‘HOLY FIRE’ COMING TO CYPRUS ON SATURDAY
April 14, 2014-
By Alexia Evripidou
The Holy Light, an Orthodox Easter tradition is to be collected from
Jerusalem this week by Cyprus Church’s, Archimandrite Jerome, and made
available to all the faithful during mass for Easter celebration on
Saturday night.
The ‘Holy Light’, also referred to as the ‘Holy Fire’ by Orthodox
Christians. It comes from the ‘blue fire’ that said to emanate from
within the burial site of Jesus in the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Orthodox Patriarch then lights his candle
from the ‘blue fire’ and passes it on to the congregation present at
the annual ceremony.
The light will be flown into Larnaca airport on a special flight
from Jerusalem on Saturday evening, where it will be met with an
official reception at 6.30pm. It will then continue its journey to
the Archbishopric in Nicosia, where it will be made available to the
faithful at 8pm.
“Bishop Chrystomos [of Kition] and I will fly to Jerusalem on Good
Friday to bring the Holy Light for everyone to come and collect on
Easter Saturday. Priests, clergy and the general public; Orthodox and
non Orthodox, can all turn up,” Archimandrite Jerome told the Cyprus
Mail on Monday.
Bishop Chrystostomos will then take the light to the Archbishopric
in Nicosia where it will be handed over to Archbishop Chrystostomos
who will make it available to everyone during Saturday night’s service.
People can keep their candles alight for 40 days after Easter, if
they wish.
The Holy Light’s ceremony in Jerusalem consists of three stages:
the procession, the Patriarch’s entrance into the Holy Tomb and the
Patriarchs prayer in order for the Holy Light to appear. It is thought
that the Holy Fire’s’ purpose is to ‘light the whole of mankind for
a better tomorrow’.
Saturday will see thousands of pilgrims gathering in Jerusalem to
participate in or witness the annual event.
Cyprus is one of several countries following this religious tradition,
some others include: Armenia, Georgia, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria,
Russia, Montenegro, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. All of which fly the
Holy Light to their country by special flights.