Coronavirus disrupts Easter celebrations and other events
Fewer people went to church. The installation of the new the Archbishop of Chattogram, Mgr Lawrence Subrato Howlader has been postponed. Weddings too have been delayed; in one case, 400 people had been invited.
Natore (AsiaNews) – Bangladeshi Christians celebrated Easter amid fear of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, relatively few people went to church.
About 7,087 new cases were reported on Easter Sunday with and 53 deaths caused by the coronavirus.
Due to the pandemic, many Christians did not return to their villages for the Easter holiday. The government banned public transport for seven days as a nationwide lockdown starts today.
“This year fewer people have joined Easter Sunday celebrations due to the coronavirus,” said Father Bikash Reberio, pastor at the Bonpara parish in Naore, speaking to AsiaNews on Easter Sunday. “Catholics are afraid of this deadly virus. At Easter we asked Jesus Christ to remove the pandemic from Bangladesh and other countries.”
The pandemic has led the authorities to postpone major social and religious activities, including the pilgrimage of St Anthony of Padua, which takes place in Panjora, a village in Gazipur. Traditionally, some 60,000 people gather at the stie for this annual event, but this year it was postponed because of the coronavirus.
“On Easter Sunday we announced that the pilgrimage for the feast of St Anthony of Padua scheduled for 23 April, was being postponed,” said the convenor of the pilgrimage and parish priest at the St Nicholas Catholic Church, which includes the pilgrimage area. “We might conduct the pilgrimage in mid-June if the coronavirus situation becomes normal,” he told AsiaNews.
The clergyman noted that on Easter Sunday, fewer people attended Mass as a result of the pandemic. Many people did not come back from the cities and prayed at home instead.
The installation of Archbishop Lawrence Subrato Howlader of Chattogram (Chittagong), scheduled for next Friday, was also postponed.
A statement from the Archdiocese of Chattogram reads: “We regret to report that the installation of His Grace, Most Rev Lawrence Subrato Howlader, CSC, as the Archbishop of Chattogram has been postponed till further notice due to the recent surge of coronavirus and countrywide lockdown. The programme will take place at convenient time in future.”
Not only have religious activities been postponed due to the pandemic, but so have events such as weddings and the school jubilee.
Subash Gomes was supposed to get married tomorrow. “We had invited 400 people for our wedding,” he explained, “but owing to the lockdown and the pandemic, we postponed it and informed our relatives about the delay. We will set a date for our marriage later.”
In Bangladesh, 9,266 people have died so far from the coronavirus. About 637,364 have tested positive and 552,482 have recovered.
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