TIRANA, April 9 – Albanians are marking Easter for two weekends in a row as Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders marked the holiday with prayers and calls for good deeds.
Catholic leaders in Tirana and Shkodra called in their masses for more solidarity with the poor.
President of the Episcopal Conference of Albania, Archbishop Engjell Masafra, called on Catholics “to overcome indifference and to get closer to people in need.”
Pope Francis marked the holiest night of the year for Christians celebrating Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square and giving his traditional Easter greetings in dozens of languages, including Albanian.
The Easter Vigil is the most important liturgy on the church’s calendar, when the faithful mark the passage from Christ’s death to his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Over the coming weekend, the Orthodox churches across Albania are also expected to hold midnight mass.
Thousands of Albanian migrants usually travel home for Easter, mainly from neighboring Greece.
More than half of Albania’s population is Muslim, but Christians make up a large minority. All communities live in harmony and there is a lot of shared celebrations on religious holidays due to mixed marriages.
Like all major Christian and Muslim holidays, both Catholic and Orthodox Easter is a national holiday in Albania.
This year it also marked the return of three-day weekends for many state employees after the government reversed a previous decision to not allow an extra day off when the holiday falls over the weekend.
