Editor’s Note: Places of worship in Ukraine were required to Orthodox Easter ceremonies behind closed doors or to limited numbers of parishioners due to the nationwide stay-at-home order to slow the spread of COVID-19. The religious services were broadcast on television and streamed online. The police on site enforced social distancing and prevent crowds. According to the National Police, nearly 130,000 people attended overnight worship services held in 13,658 churches across the country.
Story by Bermet Talant and photos by Kostyantyn Chernichkin, Volodymyr Petrov, Oleg Petrasiuk
For the first time in his life, Igor Repela from Ivano-Frankivsk didn’t go to church on Easter Day. Instead, he and his family stood around their dining table, dressed in vyshyvankas, and watched the televised service of their Ukrainian Greek Catholic church. Then Rapala’s father blessed the cakes and colored eggs and sprinkled holy water on the family members. Women and children smiled as they made the sign of the cross.
“We usually celebrate with an extended family, 25-30 people, and visit my wife’s family. But this year we had to cancel,” Repela told the Kyiv Post in a message later in the day.
For Ukrainians, this year’s Easter, the most important holiday for Orthodox Christians, was strikingly different. Due to the nationwide quarantine against the spread of COVID-19, many churches held services behind closed doors, and worshippers stayed home, prayed in front of their television and computer screens, and sanctified their food themselves.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, Ukraine has 5,449 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 141 deaths as of April 19. However, the country’s authorities worried that people would flock to churches defying stay-at-home orders and social distancing, and it could lead to a new wave of infections.
Additional restrictive measures were imposed to keep people at home.
Fortunately, most Ukrainians and clergy have complied with the quarantine.
The National Police said that Easter services went largely without violations. President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked his nation for the civic consciousness.
Easter services start on Saturday night but many people go to church on Sunday morning for a priest’s blessing.
This year, state and religious leaders agreed that the services would be held behind closed doors or with limited congregation and would be broadcast on television and streamed online. Citizens could order home delivery of pre-sanctified Easter pastry and eggs or do it themselves at home. In villages, priests went door-to-door to bless Easter baskets that people brought outside.
Moreover, the police patrolled all churches to enforce social distancing and prevent crowds.
According to the National Police, nearly 130,000 people attended overnight worship services held in 13,658 churches across the country. Last year, Easter services gathered over 6.7 million Ukrainians.
“This difference shows the awareness of Ukrainians, our care for our families. We demonstrated that Easter is the victory of life over death,” Zelensky said in a statement published on April 19.
The police registered 19 quarantine violations across the country.
On Sunday, April 19, some churches in Kyiv were closed but had tables with a holy water stoup outside.
Two churches of Eastern rite, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church urged their followers to stay home. The Hrobky, a tradition to visit the graves of deceased family members one week after Easter, was postponed until June 6.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate allowed people to pray at home but kept its churches open despite warnings that it might be risky and the fact that it has become the hotspot of the coronavirus. Two of its monasteries in Kyiv are quarantined and over 120 infected with COVID-19 among its clergy.
In Donetsk Oblast, the police opened a criminal case over the violation of sanitary norms after some 300 people gathered at Sviatohirsk Lavra that belongs to the Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate. In the video of the broadcast, worshippers are without masks and stand close to each other. They also kissed the hand of the bishop.
In Ternopil Oblast, the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra also ignored the social distancing rules and allowed large groups of worshippers to gather outside and inside.
“During the service, the doors of the monastery were opened, and people began to flock inside in spite of the limit of 10 people,” the Ternopil police reported.
The Pochayiv Lavra was named a COVID-19 hotspot after four Moldovan nationals allegedly contracted the coronavirus during the pilgrimage to this 16th-century monastery.
The church’s website also claimed that it was impossible to get infected during the communion ceremony, when worshippers and priests sip from the same cup or spoon, as well as posted a caricature comparing the Ukrainian authorities, who ordered to suspend mass religious gatherings in churches, to Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong.
