Advertisement
Advertisement

Mount Helix celebrates 94th annual sunrise Easter service in amphitheater

Share

In 1917 a group of Christians hiked in the dark along steep trails to the top of Mount Helix for a sunrise Easter service.

Early Sunday morning, hundreds of worshipers recreated the century-old pilgrimage. But this time, most of them hopped on free shuttles to get to the East County summit.

For more than 100 years, people have attended Easter celebrations atop Mount Helix. In 1925, organizers built an amphitheater near the cross specifically for the sunrise services to be held. Sunday marked the 94th annual service of what organizers say is the longest continuous celebration of its kind in the continental United States.

Advertisement

Each year the Mt. Helix Park Foundation selects a church to organize the service. Last year it was Christ Lutheran Church and the year before that it was Skyline Church. This year, the honor went to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church.

The service began a little after 6:30 a.m. when the choir sang, “And the Glory of the Lord,” which was the same song that kicked off the service back in 1925.

“It’s so right and appropriate that we are meeting on a mountaintop this Easter morning,” said keynote speaker Bonnie Oscarson. “Throughout the ages, God has designated mountains as places where sacred and holy events take place.”

As she spoke, rays of sunshine broke through the overcast sky creating beams of light that came down from the heavens. The morning sun warmed the worshipers’ faces, as they sat in the east-facing amphitheater.

Oscarson, the former president of the Young Women Organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, described Mount Helix as quiet, peaceful and, “even quite sacred.”

More than 1,400 people and about a dozen dogs attended the morning service. The worshipers wore an eclectic mix of their Sunday best and casual hiking gear. Women in heels and floral dresses sat in the same rows as young men dressed in boots and hoodies.

Attendees included residents who grew up going to the sunrise service and now take their own children as well as people new to San Diego who wanted to be part of the annual celebration.

Krista Powers, the executive director of the Mt. Helix Park Foundation, has been going to sunrise service for as long as she can remember.

“When I was a little girl we used to come as a family all dressed up in our Easter clothes and now have a 1- and a 4-year-old so we usually walk up the mountain and watch the sunrise service,” she said.

The original group who climbed up the mountain in 1917 probably never imagined cars driving past houses on their way up to Mount Helix and airplanes flying overhead during the service, she added.

Elizabeth Praetz is not particularly religious, but she wanted to be a part of a uniquely San Diego event.
“It’s really cool just seeing something that I know has been happening for so long,” she said.

Advertisement