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The Bukoba Auxiliary Bishop, Methodius Kilaini
It’s parties galore as Christians end a 40-day lent to celebrate the symbolic resurrection of Jesus Christ tomorrow.Party times aren’t limited to Christians alone; businesses will also laugh all the way to their banks following bargain promotions riding the high crest Easter euphoria, The Guardian on Sunday can report.
Across the Kigamboni Creek, a facility known as Fun City is coaxing revelers to a treat of acrobatics and circus to choice Easter bites; and from fun rides and water sports to comedy shows and live entertainment. There’s also something somewhat alien – face painting!
Across the city, every business with money to spare for an advert used this festive season to do rake in instant profits through bargain promotions even though the death of Christ pulled quite a few Christians away from the pub to observe the lent.
So if Jesus Christ were to come back to earth tomorrow, would He overturn a few dinner tables and give a real lashing to revelers found in the wrong place?
Those familiar with holy writ would recall that Jesus did the same thing in Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago when He found people who had converted a synagogue into a bureau de change and a kiosk for selling chickens and doves.
At that time, it was mandatory for the Jews and other subjects to exchange their misery local currencies for the real ‘green’ buck, the Drachman, so that they could render what was due to Caesars.
So the poor fellows in Jerusalem had to sell their livestock and whatever else they could sell to pay their taxes.
But we digress. The entertainment spots across the world calling revelers to merry-making in the name of Christ may well have reason to do so: they are celebrating Christ’s victory over death, for which we also have opportunity for a first-class flight on His wings – as all believers in Jesus will tell you. No need to judge, yea?
Welcome to our 21st century Passover supper, an imitation of the last meal Jesus Christ shared with his 12 disciples on that fateful night when one of the men He personally picked Judas Iscariot sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver.
For the record, the thirty pieces of silver were the equivalent of the ancient price of a slave!
So let’s make merry because the Man his tormentors sought to insult has given cause for his followers and non-believers alike --to have the last laugh.
In Tanzania, as in other African countries, Easter has always been celebrated as a main function of Christian communion. In the Easter Vigil yesterday, hundreds of people across Tanzania assembled in churches to commemorate – as a matter of tradition -- to commemorate the resurrection of Christ after his cruel death on the Cross.
Easter and Christmas are sometimes light-heartedly referred to as a “Christian Open House” since those are the two days a year when people who do not attend church fill the pews for a few minutes.
It is the oldest Christian holiday and probably the most important day of the church year. All the Christian movable feasts and the entire liturgical year of worship are arranged around Easter.
Easter, Pascha in Latin, Paskha in Greek, is a Christian festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion as described in the New Testament and clearly foretold in the Old Testament. The name Easter is derived from the Hebrew word Pesach for 'he passed over'.
The Bukoba Auxiliary Bishop, Methodius Kilaini, describes Easter as an extremely important time for Christians, and that it is one day when church services are of the well attended.
But the cleric observed that with the changing lifestyles, people have also changed the way they celebrate Easter; the majority just do it with a bit hindsight of its spiritual meaning it used to have in the past.
“Much as people go to church, one can easily feel that the occasion is slowly becoming less meaningful to many Christians now than before,” he said.
He added that during lent and finally Easter, Christian should lead an exemplary life and deny themselves some of the luxuries in order to help those in need such as orphans, elderly and street children.
With four consecutive days of festivities, Easter holidays should have been bigger than Christmas, at least in Dar es Salaam and other major towns in the country where the latter usually drives people ‘bonkers’ at the end of each year.
Coming only two months after both Christmas and New Year festive seasons, Easter holidays usually find most people already exhausted morally, spiritually and even financially.
Ramadhan Juma, a businessman at Kariakoo market in the city, admits that a lot of shopping is done during the end of year festivals than during Easter celebrations.
“Although Easter has its fair share of consumerism attached to it, the level of business does not even come close to that of Christmas and Valentine’s Day,” he told The Guardian on Sunday.
He agrees that during festive seasons, product and service marketers like him build a lot of hype to persuade consumers to spend more, adding that during Valentine’s Day and Christmas over 70 of their customers buy gifts for others.
However, Bishop Kundaeli Mrema of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) in Dar es Salaam also agrees that Easter is a special event for all Christians as they mark resurrection of Christ.
“This is one of the most important festivities in the Christian calendar worldwide,” he said, adding that it is well attended in his church just like other churches in the city.
He said it was one of the celebrations that find most people in the city unlike during Christmas holidays -- when people travel upcountry to celebrate with their extended families.
This should explain why all churches in Dar es Salaam are usually filled up with people during Easter Sunday mass -- as they did at the weekend. Everyone happens to be around and, perhaps, almost each resident here is broke, so anything near the altar becomes the cheapest area one can reliably pass the day.
Timing is the other factor that holds back people from travelling to rural areas; Easter normally comes during the long rains (Masika) season at the end of March, early or mid-April.
Besides, many have taken the opportunity of the regular church attendances during lent period to strike friendships with choir members.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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