Jerusalem
Published 2026-08-25
Every August, Jerusalem's Old City fills with candlelight and hymns as the holy icon of the Virgin is carried to her tomb in Gethsemane — and at the priest's side walks the Ari family, keepers of an honor held in our name alone for generations.
The night the icon moves:
Every year, in the last days of August, Jerusalem observes one of the oldest and most beloved feasts on the Christian calendar — the Dormition of the Virgin Mary,It is an ancient Orthodox tradition, woven into the very stones of the Old City, and it draws thousands of pilgrims from every corner of the earth.
Before dawn, the great holy icon of the Virgin is lifted from the chapel where it rests through the year — the Dependency of Gethsemane, just opposite the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Then the procession begins. By candlelight, amid the scent of incense and myrtle and the sound of hymns, the icon is carried down through the Old City: through Bab Khan al-Zeit, along the Valley, and down the Via Dolorosa — the same road our Lord walked — until it reaches the Church of Our Lady Mary at the foot of the Mount of Olives, in the Kidron Valley.
There, near the Tomb of the Virgin, the icon is laid to rest for the days of the feast, and the faithful come to pray before it. Then, on the fifth of September, the icon is carried home again — the same road, the same candlelight, the same hymns — back to its place beside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where it rests until the feast calls it out once more the following year.
Every pilgrim who walks with the icon carries something home in their heart — a night they will remember for the rest of their life.
A feast kept for centuries
The tradition reaches back to the earliest centuries of the Church in Jerusalem. According to the ancient accounts, it was here — in a tomb in the Garden of Gethsemane — that the Mother of God was laid, and here that Christians have gathered to honor her ever since. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem keeps the older calendar, so while much of the world marks the feast on August 15, in the Holy City the great celebration falls in the last week of August, with the solemn procession of the icon about a week before.
For a single week, the narrow streets that carry shoppers and pilgrims every other day of the year become a river of candlelight. Priests in gold, families in their finest, children on their fathers' shoulders — all moving together toward Gethsemane.
Our family's place in it
Behind this ancient rite stands the Ari family, entrusted with an honor that belongs to us alone. We do not carry the holy icon — but through the entire procession, ours is the family that walks and stands at the priest's side. It is a place no other family may take, kept in our name and passed down, father to son, for hundreds of years.
That honor passed from one generation to the next, down to George Ari, who bore it in his time and entrusted it to his son, Tony George Ari. Today his sons — George Ari and his brothers Alfred, Marcel, and Saleem Ari — walk beside the priest in that same procession, the continuation of a long and sacred lineage that is ours, and ours alone, to keep.
It is the same devotion that shaped our shop in the Christian Quarter. For over fifty years, the Ari family has cared for the sacred art of the Holy Land — hand-hammered chalices, painted icons, olive-wood carvings, and crosses blessed in this very city. The faith we carry through the streets each August is the same faith we put into every piece we make.
Bring a piece of the Holy Land home
If the journey to Jerusalem is not one you can make this year, you can still hold a piece of it. Each of our pieces is crafted here, in the shadow of the Old City walls, by the hands of local craftsmen — and carries the same blessing as the streets it comes from.
Explore our handmade treasures
From our family in Jerusalem, to yours — wherever in the world you are.
Tags: Jerusalem, Dormition of the Virgin, Feasts, Old City, Orthodox Tradition, Pilgrimage, Holy Land