Friday, April 10, 2009

Good Friday

Faithful gather for Good Friday in Jerusalem

Thousands of Christian clergymen, worshippers and pilgrims thronged the alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City, chanting hymns and bearing crosses as they marked Good Friday by retracing Jesus' final footsteps.

Hundreds attended prayers Friday morning at Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Christian tradition says Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

Brown-robed Roman Catholic friars filed into the ancient church after its wooden doors were unlocked. They were followed by pilgrims, some of whom fell to their knees to kiss a smooth stone believed to mark the spot where Jesus' body was placed after he was crucified.

Steps away, inside the church, were the stairs leading to Golgotha, marking the site of the crucifixion. Nearby was the structure marking the site of the cave where Jesus is said to have been entombed.

Afterward, Christians filled the stone alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City in Good Friday processions following Jesus' route to his crucifixion. The processions retrace Christ's final journey down the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrows, where 14 stations commemorate events that befell him as he was led to his death.

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