BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Easter season is one of the many festive seasons commemorated by Christians worldwide which last for 50 days, spanning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday.
During the season, christians across the world commemorates the resurrection of Jesus from death and it is celebrated as a single joyful feast called the “great Lord’s Day”.
The Friday before Easter Sunday, Christians commemorate Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and it is called Good Friday which this year is the 10th of April, 2020.
Most churches during the season, they organize special church services, music, candlelight, flowers and the ringing of church bells. However, the season this year has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic that has Paralyzed most parts of the world.
According to the Lilongwe based man, Mphatso Samuel Phiri, says always been commemorating this season by participating in church services as it presents to him an opportunity to reflect on his Christian walk together with his fellow Saint.
This year however, he has been unable to do all this as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I have always been attending all the church services organised by Fountain of Victory starting from good Friday to easter Sunday but this year, I have been unable to attend services since government has outlined a specified number of people to gather as one way of preventing the spread of coronavirus.
“To observe this measure set by government, our church has divided the services into several parts. As of today, there was only youth service and tomorrow the service will be for those who are married, then ladies only and another one for the church elders and deacons. This is contrary to how we have always been doing things.
“In the past years, we had three normal services starting from good Friday too Pentecost Sunday and everyone was free to attend all the services but this time around, we have been asked to choose just one category to keep the number of those in attendance in check,” said Phiri.
One lady in particular from Blantyre city pointed out that the Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating to her.
“We as catholics on good Friday, we usually have prayer walk carrying our wooden cross in remembrance of Christ’s journey to the Hill of Calvary where he was crucified.
“This year however, this has not been done and this has affected us since around this time we are usually on fasting and we open the fasting with prayers after the prayer walk. Now we feel like there whole function is incomplete and this is very devastating to us, ” she said.
As of April 10, 2020, Malawi had nine COVID-19 cases with one death.