The Christians in Kurdistan region prepare to celebrate the Easter season

The Christians in Kurdistan region prepare to celebrate the Easter season
The Christians in Kurdistan region of Iraq consider the Easter season as the core of the Christian faith, and the major moveable feast of the liturgical year. It may fall on any Sunday between March 22nd and April 23rd. The Christians deferred to the Jewish practice of using moon phases to decide the timing of the feast.
We find at this great Christian festival a conjunction between the cycles of nature and the mythic cycle of the liturgical year, Because of this, many of the symbols that we associate with this feast, such as chicks, Easter eggs and rabbits, are fertility symbols representing the renewal and proliferation of life in spring. Probably this is the reason why they call this feast “the grand feast” comparing to other feast of the Christian faith such as charismas, epiphany etc.
The Christians in Kurdistan consider Jesus’ death and resurrection as the center of their lives-;- they use different form of greetings during the feast, such as “Christ is risen” with the respond to that “Truly is risen”.
The Easter celebration usually includes the drama of betraying Jesus by “Judas” one of the twelve disciples and then they go through the meaning of death and resurrection. So the Christians celebrate this joy as they celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection in this night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death by his resurrection. The Christians take this feast as the greatest opportunity to renew their baptismal vows because baptism is considered as the tomb. In other words when the Christians were baptized they leave sin behind and live a new life with Jesus. Therefore on this most blessed night they resolve once more to leave sin behind and live in the grace of Christ and renew their baptismal promises during these services, by holding candles lit from the Paschal Candle which in turn was lit from the Easter fire as a symbol of “Christ risen from death”.

Rate the article
Bad	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Very good
Result : 94%							Participated in the vote : 15