Shafaq News/ On Friday, Christians held mass in churches in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
The masses are held amid the spread of the Coronavirus worldwide, which restricted religious celebrations and events two years ago.
Iraq is home to many different eastern rite churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, traditionally a sign of the country’s ethnic and religious diversity.
But war and sectarian conflict shrank Iraq’s Christian population from 1.5 million to about 400,000 after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Following the onslaught of ISIS in 2014 and the brutal three-year war that followed, their numbers have fallen further, though it is unknown precisely by how much.
Iraq declared victory over the militants, but the damage done to Christian enclaves on the Nineveh Plains has been extensive.
In 2020, the Iraqi parliament approved the birthday of Jesus Christ (Prophet Issa) as an official yearly holiday.
