Every Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. the Franciscans lead a procession along the Via Dolorosa and follow the exact route Jesus Christ took as he was condemned to death at the Church of the Flagellation and marched through the Old City marketplaces wearing a crown of thorns and bearing the weight of the heavy wooden cross. Throughout the procession, Franciscan priests chant along with Christian pilgrims and anyone is welcome to join the growing throng as we press through the ever narrowing alleyways and are pushed aside by slightly impatient locals, noisily impatient elderly Muslims, and generally gawked at by tourists and largely ignored by the shopkeepers who must be accustomed and bored by the weekly procession. For us, it was quite an experience as we walked along, stopping at each of the 14 'stations of the cross' while the head priest would recite something (scriptures?) in Hebrew, and a younger priest would briefly explain in strained English the significance of the 'station'. The throng following the procession grows in size during the roughly hour long march until it is well over a couple hundred people pressing our way through narrow alleyways that are uncomfortable enough when only two people are passing by. At one point we are massed into an open courtyard, waiting our turn until we must each pass, one by one, through a small door way leading to an underground church, then out through and into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is the holiest site on Earth for Christians. Within the church is the very spot many believe Christ was crucified (including an indentation in the ground where some believe His cross was raised), the spot where his body was received by Mary, the stone atop which his dead body was lain and cleansed before burial, as well as the holiest spot, the site many believe Jesus was buried and resurrected after three days. Quite an experience to be sure.
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