Easter Thursday

So, on Thursday Julie dragged me out to watch the people bringing their "holy fire" home. I wasn't too keen on going, it was wet and cold and dreary out and I had never heard of or seen this "holy fire" custom. But it turned out to be an interesting experience. We strolled down to our local Orthodox church to see what was happening, but before we had gotten more than a minute from our apartment we were already meeting people carrying their candles home.
They seemed to be letting people out in clumps as after that first group we didn't meet any more candle-bearers until we got to the church where another group was just heading out. Most of the people had a hacked off plastic pop bottle to protect their candle with for the walk home. But as we watched some of them still lost the light and we were worried what it meant for them. And why was this fire so "holy" anyway?
Julie asked a friend of hers, who briefly explained that the fire came from Jerusalem (which we had suspected) and that bringing that Jerusalem fire to your home would bring very good luck (although exactly about what we couldn't figure out), but having it go out on the way home didn't mean anything bad. So, that was a relief, but also sad.
I mean, here I am, watching these dear people "celebrating" the death of Christ (services here are often held Thursday evening and Friday morning because not everyone can make it to the Friday morning ones) and bringing "holy fire" to their homes for a blessing and really, we as Christians have that holy fire in us already. We have the Holy Spirit and His blessing with us all the time. We don't need extra "good luck" or any special fire from Jerusalem (although the symbolism is great!). It just turned my mind to the gift that God has given us in allowing us the blessing of being in constant contact with Him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. What Easter is really about.