THE JOYS IN THE EASTER HOLIDAYS

Hello everyone and happy Easter holidays.

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Well, as at the time of writing this post I know the Easter holidays is over but for me as a Catholic it's the beginning of the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Easter holiday was packed with various activities because it is a time for us as Catholics to reflect on the suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus. We take this religious festival seriously and we will observe all that is necessary which includes prayer, almsgiving and reflection. Some people just know how to celebrate the Easter holidays without even knowing the circumstances surrounding Easter celebration. As Catholics we do you have rules and obligations to follow.

The first obligation was to observe the 40-day period of lent, in time for deep reflection on our actions and life in general. We achieve this by going on fasting, by abstaining from actions and situations that makes us sin, we also stayed away from meat and bloody foods. During this period, We observed what is called the station of the cross which take place every Wednesday Friday where we partake spiritually in the Life and times of Jesus Christ by going through his audio during the crucifixion. This has 14 station in all and we do this till Easter Sunday.

Before Easter Sunday, the week leading up to it is known as the holy week during this period, we observe many activities that commemorates the Life and times of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection. This holy week starts with the Palm Sunday which is significant to Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem, depressed with blessed the fresh palms and then distribute it to the congregation and in turn would carry out the procession waving the palms and celebrating Jesus entry into Jerusalem.

After this we had the holy Thursday, this day is filled with activities that has to do with chrism mass and the celebration of the last supper. This is always so interesting because the chrism mass is one that is celebrated by the bishop of the diocese and attended by all Reverend fathers in the state. In this holy mass, the bishop blesses the priests and also blesses the seven significant oils used in the Catholic Church, I always look forward to attending and I didn't miss this one. After this is done in the morning, later in the evening, we all converge in church for the celebratory mass of the last supper during the mass 12 men are invited up to the altar as their representatives of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ and the priest would wash their feet.

Then there's the holy Saturday where the easter Vigil mass is performed with all the congregation outside in the dark while the easter fire is burning, the priest blesses the fire and in turn put on the Pascal candle. And then we will sing hallelujah for the Lord has risen. Then the Easter Sunday Mass is marked with great joy celebration decoration and singing unlike the past weeks where everything was dull were all in the reflection and self discipline on the death and crucifixion of Jesus.

This is celebrated in various ways like cooking of food eating and dining with families varieties of delicacies like jollof rice fried rice fried chicken salad and whatever. It was very amazing as I celebrated with close ones and we had a swell time celebrating after all we have been through. This was how I celebrated the easter periods and it was worthwhile.

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