JERUSALEM — There were reverent prayers, candlelight vigils and mostly raucous partying as pilgrims, tourists and the curious gathered on the Mount of Olives early today to celebrate the dawn of 2000.
Anyone here to greet the second coming of Christ was keeping a low profile. Acting on fears that apocalyptic Christians might wreak havoc in the Holy Land, Israeli authorities imposed a blanket of security throughout Jerusalem that seemed to keep trouble to a minimum.
Hundreds of people from all over the world milled about on a Mount of Olives ridge overlooking Jerusalem's Old City. The golden Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher glistened on the horizon as bursts of fireworks, mostly from nearby Bethlehem, dotted the star-filled sky.
"Happy New Year and God bless you," said Anna McGill, a 22-year-old law student from Australia. "This is the most religious place that can be. It is very powerful. But really I'm here to see a bunch of crazy people."
Despite weeks of hype and expectation, the handful of evangelical Christians meditating here was far outnumbered by journalists and police who came to keep tabs. No one attempted to commit mass suicide or trigger Armageddon, as some predicted.
Instead, celebrators were popping champagne corks, smoking cigars and chatting on their cell phones. One group of festive Finns was doing the wave.
"Are you going to the Church of the Ascension?" asked a woman in the crowd, referring to the site at the top of the mount where Christ is said to have risen to heaven.
"Is there a party there?" responded her companion.
The religious significance was not lost on everyone.
"This is the center, where the three great Semitic religions were born," said longhaired, long-bearded Shawn Olson, 28, of Alexandria, Minn. "I don't share those beliefs, but this is the place to be."
At the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane, the site on the mount where Jesus is believed to have prayed before his arrest, hundreds of Roman Catholics attended Mass and then marched through the streets holding candles and torches.
"We are here together to say hello to the new year and hello to Jesus," said Franco Ghetti, a 42-year-old teacher from Italy. "Jesus is everywhere. He does not have to come back because he is already with us."
