Hallelujah! Easter Sunday celebrations: Mass, host and eggs

2,000 people attended mass at St Patrick’s cathedral.

KARACHI:

In the pews, around 2,000 people listen devotedly to excerpts from the Bible and a responsorial psalm on Easter Sunday. St Patrick’s Cathedral in Saddar echoes of “Alleluia”, the Latin version of Hallelujah. “Christ has become our paschal sacrifice. Let us feast with joy in the name of the Lord. Alleluia!” says Father Tony Martis.

Everyone is donned in their best. Men in crisp, new shirts and women in flared and pencil skirts.

The mass gathering stands up in prayer and then kneels for the celebrant verses. After the choir, everyone shakes hands and congratulates each other on Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Pastors spray holy water with palm leaves.

The Eucharist is saved for last. Host — bread dipped in wine — is distributed. It is a chief Christian sacrament in memory of Jesus giving his disciples bread during the Last Supper.

The long observance of Lent came to an end for Christians across the world on Sunday as they assembled in churches to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and pray for their salvation.

The celebratory festival marks the holiest day of the year for Christians.

It is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon or after the vernal equinox of March 21. Therefore, Easter can come as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.

The cathedral also hosted a midnight service starting with a vigil, representing the light Jesus brought to this world with his sacrifice.

The Protestant churches host a sunrise service instead, that represents the time when women went to Jesus’s grave to find out that he had risen and escaped death.

Eggs and chocolate bunnies

For 10-year-old Sneha John, her time at church is nothing more than an ‘egg-stravaganza’. “I got my Easter egg even before the hen laid its eggs,” she triumphantly says.

It is a large pink marzipan shell with lots of sweets inside. She flaunts her knowledge about why Easter is celebrated, but gets distracted quickly. “Mummy will cook chicken biryani or pizza and we will go out for a picnic.”

Another visitor, Peter, made it just in time for mass. He had gone to buy Easter bunnies for his three children. “It is a rare treat,” he says. But these treats are expensive. Rebecca William grumbled at the price of one Easter egg. “Why are they priced so high? They don’t even have many sweets inside! It’s more affordable to give children cash than to buys eggs.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2011.

 

The Express Tribune Easter slideshow can be seen here.