Sognare Ad Occhi Aperti: Vatican Holy Days

I can’t say that I’ve ever been required to get a ‘ticket’ to go to Mass before coming to Italy. For both Palm Sunday and Easter people who want to attend Mass at the Vatican have to send a request for tickets weeks in advance. Luckily a big group of us were able to get tickets for both days.

Palm Sunday was the first time I went to Mass at the Vatican and it was quite the experience! The altar was set up outside and thousands of people crowded into the square. It was interesting because at home palms are always give out to the congregation, but when we went to the Vatican we were given olive branches (and in Marj’s case basically a whole tree because hers was so big!). Later they passed around huge palm branches (at least 5’ long) and people tore off strips, but not everyone received those. We arrived early enough to get a seat, which was nice because we were there for so many hours. We arrived there an hour early because of the crowds, then the procession of palms with the Pope took another 45 minutes, and after that Mass itself was 2 hours long! We left the house at 8am and only arrived home five hours later at 1pm. Despite Mass being long, it was nice to celebrate Mass with the Pope. When he was leaving the Pope-mobile went right past our seats so we got to see him up close.

All of the Priests and Deacons in white that helped to distribute Communion

The Pope leaving in his Pope-mobile

The following weekend we went to Easter Mass, but did not get there early enough to beat the crowds. We stood in a long line to go through security and ended up having to stand. Luckily we ended up right at the back of the main aisle so we had an unimpeded view the whole time! One thing that is different about Mass here is how there is no line that forms for Communion- it is literally a free-for-all! I actually got claustrophobic in the crowd because we were packed in like sardines. Also different is that because the crowd is so big, and it could be hard to find a Priest at communion time, an attendant stands near the Priest with a large yellow and white umbrella- sort of like a way-finding device. It definitely was entertaining to see the dispersion of all the matching umbrellas the first time we saw it at Palm Sunday.