The Descent of the Holy Fire in Jerusalem
By Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin
One of the oldest rituals in Christendom is enacted each year at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on the Saturday before Orthodox Easter. At about 11 a.m., the clergy of the four eastern Christian churches – Greek, Armenian, Coptic and Syriac – gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. All lights in the cathedral are extinguished. Dressed in splendid priestly robes and carrying crosses, banners, relics, censers and liturgical books, the Greek Orthodox priests and monks circumambulate the tomb in a grand procession, chanting hymns and reciting passages from the gospels. Thousands of eastern Christians gather for the ceremony, each holding bundles of thirty-three unlit candles, symbolizing the thirty-three years of Christ’s life.
One of the authors attended the ritual a few years ago. Hundreds of Israeli police and soldiers blocked all roads leading to the Holy Sepulcher, attempting to limit the numbers entering the cathedral. Shouts and arguments occurred as irate worshipers demanded to know why they were not allowed to go to their church and pray. No answer was given. Some, desperate to see the ceremony, were physically restrained and carried off by the police. Ingenious pilgrims nonetheless found a way. With the help of monks and priests, some made their way through back doors of monasteries. Others, finding the road blocked by police, entered a corner store by a door on one side of the road block, exiting by a door on the other side, quickly joining a procession of priests.
The cathedral was packed with worshipers, overflowing into the large courtyard where hundreds waited for more than three hours in the hot noon sun. Two hours late, the ailing Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem – who had arisen from a hospital bed to perform the ceremony – was finally prepared. Divested of his patriarchal vestments, clothed only in a white robe and inspected for matches and other means of lighting fire, the patriarch entered the sepulcher of Christ alone. This was the mystical moment. The faithful waited in tense silence for the miracle: from the empty tomb with no source of fire, a divine flame would miraculously appear. One pilgrim from Cyprus said that every year for twenty years she had come to witness the Easter ritual. She was convinced the flame was miraculously ignited each year and had talked to people who had seen lamps and candles miraculously burst into flame in the cathedral. Only once in history has the miracle failed, when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and expelled the Greek Orthodox priests from the Holy Sepulcher. The Crusaders quickly restored the Orthodox privileges in the cathedral and the miracle resumed the next year.
A few moments after entering the tomb, the Holy Fire was passed by the Patriarch through a hole in the wall of the tomb, where it was quickly transferred to massive torch-like candles which flashed and sparked like flares. The patriarch emerged from the tomb, encircled with the flames of these blazing torches as he blessed the people. The crowd jostled each other to light their candles from the shimmering flames; as each person’s candle was kindled, he would turn and pass the flame to the next. Within moments the cathedral glowed as a wave of fire and light surged like concentric rings from a stone dropped in water. The bells of the cathedral reverberated joyously as the crowd shouted and clapped in ecstasy. Some wept, while others brushed their hands through the flames of candles, ritually washing their faces in the holy fire. Flashes of intense heat from hundreds of candles accompanied sprays of hot melted wax.
Then, in a moment, it was over. The crowd began to disperse as many embraced and shook hands. Priests from all the eastern denominations carried candles and lamps to light the lamps in their churches throughout the city with the renewed holy fire. Many of the faithful took their burning candles home to light family Easter candles.
Symbolically the descent of the Holy Fire commemorates the moment of the resurrection, when the power of God descended into the tomb of Christ, transforming death into life. As each person shares the fire of his candle with another, the power of the light and resurrection of Christ is symbolically spread throughout the world as the Easter hope is renewed.
https://www.holyfire.org/eng/index2.htm
Auxentios of Photiki, The Paschal Fire in Jerusalem: A Study of the Rite of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 3rd edition, (St John Chrysostom Press, 1999), ISBN: 0963469207