Residents to celebrate Easter with prayers and grand feast

Thane: Christian families across the city celebrated Easter with prayers, feasting on Easter goodies, especially eggs and spending quality time with their loved ones. The celebrations began on Saturday night with midnight mass. People generally spend the rest of their day celebrating with family and friends. “Easter celebration includes a very simple family get together where they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ by attending the midnight mass together on Saturday night and sharing a regular delicious Sunday meal,” said Anthony D’souza (39), a Kolbad resident. Easter celebrations here seem to be a very intimate affair, even though it is a far bigger feast than Christmas for the community. “Christmas is the birth of Christ and Easter is the day he was resurrected after being crucified. The latter is definitely a far greater feat. However, the celebration of Christmas falls in the holiday season giving people a larger period to organize outings and parties. That being said, the intimate parties with family members and good food is also something we look forward too,” said Jocelyn Dias, a Ghodbundar Road resident. However, the aromas of traditional dishes like sorpotel and sannas, chicken xacuti, pork vindaloo and so on fill the by lanes of the city. Some churches have revived old traditions by giving their parishioners boiled eggs painted with colourful Easter greetings. “We boiled 1,000 eggs and painted them with a vibrant colours. This is how the tradition of Easter eggs started and we decided to revive it this year,” said Meljohn Peter, president of the youth group, Mother of Victory Shrine in Hiranandani Meadows.