How do Christians celebrate Easter in Rome? We don’t!
CMS missionary Gillian Law serves in university student ministry with the GBU in Rome. Here, she shares how Easter is traditionally celebrated as a Catholic holiday in Rome, and how the evangelical church has responded to this.
This article is part two of our Easter series. Part one is here. Part three will be posted on 28 March. Part four will be posted on 30 March.
What does Easter look like in Rome? Well, it depends on who you are!
Pilgrimage, public holidays, and picnics
Rome is the major centre of Catholic pilgrimage, making it a hotspot for tourists and pilgrims over the Easter period. Local Catholic churches will often do a procession in the streets on Palm Sunday. The Pope then celebrates the Way of the Cross on Good Friday evening at the Colosseum, followed by another large public mass at St Peter’s Basilica on Easter Sunday.
Despite the religious significance of the city, many Romans are ‘culturally Catholic’, meaning they were baptised as infants, but have no relationship with Jesus. For them, Easter is just a long weekend, which many will use to visit family or travel. Yet, the holiday still holds traditions that are widely practiced across the country. Easter is one of the few occasions people eat lamb, as well as other Italian sweets like Colomba (sweet bread in the form of a dove). Easter Monday is typically celebrated outdoors with a picnic among friends, and is marked as the unofficial start of spring.
How is Easter celebrated by evangelical Christians?
To the surprise of many Australians, the evangelical church in Rome doesn’t hold many formal celebrations over Easter. This is partly to distinguish themselves from the Catholic church, which is steeped in ritual but often not a heartfelt relationship with the risen Lord Jesus. The Protestant church also claims that since they celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection every day of the year, there is no need to celebrate it on a specific holiday. Very few churches will make any significant evangelistic efforts over Easter, because so many people go away over the weekend.
Urging university students to consider Christ
The GBU in Rome is similar; we try to use every week to urge people to consider Christ’s death and resurrection. While we desire to celebrate Easter in unity with Christian students around the world, we too suffer from students going home or travelling over the holiday.
However, the months of March-April (apart from the Easter weekend) are our best months for evangelism on the Roman university campuses. This is not because of Easter, but because the lovely spring weather brings many students to hang outside on the lawns. With no exams looming, students are more open to engaging in gospel conversations during this time. Being the second semester of the year as well, many GBU students will have grown in their courage to share the gospel. So, it is around this time of year that we run a big evangelistic event. Last year, we presented The Mark Drama, and this year, we will hold a ‘mission week’.
While Easter in Rome looks different to Australia, the message of Christ’s death and resurrection remains the same, and is worthy of our celebration every day. Please be praying for the GBU as we present the gospel to university students in Rome.
PRAY
This Easter, would you pray each day for the work of the GBU in Rome? Pray that as they present the gospel all year round, Roman university students would consider, investigate and turn to Christ in trust and obedience.
