By Tendai Guvamombe
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – Easter Holiday is that time of the year where church, denominations, Christian movements among ethnic groups in different parts of the globe observe with high esteemed honour the persecution, which Jesus Christ, son of God endured from crucifixion to resurrection.
What makes the resurrection story to have a sounding gravity is not only how all men of Galilee and Jerusalem were astonished but the unusual manner he ascended back to heaven.
According to Revised Standard Version Bible, New Testament Acts of the Apostles 1:10 , ´While they were gazing into heaven as he went behold two men stood by them in white robes and said, “Men of Galilee why do you stand looking into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him going to heaven.”
It is from this view that Christians across all generations remain optimistic In the second coming of Jesus which is oftenly dubbed Maranatha.
So far Christianity as a religion has suffered deprivation from various aspects of modernity starting from Western World where the concept of dechristianization is currently paving way for a culture based on materialism and on the other hand African Traditional norms and values are beginning to reawaken a predicament that have seen the essence of Christianity constantly loosing value.
In respect of the Zimbabwean Society Easter Holiday now merely resembles a public holiday where people get to mix and mingle with families and peers yet a small percent of devout Christian believers in the main stream church and denominations are seen embracing the universal festival.
The largest proportion of church goers are a mere respond to a vicious cycle of poverty that has inflicted the lifestyles of many people which saw the rise of prophets in the new Pentecostal denominations.
In the Zimbabwean Context people are actually seen positively responding to Magaya’s Nights of Turn Around and Makandiwa’s Judgement Nights with the quest to have thier problems solved.
Apart from this there are some people who are caught in between Christianity and African Religion where they are seen spending their Easter Holiday performing cultural rituals at sacred places with thier families.
The constitution of Zimbabwe provides religious tolerance to the people regardless of gender, creed, race and colour and this has seen Easter Holiday to be celebrated differently on annual basis.
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