Easter Celebration in the time of novel coronavirus
– Steve Ovirih.
Jesus Christ is risen! Yes, he is risen from the dead and this celebration is marked annually with pomp and fanfare. Easter celebration is preceded by a forty day stretch of fasting and prayer in christiandom, the world over.
The last week of the forty day penitence is packed full with a lot of activities; the orthodox churches tag it the passion week with celebrations such as “Shrove Tuesday”, the last Wednesday of Lent, ” Maundy Thursday” and “Good Friday” which signals Jesus excruciating battle, pains and pangs at Golgotha, the Place of The Scull and on the cross all to wash the world clean of sins with his blood as an atonement.
Easter Sunday is always a celebration to behold and the joy that Christ, the King has risen makes the festivity beholden to faithfuls the world over.
Unlike previous years, the 2020 Easter Celebration is marked in low key, no thanks to the novel coronavirus which has been ravaging the world for the third month running. To think that a global Christian festival of this size and relevance will be marked hush- hush would have been unthinkable, but we are all living witnesses to how wreaking covid 19 has been wherever country it reaches. When coronavirus first made appearance in Wuhan , the Chinese capital of Hubei Province, it decapitated their economy as it stalked their lands with untold fury of deaths.
Coronavirus has traversed the world like a troubadour and it doesn’t appear like it has peeked yet globally.
In Nigeria, one single index case of the virus in late February has moved up to three hundred index cases at the last count with a handful of deaths arising from complications traceable to the novel covid 19 phenomenon.
Signs that the Easter celebration will go on a quintessential low key first came to the fore on Palm Sunday, the Sunday preceding Easter as churches were empty since the nation , having considered the surest means of containing the virus, toed the painning but safe path of lockdown . Most states of Nigeria are on the second week of lockdown in which everyone is required to stay at home, maintain social distancing and use the hand sanitizer as regularly as possible. Who dare flouts this order in the face of a strange virus which vaccines remain globally elusive . Even in far away Rome, in the famous St Paul Basilica, the seat of the Holy See, the pope celebrated the Palm Sunday last week with a handful of worshippers who sat maintaining the required social distancing as much as possible.
In Ondo state, on the subtle influence of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the state Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu had earlier relaxed the stay at home order for Easter Sunday mass across the state, but this had to change when a second index case of Coronavirus was discovered at Ijoka area of Akure, the state capital on Saturday preceding Easter. All gathering for Easter celebration was cancelled, says the release made available to the press by Donald Ojogo, the state commissioner of Information and Orientation. In neighbouring Osun state, the radio jingle ran all day, the state has not relaxed the stay at home ban spanning two weeks imposed!
Thus , for the first time in a century, christians have to celebrate the resurrection festival of our Lord Jesus Christ in the comfort of their homes. Something significant in all this is that the coronavirus dread has forged a collective obedience to a global stay at home order beyond the wildest imagination of observers. In years to come , year 2020 shall be remembered as the month of ‘Easter celebration lockdown!’
Be that as it may, Christ is risen and he is risen indeed! May the power of his resurrection help cleanse the world of both known and unknown pestilences.
Happy Easter to all our esteemed readers.
