For First Time In Many Years, Good Friday, Start Of Passover Fall On Same Day

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – This Friday marks the first time in many years that both the Christian holiday Good Friday and the start of Jewish Passover have fallen on the same day.

Processions like the Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge Friday morning are being held worldwide to remember the day Jesus was crucified.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Way of the Cross bridge. It began as a small gathering of friends two decades ago and grew into a much larger event after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, said organizer Timothy Herrmann.

"What started out with roughly 30 people, close friends, has now become over 3,000," Hermann said. "When a lot of people in the city were really looking for something or somewhere to live that cross and to bear that cross of what happened to all of us with others."

The procession started at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint James in Brooklyn, paused at the 9/11 memorial and ended at Saint Peter's Church in downtown Manhattan around 1:30 p.m.

More than 100 people came out for another Way of the Cross procession that started on East 47th Street in Manhattan and ended across town on the West Side.

"I feel a sense of reflection, a sense of peace and I also feel by the end of it a sense of commitment to working for peace and justice as Jesus would like us to do," said Joe McDonough of Pax Christi, the Catholic peace organization that organized the procession.

Robert Johnson of Beacon, New York brought his family down and told CBS2's Andrea Grymes that he used to participate in the walk with his late mother.

"It would be a nice way to honor Jesus and a nice way to honor my mother and a very nice and peaceful way to begin the Easter weekend," Johnson said.

The procession included 15 stops symbolically marking Jesus's path as he was sentenced to death then killed. It is unique from others in that organizers linked each station to a current issue plaguing the country and the world, such as human trafficking and health care, Grymes reported.

"We just think the power of love in the world can overcome so much suffering," Bronx resident Heidi Hynes said.

Organizers say what also makes this walk different is that they end on a hopeful note with a station on the resurrection of Jesus, something all Christians will celebrate with joy this weekend on Easter Sunday.

In Jerusalem, the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrows, retraces the path of Jesus Christ on his way to crucifixion. In New Jersey's Upper Saddle River on Good Friday, there's a bit of a twist.

Pastor Bob Stag leads parishioners from the Church of the Presentation on a 12-mile bike tour for the Stations of the Cross.

"It is a mini-pilgrimage and I've been to the holy land several times and most people won't ever get to the holy land or ever get to pilgrimage to Rome or pilgrimage in northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. But everybody, well, almost everybody, can jump on a bike and follow me around," he told WCBS 880's Sean Adams.

For prayers, reflection and meditation, they stop at seven churches-- three of them Protestant. The ministers come out and discuss their church's architectural significance.

In Rome, Pope Francis led a Good Friday service, at the conclusion of the candlelight Way of the Crossprocession around the ruins of the Colosseum. In addition, Christian pilgrims from around the world filled the narrow streets of Jerusalem's Old City for a similar procession.

And at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the service of "The Liturgy of the Lord's Passion and death" was celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, CBS2's Dick Brennan reported.

Meanwhile, the eight-day Jewish holiday of Passover began at sundown Friday night and commemorates the Israelites' escape from Egyptian slavery more than 3,000 years ago.

During the first two nights, families gather for a Passover Seder, the ritual meal which features six symbolic foods, including matzo. Matzo is a cracker-like unleavened bread that symbolizes the exodus from Egypt, when there wasn't enough time to let the bread rise.

A huge Passover Seder was held Friday night at Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side.

The crowd at this unconventional Seder was composed of young singles, said Ben Zeidman, associate rabbi at Temple Emanu-El  on the Upper East Side.

"People who are often not from the city, they don't have family nearby, and are looking to enjoy Passover and to celebrate the holiday; but also to meet other young Jewish people and to have a good time at the same time," he told WCBS 880's Marla Diamond.

Friday night was different from all other nights at Katz's, because typically its famed pastrami sandwiches are served on rye.

"If you've eaten pastrami at Katz's, you know that you can literally cut it with a fork," Zeidman said. "So that's how we eat it on Passover, we just skip the bread. It's delicious."

In Borough Park, Brooklyn, the Rapaport family prepared for Passover by throwing their remaining bread into a bonfire, CBS2's Cindy Hsu reported.

"You're not allowed to eat bread; wheat on Passover, so we clean the house and all the leftover wheat -- we call chametz -- we throw into the fire," said Yosef Lieberman, 13.

Firefighters were on hand to make sure the flames stayed under control.

Back at home with the Rapaports, special dishes were used for the Seder dinner, and every food has special significance.

"We make something from apples and wine, and we're going to have this here, some pomegranate," said Alexander Rapaport, the father of the family.

The Seder Plate is filled with ritual foods, including horseradish, to symbolize the bitterness of slavery.

"If you smell it, it can really, like, open your sinus," Rapaport said.

The family also uses chicken wings.

"The wing kind of symbolizes, like an embracement; like God embracing the Jews as they're taking them out of slavery," Rapaport said.

The youngest children use special books during the dinner to learn more about the story of Passover.

"Everything we do in the Seder is to provoke questions by the children," Rapaport said.

If you'd like to wish your friends a good holiday in Yiddish, say, "Gut yontiff."

In:
• Sean Adams