Shafaq News- Duhok
Dozens of Christians gathered in the town of Alqosh in Duhok province on Friday to mark Good Friday at Mar Gorgis Catholic Church.
Worshippers performed rituals, including carrying a symbolic
body of Jesus Christ and displaying a crucifix inside the church, while
offering prayers.
Last Sunday, Christians in Iraq marked Palm Sunday, a major
religious occasion symbolizing peace and spiritual renewal.
The Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul and its affiliated areas announced last week the cancellation of Easter celebrations and public displays this year in solidarity with those “suffering and affected” by the war.
Iraq, a multiethnic country with a Muslim majority, once had a large Christian population estimated at 1.2 to 1.5 million before 2003, including Chaldean Catholics, Assyrians, and Syriac Orthodox communities. Over the past two decades, that number has dropped to fewer than 250,000, according to church and humanitarian estimates.