The Elbert County tribune., 1916-04-21

does not coincide with that OF the western
churches. holy week in Jerusalem is celebrated
predominantly according to the Greek calendar.
the services of the other churches being repeated
their own dates
In all the Greek orthodox countries-Russa
Roumania. Greece, Bulgaria. Servia. Montenegro.
and large part of Austria -Hungary-East is
celebrated with great fervor and devotion. The
Easter kiss is well-known incident OF these
celebrations
Jerusalem is naturally full of churches monas.
teries. hospices and hospitals of the various
creeds. and every one of them at Easter brings
out its own peculiar religious individuality. The
Latin church. for instance, whose establishment
In Jerusalem harks back to Godfrey dc Bouion
and his crusaders. has number of oriental
ct urches united to the Roman Catholic church.
Thus there the United Greeks. the United
Syrians. the United HISTORIANS. the United Ar.
menans the Maronites. all of whom celebrate
mass in their own tongue and add in their
ceremonies and garb picturesque distinctive
to the whole.
Then there are the Copts, the Armenians, the
Syrian Jacobites. the HISTORIANS. the Abyssnians
besides Greeks and Protestants The relative
standing of the various churches is in measure
expressed in the way they share the Is lamps
that burn In the Holy Sepucher chapel which
is in the center of the stone that rolled away
from Jesus grave by the angels. Five of these
lamps belong to the Latins, FIVE the Greeks.
four to the Armenians and to the Copts.
Away from the ecclesiastical ceremonial the
pilgrim in Easter time seeks the traditional
places where Lord spent his last days and
nights or these Gethsemane is the principal
goal. and here the difference in creed among the
many visitors is obliterated by earnest and
quiet devotion which is Unexpectedly free from
the emotional
Another figure has prominent place In Easter
celebrations in Jerusalem that of Moses. whose
liberation of the Jewish people from the yoke OF
Egypt is commemorated In the ancient Hebrew
paschal feast.
There is very little known Mohammedan
celebration which. theugh no longer so general as
formerly. is still most interesting To
the Mohammedan 1t must be remembered Jeru-
salem is holy city. like Mecca and Medina, and
there is a saying among Arabs. Syria is the
blessed county. Palestine the holy land and Je
rusaem, the holy city. is the holy of holies."
Native Mohammedans and pilgrims make up
a procession and issue from the Sitti Myriam
gate They Joined BY throngs of their breth
rem from the neighborng villages and amid the
widest enthusiasm. with standards being borne
aloft and to the typical Arab music of drum and
fife. the pilgrimage proceeds in the direction OF
the Dead sea.
AS the Arabs claim common descent with the
Jews from Abraham. the Holy Lana holds ira
ditons equally sacred to them. Jerusalem is
second only Mecca in sanctity because 1t
tains according to tradition. the rock of Abra
hams sacrifice, over which the famed mosque OF
Omar is built The Arab pilgrimage to the burial
place of Moses recalls the similar one to the tomb
of Noah. near the ruins of Baalbek. short dis
tance from Damascus.
In cosmopolitan charm Easter in Constantinople
almost equals that found In Jerusalem. The capital
of the Turkish empire is. of in itself highly
cosmopolitan. and there is no other city In the
world where many languages heard in the
Streets not by foreigners, but by the variegated
native population. The background here is not
Jewish ana Mohammedan, in Jerusalem. but
Mohammedan and Christian. with strong tnge
of Spanish Jewry.