patna midnight mass prayers and saturday vigil marked easter celebrations in city churches the great vigil of easter started early sunday morning with a special easter service followed by lighting of candles and hymnsthousands of devotees thronged the churches with their family members and friends to offer prayers easter is celebrated as resurrection sunday when jesus christ resurrected after third day of crucifixion or good fridaypatna archbishop william dsouza sj conducted the midnight mass prayer at bishop house church on ashok rajpath and morning prayer at queen of the apostles church at kurji this is the great and most important feast in the church the christians faith is based on the resurrection of christ jesus taught his disciples to greet the people with peace when they enter into a house he said in his message dsouza also urged the devotees to pray for the peace and joy to the worldaccording to the new testament jesus died on the cross on good friday and came back to life three days later his resurrection is celebrated on easter sunday which also marks the end of lent the 40day period of fasting which begins on ash wednesday easter is the celebration of victory over death a celebration of new lifeedmund a devotee who offered prayer service at padri ki haveli in patna city said easter is a happy occasion and entire family celebrates it together after the easter service at the church in the morning we had light breakfast together which was followed by grand feast at home we start our celebrations savouring chocolate and caramel pudding he saidthirteenyearold davis cyrill said easter day is the end of lent and means the end of some peoples fasting easter eggs are normally given out on easter sunday we prepared it at home by mixing lots of melt chocolates i like the little solid chocolates we visit decorate eat and celebrate with our loved onesfor patrick family easter is about preparing food with the whole family ambrose patrick said we enjoyed cooking and serving to others more than eating we cook chicken kebab boti kebab and marinate chicken we also prepare easter egg cake and whole family decorate it with unique ideas we prepare barbeque in the evening in our garden and serve to our guestseven few confectionary shops put the easter eggs on display the prices ranged from rs 400 to rs 1000 depending on the size this year we bought the easter cake from a shop on boring road said sandhya osta a resident of ashiana colonyfor some devotees the day is about giving and sharing the feast with underprivileged families the celebration is also about hope in jesus and challenge to fulfil his passion he died for the wellbeing of humankind we prepare the lavish feast and share and donate clothes to the needy ones said another devotee jennifer lawrence