More than 4,000 people took part in a procession on Sunday (15 April) through the ancient Biblical sits of Jerusalem, marking the anniversary of Palm Sunday, the day Christ rode into the city.
SV & CU Procession down from the Mount of Olives with clerics leading & nun carrying palm (2 shots)
BV Children in procession
SV People watch as procession continues (2 shots)
SV PAN DOWN Procession going through gateway to old city
Initials ESP/0138 ESP/0144
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Background: More than 4,000 people took part in a procession on Sunday (15 April) through the ancient Biblical sits of Jerusalem, marking the anniversary of Palm Sunday, the day Christ rode into the city.
Starting at the Mount of Olives, the procession went down and through the Garden of Gethsemane to St. Steven's Gate and the Church of St. Anna. Beneath blazing sunshine, hundreds of tourists joined the crowd waving palm fronds.
At the church, only 1,500 of the crowd could enter for the traditional Palm Sunday service.
The procession marked the passage of almost 2,000 years since Christ rode into the city with his disciples, proceeded by a crowd strewing palm fronds in his path. Palm Sunday is always marked as the final Sunday before Easter.
SYNOPSIS: A procession of more than four thousand people moved in procession from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Sunday. The procession was a re-enactment of the original entry of Christ into the city almost to thousand years ago, proceeded by happy crowds waving palm leaves.
The day is traditionally marked as Palm Sunday throughout the Christian world on the last Sunday before Easter.
As in the first procession, children marked the occasion with adults.
The people moved down from the Mount of Olives through the Garden of Gethsemane and into the city by the ancient gate of St. Steven, joined by hundreds of tourists carrying palm fronds.