Church is packed full today, and despite extra seats being made available, many are standing in the aisles and narthex. As usual, people arrive at mass in dribs and drabs, but by around 10am, an hour into the mass liturgy, clerics are barely audible above the chatter of children and families, many of whom don't attend church regularly.
The usual mass is augmented with three circumambulations of the
hykala (nave) processing a large olive branch, off which people pull a smaller branch for themselves and their families.
This is generally articulated as simply a commemoration of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, but one man tells me afterwards that he will keep the "holy branch" until the next mass to "keep away evil things".
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| The first lesson |
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| Olive branches attached to a marvahtho (fan) |
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| Olive branches attached to a candle |
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| The olive branch is brought into the azhikakam (holy place) during a recitation. |
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| The branch is processed around the hykala. |
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| Abuna Butros |
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| As usual, people come up to pay their respects to the bible, and today also to an elaborate cross and book. |
