In Bangladesh, where Sunday is not a holiday, Easter was celebrated as a holiday for the first time in 30 years.

This was largely the effort of Gloria Jharna Sarker, the first Catholic woman parliamentarian chosen in the last elections who fought to have the rights of the Christian Community recognized at the national level, reports.

On Easter Sunday, April 21, all schools in the country remain-ed closed. Welcoming the good news, local Christians said it was a positive sign of good relations between religions.

A Dhaka merchant explained to AsiaNews that since independence gained in 1971, Sunday was a holiday, including Easter Sunday.  However, Sunday ceased to be a holiday since the mid 1980s, when former president Hussain Muhammad Ershad introduced the Islamic tradition making Friday the weekly holiday.

“In this way, the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ was excluded from the nationally recognized festivities.”