(VOVworld) – Easter, a major celebration of Christians, is held in March or April to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead after his crucifixion. The festival is also a time for family reunions and giving gifts to kids. The festival is being celebrated with numerous activities worldwide this year.

A girl eating a traditional Russian Easter bread © Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

At a ceremony to mark Easter Day on Sunday at the Vatican, Pope Francis urged Christians to help the disadvantaged, the poor, migrants, and the elderly. Last Thursday Pope Francis visited Italy’s Paliano prison, where he bent to wash and kiss the right food of 12 inmates, commemorating Jesus's gesture of humility to his 12 apostles on the night before he died. The Pope urged the inmates to help each other.

A service was also held in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, in the Church of the Nativity, where Christian tradition says Jesus was born. A procession was held outside the Church of the Nativity by a large number of Christians hoping to be blessed with good fortune. In Moscow, Christians gathered at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow to celebrate Easter Sunday.

In a southern city in Spain, at least 100 people were injured in a stampede during an Easter procession on Friday. Pakistan’s security forces on Monday claimed to have foiled a “major” terror attack on minority Christians ahead of Easter in Lahore after they arrested an IS-connected woman. Lahore suffered one of Pakistan’s deadliest terror attacks in 2016—a suicide bomb in a park last Easter that killed more than 70 including many children. Despite incidents here and there, love and sharing still dominated this year’s Easter celebrations.