The Christian community on Sunday celebrated their religious festival Easter all over the world including Pakistan with great zeal and fervour. In Christianity, Easter marks the end of Lent, a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, which begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts forty days (not counting Sundays).
Easter is among the festivals of minorities in Pakistan which is announced to be celebrated officially by the government of Pakistan, respecting religious events of minorities and ensuring maximum representation in official events, said Shahbaz Bhatti, Federal Minister for Minorities.
He greeted the Christians and said, "we are determined to give due rights to the deprived segments of the society including minorities and committed to the uplift and empower the minorities."
Easter preaches the message of tolerance, sacrifice, brotherhood, hope and freedom which is a guideline for all of us, he said, adding "it is the time that people of different faiths become united to defeat the destructive elements who want to destabilise our country by their ill designs.
We should remove distances and improve tolerance to counter these conspiracies with interfaith harmony and national unity."
He pointed that the government has already approved 5 percent quota for minorities in government jobs and allocated 4 percent seats in the Senate for them.
Bhatti informed that a national campaign to promote interfaith harmony has been launched to counter trends of extremism and bridge gap among different faiths. Prayer rooms for minorities will also be constructed for prisoners in all the prisons throughout the country, he added. He vowed to struggle for the uplift and prosperity of minorities.
The week before Easter, known as Holy Week, is very special in the Christian tradition while the Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday and the last three days before Easter are Maundy, Thursday or Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday (sometimes referred to as Silent Saturday).
Palm Sunday, Maundy, Thursday and Good Friday respectively commemorate Jesus' entry in Jerusalem, the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are sometimes referred to as Easter Triduum (Latin for "Three Days"). In some countries, Easter lasts two days, with the second called "Easter Monday."
The week beginning with Easter Sunday is called Easter Week or the Octave of Easter, and each day is prefaced with "Easter".
Many churches in Pakistan start celebrating Easter late in the evening of Holy Saturday at a service called the Easter Vigil. While the celebrations are usually offered on Easter Sunday including usual order of Sunday services in a congregation, but also typically incorporate more highly festive elements.
The incorporation of brass instruments (trumpets, etc.) to supplement a congregation's usual instrumentation is common.
Often a congregation's worship space is decorated with special banners and flowers (such as Easter lilies) to capture the glory of the holiday.
The children wake up to find that the Easter Bunny has left them baskets of candy. He has also hidden the eggs that they decorated earlier that week. Children hunt for the eggs all around the house. Neighbourhoods and organisations hold Easter egg hunts, and the child who finds the most eggs wins a prize.