Religious festivals cancelled or scaled back due to coronavirus

All major world religions are limiting large gatherings and physical contact to halt transmission of Covid-19

Harriet Sherwood
@harrietsherwood
Sat 14 Mar 2020 08.00 GMT
Last modified on Sat 14 Mar 2020 12.09 GMT

Events to mark important religious festivals could be cancelled or curtailed in the coming weeks because of the coronavirus crisis.

Next month, most of the world’s major religions have festivals involving large gatherings of people. Easter is on 12 April (a week later for Eastern Orthodox churches); Passover begins on 8 April; Rama Navami, an important Hindu festival, is on 2 April; while the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi is a few days later. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins around 23 April.

The traditional mass to celebrate Easter at the Basilica in Rome, followed by the pope’s Urbi et Orbi blessing in St Peter’s Square, is usually attended by tens of thousands of people from all over the world. But after the square was closed off by Italian police and public masses and funerals were cancelled, Easter celebrations are now in doubt.

The Vatican is livestreaming the pope’s daily 7am mass and the Angelus on Sundays. Despite the restrictions on movement in Italy, Francis – who has tested negative for the virus – has urged Catholic priests to “have the courage to go out and visit the sick … and to accompany the medical staff and volunteers in the work they do”.

Most churches across the world have already advised congregants not to shake hands as a “sign of peace”, to ban sharing communion cups and placing wafers directly on the tongue, and to stop the practice of intinction, or dipping wafers in wine. But the risks of the virus spreading as a result of physical proximity could mean official bans on services of worship, or people deciding simply to stay at home.

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