chanted in Arabic while leading the procession down the steep cobblestone path.

The trailing crowd waved palm fronds and olive branches and sang in English, Italian and other languages. Palestinian women carried a statue of the Madonna, and a tourist waved an Australian flag.

Gerald Rahill, a retired U.S. Navy officer from Coronado, Calif., said his pilgrimage to the Holy Land had been an unforgettable experience.

“We have been up to Nazareth and down to the Sinai Desert. We climbed down the Mount of Olives today and are enjoying Jerusalem very much,” he said. “It’s a great symbolic crossroad for the world at this season.”

The procession ended in St. Anne’s Church just inside the old, walled city. The tiny Crusader structure dates to the 12th Century.

Unlike last year, many Arabs from heavily Christian Bethlehem and Ramallah joined Sunday’s procession.

But many were late. Although Israel is on daylight-saving time, Palestinians will not set their clocks ahead one hour until Wednesday, as a way of defying Israeli control in the occupied lands.