Easter: The world celebrates national holiday despite coronavirus pandemic
These pictures, some innovative and some just plain sad, sum up how the world has had to adapt to celebrate Easter.
It’s been an Easter long weekend in Australia like no other.
Churches have gone online, Easter parades across the country were canned weeks ago, streets are silent and toilet paper seems to be a more sought-after product than chocolate eggs.
But it will be an Easter to remember.
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The nation's political leaders have asked Australians to embrace a “different” Easter and stay home in the wake of early evidence the COVID-19 curve is flattening.
“The coronavirus means this Easter will be different and we will be staying at home,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in an address to the nation on April 9.
“It’s important because we cannot undo the tremendous progress we have made together in recent times. So this Easter we are staying at home. Don’t travel. Don’t go away.”
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt warned that “the virus does not take a holiday”.
Australians appear to have largely heeded this advice over the weekend.
The Western Australian Police Force congratulated residents for adhering to social distancing guidelines as crowds flocked to beaches along the coast on April 11 to enjoy the soaring Easter temperatures.
Police drone footage captured a birds-eye view of one beach showing hundreds of sunbathers, surfers and swimmers enjoying the weather but keeping their distance.
Meanwhile, in South Australia at the Monarto Safari Park, chimpanzees celebrated Easter with egg hunts and paper mache animal models .
Keepers decorated the chimps’ enclosure windows with colourful pictures and hid decorated boiled eggs around their outdoor habitats.
Even quarantined Aussies found a way to make the day special.
Across the world, other countries also struggled to celebrate Easter.
America, which has now become the new epicentre of the disease, was largely deserted in areas usually packed with people.
Theme parks have become ghost towns in the US.
It’s a trend that’s happening all over the world. In every corner of the globe, streets are empty of people.
However, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern assured children last week that both the Easter bunny and Tooth Fairy were essential workers and would be making an appearance during Easter despite social distancing.
Indeed, people still managed to find a way to attend church.
In America, devout citizens had to resort to extreme measures to continue their Easter celebrations.
In Europe, authorities had to adopt extreme measures to ensure citizens abided by the new lockdown rules.
Police checkpoints in Europe and outside closed churches elsewhere left people with few worship or travel options other than staying at home.
The strangeness of this Easter was evident at the Vatican in Italy.
St Peter's Square, where tens of thousands would normally gather to hear Pope Francis, was empty of crowds but ringed by police barricades. Francis celebrated Easter Mass inside the largely vacant basilica.
Meanwhile, people in Hong Kong have thronged to beaches, ferries and outlying islands for Easter, many of them violating a ban on gatherings of more than four people aimed at containing the spread of the new coronavirus.
Clear blue skies lured people to popular areas across the territory over the long Easter weekend, and many of them were without surgical masks.
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