(11 Oct 1995) English/Nat The city of Jerusalem has been engulfed by religious fervour and secular festivities. Thousands of Jews gathered at the Wailing Wall in the holy city to receive an annual blessing from the descendants of priests of the Jewish Temple. The mass blessing is held every year during the weeklong festivities of Sukkot, or feast of the Tabernacles. In the south of the city hundreds of thousands turned up to watch the annual Jerusalem parade as part of the year-long-celebration of Jerusalem's three-thousand year anniversary. Thousands of Rabbis and other religious Jews gathered at Jerusalem's Old City Wailing Wall on Wednesday to recite the priestly blessings as part of the religious festival of Sukkot. The wall - Judaism's holiest site- is the only remnant of the Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 A-D. A special prayer called the Priestly Blessing is recited at the Wailing Wall every Sukkot, reminiscent of the blessing given during temple times. Thousands of religious Jews gathered to recite prayers at the holy site. Worshippers wore the traditional white prayer shawls and the entire area in front of the Wall was covered by a sea of white shawls, black hats and skullcaps. In biblical times, Jews in the land of Israel would make three pilgrimages a year to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. One of those pilgrimages was conducted during the week-long festival of Sukkot- feast of the Tabernacles- commemorating the journey the Israelites made through the Sinai desert to the land of Israel. Jerusalem police closed off the Old City to private vehicles in anticipation of the huge crowd. Elsewhere in the city a secular feast was being held as well. Around 85-thousand delegates from over 60 countries marched during a colourful parade as part of the year-long-celebration of Jerusalem's three-thousand anniversary. The parade included bands and choirs, youth groups and workers' delegations. It's biggest attractions were the huge floats created around the theme of historic Jerusalem. The annual event coincided with the city's anniversary. SOUNDBITE: (In English) "This is the annual parade in Jerusalem which has been connected this year with the celebration three-thousand." SUPER CAPTION: Ehud Olmert, Mayor of Jerusalem Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, President Ezer Weizman and the mayor of Jerusalem attended the parade. They were joined by almost a quarter of a (m) million spectators who came to enjoy the celebrations. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/a17f86020a7c996c932900d2d29d3476

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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