Thiruvananthapuram, April 17 Christians in South India and around the rest of the country are gearing up for two major festivals this week, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Starting Thursday till Easter Sunday morning, a majority of the Christians have a strict regime, mostly associated with the Church and prayer sessions as part of the Holy Week.
Out of the 3.30 crore Christians in India, Kerala accounts for around 18 per cent of the population.
Of the 18 per cent Christians in Kerala, 50 per cent of them are attached to the three different Catholic churches and the rest are from around a dozen Kerala-based churches.
While each of these churches have their own prayer sessions, many of the services during Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday have some things in common.
Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper of Lord Jesus Christ with his apostles.
It is the day when Lord Jesus celebrated his final Passover by washing his disciples' feet and passing around bread and wine.
Traditional Christian households make Passover bread and share it with their neighbours.
On this day, Christians attend special church services.
The heads of the various churches in India engage in the washing of feet, which is a re-enactment of Lord Jesus’ act of washing the feet of his disciples.
The act symbolises humility and service to others.
Every church for this prayer service, selects about a dozen of the laity and have to come prepared for taking part in this symbolic act.
Another feature starting from Thursday is a huge number of Christians turn vegetarian until the breakfast on Easter Sunday.
While the devout ones, especially the senior citizens generally have the traditional kanji (watery rice gruel with pulses and pickle), the others have the traditional rice and vegetables for lunch and dinner.
On Good Friday, that will fall on April 18 this year, the Christians all over the world and in India will attend special services that are held to commemorate the crucifixion of Lord Jesus.
Most of the churches hold six hour services and dwell on the last seven sayings of Lord Jesus from the cross during which he forgave his killers and spoke to God.
Christians believe that Christ Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins of the whole of mankind and they commemorate this day with a lot of religious fervour and fasting.
After the Good Friday services Christians quietly keep vigil through prayers in churches on Saturday and await the resurrection of Lord Jesus as promised by him to his disciples on Easter Sunday.
While for the Kerala government offices, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are holidays, most private sector establishment have a restricted holiday on Thursday for Christians, while Good Friday is off for all.
Incidentally for non-Christians, these days bring cheer to them as starting Thursday till Sunday, since most offices remain closed, they take off for a short trip.
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