Christians worldwide celebrate Easter and commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ

Christians all over the world celebrate Easter on Sunday (April 17). Also known as Pascha, it marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as described in the New Testament of the Bible.

Let's take a look:

Pope Francis implicitly criticised Russia for dragging Ukraine into a "cruel and senseless" conflict and urged leaders to strive for peace as he marked what he called an "Easter of war" on Sunday.

The 85-year-old pope made the comments in his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) address - traditionally an overview of world conflicts - to about 100,000 people in St. Peter's Square.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned a British plan to send tens of thousands of asylum seekers to the East African country of Rwanda, saying the policy did not stand "the judgment of God".

Delivering a sermon on Easter Sunday at Canterbury Cathedral, Justin Welby said the strategy announced last week by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson posed "serious ethical questions".

For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, crowds thronged the streets of Seville as one of Spain's most iconic Easter processions wound its way through the city from midnight free of social distancing curbs.

Known as La Madrugá, or The Dawn, the procession features penitents who wear pointed black hoods and carry a float of the Virgin of Hope of Macarena from the city's cathedral.

Christian devotees participated in a Easter Sunday procession in Kolkata. They also attended special prayer services in church and abtain from eating meat on this day. 

Followers of the Maroon Society and Methodist church attended an Easter Sunday service at the historic two hundred and thirty year old Zion Wilberforce Chapel in Freetown.

The Maroon Church is one of the oldest churches in Sierra Leone, founded in 1808 by the Maroons. Maroons are people who were taken from present day Ghana to Jamaica as slaves but after constant rebellion were then deported to Nova Scotia, Canada and then from there around five hundred and fifty were shipped to Freetown in 1800.
 

Prayers echoed in the rotunda of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday (April 17) as Christians from around the world were once again able to attend Easter Sunday mass after two years of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Around 500 worshippers passed through the huge wooden doors of the church that is the focus of the most important festival in the Christian calendar as the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and resurrected.

The mass was led by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

Israel has only recently started to allow foreign tourists to enter the country again.

The Holy Sepulchre lies at the heart of the Old City's Christian Quarter in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and later annexed. The Armenian, Catholic and Greek churches share custody, and the Coptic and Syrian churches have rights.

Christian devotees attended an Easter Sunday mass at the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta. 

Syrian Christians attended a mass marking Easter Sunday at the Syriac Catholic Church in Syria's northern city of Aleppo.

Lebanese Melkite Catholic Christians gathered to pray on Easter Sunday at the Church of Our Lady of Protection in the Sin el-Fil neighbourhood of the capital Beirut.

Iraqi Catholic Christians attended Easter Sunday mass at Qaraqosh's Al-Tahera (Immaculate Conception) Church in the Hamdaniyah district in the northern Iraqi province of Nineve.

The church, established during the seventh century east of Mosul, had been torched by the Islamic State (IS) group when it swept into the northern Iraqi province in 2014 and was later heavily damaged in fighting with jihadists, who were ousted from the town in 2016. The church's imposing marble floors and columns were restored just before Pope Francis' visit to Iraq in 2021.