In pictures: How Easter is being celebrated around world from services in church ruins to horseback processions

Photographs taken across the globe show all the different ways believers are marking the occasion on Sunday

Sunday 20 April 2025 14:39 BST

Pope makes rare public appearance after hospitalisation for Easter service

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People are gathering together around the world to celebrate Easter on Sunday, with photographs taken across the globe showing all the different ways believers are marking the occasion.

In the home of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis was seen emerging from his convalescence to bless the thousands of people in St Peter's Square and treat them to a surprise popemobile romp through the piazza, drawing wild cheers and applause as he continues his recovery from a near-fatal bout of double pneumonia.

Surrounded by war, with little faith in the possibility of a ceasefire with Russia as both sides accuse the other of breaking a temporary Easter truce, Ukrainians still congregated up and down the country. Dozens were pictured gathered outside the ruins of a damaged church in the village of Lukashivka in the northern Chernihiv region, briefly occupied by Russian forces in 2022, holding traditional Easter baskets and cakes to have them blessed.

Worshippers gather for Easter Mass inside the ruins of St George Melkite Catholic Church in Dardghaya, southern Lebanon, on Sunday, after the church was heavily damaged in an Israeli airstrike earlier in the conflict (AP)

Similary in Lebanon, worshippers have been photographed coming together for Easter Mass inside the ruins of a church in Dardghaya, after the church was heavily damaged in an Israeli airstrike earlier in the conflict there.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Sorbian horsemen dressed in traditional black attire were singing as they were captured riding on decorated horses during the Sorbian Easter horseback procession in Ralbitz-Rosenthal. This ancient religious ritual announces the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis greets the crowd from the popemobile after the Easter mass, at St Peter's square in the Vatican on Sunday (AFP via Getty Images)

In the UK, the King and Queen were joined by the Duke of York at the traditional Easter Sunday service at Windsor Castle. Members of the royal family were wished a “Happy Easter” by the gathered crowd as they left the service.

Elsewhere in the world, members of the Armenian clergy were photographed celebrating at the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem's Old City, while Sri Lankan Catholics prayed at a church in Colombo, and the Christian faithful of the Legio Maria African Mission attended the Easter vigil Mass in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya.