He is Risen!

It was a beautiful morning, a very early beautiful morning. Everyone awoke at the crack of dawn (which cracks around 4:45 here) to sneak out to our tent of meeting and partake of a... *glances around* ...non-kosher breakfast. We had the bacon, we had the cheese, we had it all. And it was mmmmmgood. I'm speaking of course of this morning, Easter morning.

How often do you get to visit the supposed site of the garden tomb for service on easter morning? Probably only once in my life. The site has been recreated by a group of Anglicans who keep it up and running - really a very nice little garden. Into that little garden they packed probably at least a thousand people this morning for services. Oddly, it felt more like an American service than any others we've had this whole semester. Kind of like going to chapel.

Purim is a Jewish holiday celebrated in commemoration of Esther and her victory over the evil schemes of Haman. It's tradition to read the story of Esther on this day, with some fun audience involvement. Whenever the reader comes to the name of Haman the audience lets out a string of boos and other disapproving sounds to drown out his name. The name of Esther is met with cheers and whistles from the audience. Naturally we celebrated Purim last night in the traditional Jewish style. It is also tradition to, for no other reason than the festivity of it, dress in some sort of costume. We did that too of course.

Happy Easter everyone!

P.N.