Naga eves hum equality tune on Easter

Kohima, April 19: Nagaland is on its way to becoming one of the first states to do away with the gender bias on Easter.

As a step towards this end, nurses would be singing carols and a lady Reverend reading passages from the holy Bible at Easter’s sunrise service at the War Cemetery tomorrow

The historic War Cemetery here will have a special service on Sunday morning where all the nine Protestant churches of the state will participate.

While there will be a prayer for the peaceful settlement of the Naga political issue, the unique aspect of tomorrow Easter function is the active participation of women for the first time.

“This time the nurses of the Naga hospital would be presenting songs,” Rev. Neiliezhu, chairman of the Kohima Town Pastors, told The Telegraph.

Complementing this unique step will be a reading from the Bible by Rev. Kapfo, who is one of the few women in the Church.

There will also be song sessions by the youth from other churches in the state capital. The Catholic Church here conducted a “vigil service” this evening. The special service, for the Resurrection of Jesus, was held instead of the usual midnight mass.

“This is mainly the case in the Northeast due to the disturbed situation,” says Fr. James of the Kohima Catholic Church.

Baptist Churches do not have the “Vigil Service”. Instead, they have an early morning service on Easter Sunday.

Nagaland has around 80 per cent Protestant population of various denominations. The programme at the War Cemetery is an annual feature for the churches of various denominations. “Having the service at a particular church may be seen as being attached to it,” said Rev. Nieliezhu.

“Rains lashed the state capital throughout Good Friday. It is believed that Good Friday usually sees an overcast sky with rain,” a church functionary said. The rains helped people stock up on water as the state capital had witnessed an acute water crisis in the past few days.

Another peculiarity for the “believers” was the “absence of criminal cases registered in the capital”. As shoppers went about the streets on Saturday afternoon, most of shops and business establishments observed a three-day vacation, starting yesterday. On Saturday, government offices and many private establishments remained closed.

Cultural meet: The North East Zonal Cultural Centre, Dimapur, will hold its governing body’s annual meeting in the Nagaland town on Tuesday, adds our staff reporter in Guwahati.

Nagaland Governor and chairman of the centre Shyamal Dutta will chair the meeting, where the annual budget will be finalised. The centre has proposed to organise one major programme in each of the northeastern states with the help of the department for Development of the Northeastern Region.