Eyes watering not only the cold, 5,000 people came together on Parliament Hill on Sunday to join others in cities around the world in a 10-minute silent goodbye to John Lennon.

They came to sway, chant, light candles and sing farewell to a man who shaped a decade of music before he and his colleagues went their separate ways.

In fact, most of Sunday's crowd discovered the Beatles during the separate-way period.

On Sunday, they had their chance to shout "Peace" and become melancholic and reflective.

Photo: Larry MacDougal, Ottawa Citizen

Rev. Daryl Kennedy paid a non-denominational tribute to John Lennon.

"John Lennon was a man blessed by God but taken from us by man's brutality. His life was a success but not without its moments of glaring failure."

All you need is love, roared the speakers, and later, Give peace a chance, floated across the Hill.

"I came to pay my respects to the greatest rock'n'roller of all time," said 23-year-old John Major, who has 185 Beatle albums.

"I used to worship John Lennon."

With tears streaming down her face, her words distorted as she gasped for breath, Kathy Lalonde tried to explain how the younger generation felt.

"When a phenomenon dies it's pretty hard to take," she said, and broke down in tears again.