On March 31, Catholics and Protestants in Uzbekistan joined believers worldwide in celebrating Easter, the main Christian holiday, occurring five weeks before Orthodox Easter.
At the Roman Catholic Church, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Tashkent, the Easter Vigil, the longest service of the year, commenced on Sunday night at 8 p.m.
The ceremony began with priests blessing the fire and lighting the Paschal candle, symbolizing Jesus Christ’s triumph over death.
Parishioners participated by reading passages from the Old and New Testaments in Russian, English, and Korean, culminating in a prayer led by Bishop Jerzy Maculewicz, the head of the Catholic Church in Uzbekistan.
The service concluded with a procession on the square in front of the church, during which the priest carried white bread, symbolizing the flesh of the Lord, believed by Catholics to contain the divine presence.
Photos by Ilya Semendeyev
