Peshawar’s Christians at work on Good Friday

Most Christians miss out on prayer ceremony

PESHAWAR: As Christians across the country celebrated Good Friday, a vast majority of their community members in Peshawar could not celebrate their holy event as they were not given a leave from work.

Naeem, a class four employee of the Municipal Corporation told The Express Tribune, “I could not attend the three hour prayer today because I had to go to office.”

He said, “Good Friday is a day of mourning for us as Jesus was crucified on Friday, every Christian prays on this day and recites the Bible, but I couldn’t even attend the morning mass.”



All churches in Peshawar echoed on Friday with prayers in the memory of Jesus Christ and the day was celebrated with religious enthusiasm. The priests delivered sermons to the followers of Jesus about their religion and food was also distributed among participants after the prayers.

Good Friday occurs two days before the Easter Sunday. According to the Christian faith Jesus died after his crucifixion on Friday. Christians celebrate this whole week as a holy week which starts with the Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday.

However, like Naeem, a vast majority of Christians who are mostly class four employees of government departments, could not participate in event as no special leave was granted to them.



Ilyas Patras, who is also working in the Municipal Corporation as a sanitation worker, lamented, “Those who have private businesses are praying in churches, while those who are public or private servants have spent their day working.”

It is cruel that we cannot have holidays even on our religious days. He added the government should have at least allowed a holiday on this day of mourning to us.

Emanuel, another Christian community member told The Express Tribune, every Christian wants to become a part of the prayer ceremony on Good Friday but we usually miss the ceremony to perform our duties.