Approach return to restored emergency lady for Easter rituals with emotions and reverence

Paris (AP) four months after his long-awaited reopening, the Notre Dame Cathedral welcomed a circular group of branches to an emotional Easter ceremony on Friday for an emotional Easter ceremony that concentrated on the crown of the Thorns, which are surrounded in a golden tube and one of the most revered relics of Christianity.

The ritual, which took place during the Holy Week, included liturgical chants, candlelight and a solemn procession of clergymen who carried the thorn crown through the alleys of the cathedral.

Tourists were in a line that stretched over the Seine and waited to enter the renovated Gothic landmark. Inside, Usher’s fought gently to separate between curious visitors and the believers.

The rector of Notre Dame, Rev. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, said Crowda exceeded expectations this week.

“We saw about 20,000 pilgrims a day in front of the fire,” he said. “Now it is closer to 30,000. The joy that the people in the cathedral rediscover – they can see them as they go.”

Marylène Portet, 63, was among the strings of a Parisian -born Parisian who has taken part in Easter mass in Notre Dame since childhood. She frowned when a group of tourists got her phone out to take photos from areas where the believers were gathered.

“This is a holy moment,” she said. “You don’t just take a photo of the relic and drive on.”

After the Usher’s interview, Portet resigned to suck up the moment and look at the new blanket or end it forward to take a look at the ceremony, in which more than 200 rows develop in front of us.

“It’s not just the cathedral that was rebuilt,” she said. “It feels like a link that was missing for so long.”

Tiphaine Mauquiez, 41, came in central France with her two young daughters from Poitiers.

“We tried to take a trade fair during the reopening of the week in December, but could not get in,” she said. “This time we did it. So that my daughters experience this great moment – it’s incredible.”

In January, cathedral officers announced a record application in the first month after the reopening.

“Before the fire, we greeted between 10 and 12 million visitors a year,” said Sibylle Bellamy-Brown, head of public reception at Notre Dame. “More than 3.5 million have come since the reopening. But our goal is not to set records. What matters is that the cathedral will be brought back to life.”

For French and foreign worshipers, the day of the celebration was not only for faith, but for re -connection.

Marianna Janik, 34, visited with her husband from Poland, said they had planned their journey at this moment.

“We just couldn’t miss that,” she said, before kneeling when the relic procession passed. “We came to the fair here 10 years ago. When the fire passed, we were broken.

On April 15, 2019, a devastating fire forced the closure of the monument. After a five -year renovation that continues, Notre Dame was reopened in a large ceremony in December 2024 that pulled guides from all over the world.