Christians Celebrate Easter With Joy and Serenity All Across Turkey
Turkey's Christian communities celebrated Easter, one of the main holidays in the Christian world, by holding religious ceremonies in churches on Sunday.
Edirne's Orthodox Sveti Georgi Church hosted close to 100 Bulgarian Orthodox Christians celebrating Easter. Led by Father Aleksandr Çıtırık, participants circumambulated the church while holding candles. Following this ceremony, the participants entered the church as the priest presented them colored eggs with bread and wine, symbolizing the blood of Jesus Christ. Similar ceremonies were also held in Mardin among the Assyrian community on Sunday at the 400-year-old Kırklar Church. Choruses comprising boys and girls accompanied priests in leading the prayers, which were made in Turkish, Arabic and Assyrian.
Assyrians came from all over Turkey to attend. İstanbul's Greek Orthodox Patriarchate also held a religious ceremony led by Patriarch Bartholomew. Tourists also participated in the hour-long ceremony.
State Minister Egemen Bağış, Turkey's chief EU negotiator, released a message on Sunday in which he wished all Christians a happy Easter. "I feel happy to share my feelings on Easter with our Christian citizens, and I want them to celebrate a happy and peaceful Easter which provides unity around faith and emphasizes tolerance and feelings of unity," Bağış said in his statement. Meanwhile, Easter reinvigorated tourism in Antalya's Manavgat district. Coming to Turkey for 15 days to celebrate Easter, tourists are enjoying the world-famous Side beach. Side-Manavgat Tourism Operators Association (Side-TUDER) head Cengiz Haydar Barut said Easter kicked off this year's tourism season. Noting that 90 percent of hotels in Side were ready for Easter, Barut said occupancy rates ranged from 50 to 60 percent. He also added that they would hold Easter ceremonies starting from Sunday in their hotels.
As this year marks the unusual convergence of two Christian calendars, Easter is being celebrated on the same day by both Western and Eastern Orthodox Christians. While Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar, Western Christians use the Gregorian calendar, established by Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century. Due to the difference in calendars, Eastern Orthodox Christians usually celebrate Easter a week or 10 days later than Western Christians. This and next year, however, all Christians will celebrate Easter on the very same date.