From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, this is the holy week. Christians, the world over have been on prayer and abstinence for the last forty days or so.
Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem after which he's seized and crucified by the then rulers who're alarmed by his vast and spontaneous following! While Good Friday, sadly, witnessed his crucifixion, the following Sunday - the Easter Sunday - became a day to be celebrated and rejoiced to commemorate his resurrection and attainment of heaven.
Here, at Kochi and in various other parts of the state, it's a common sight, these days, of people in saffron clothes/robes on a trek to the church at Malayattoor. And they carry the cross to symbolise the hardship and discomfort that Jesus Christ had gone through, for the sake of mankind as a whole. The cross that each pilgrim carries is planted at the church site and a mass - attended by thousands of the trekking devotees - is conducted on Good Friday.
Here's a gem. How's Easter Sunday calculated?
This is one festival that keeps shifting dates unlike Christmas. Strangely, the heavenly bodies come into play in this calculation. The March Equinox, Full moons and Sundays are the prime players.
Easter is the first Sunday, after the full moon, following the March Equinox!
So, Easter always falls between 22 Mar and 25 Apr - a stretch of a month plus!!
Tailpiece.
The Malayattoor church pilgrimage reminds me of the 'kaawarias' who undertake long treks to collect 'Gangajal' as an annual pilgrimage in north India!
Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem after which he's seized and crucified by the then rulers who're alarmed by his vast and spontaneous following! While Good Friday, sadly, witnessed his crucifixion, the following Sunday - the Easter Sunday - became a day to be celebrated and rejoiced to commemorate his resurrection and attainment of heaven.
Here, at Kochi and in various other parts of the state, it's a common sight, these days, of people in saffron clothes/robes on a trek to the church at Malayattoor. And they carry the cross to symbolise the hardship and discomfort that Jesus Christ had gone through, for the sake of mankind as a whole. The cross that each pilgrim carries is planted at the church site and a mass - attended by thousands of the trekking devotees - is conducted on Good Friday.
Here's a gem. How's Easter Sunday calculated?
This is one festival that keeps shifting dates unlike Christmas. Strangely, the heavenly bodies come into play in this calculation. The March Equinox, Full moons and Sundays are the prime players.
Easter is the first Sunday, after the full moon, following the March Equinox!
So, Easter always falls between 22 Mar and 25 Apr - a stretch of a month plus!!
Tailpiece.
The Malayattoor church pilgrimage reminds me of the 'kaawarias' who undertake long treks to collect 'Gangajal' as an annual pilgrimage in north India!
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