Easter is the festival of hope

EASTER GRACE Updated: 04.04.2021, 08:00 The coronavirus is sapping people's strength. But there is hope even in the second year of the pandemic, says Christine Richter. Do you remember Easter last year? That was when Germany had just gone into lockdown for the first time, people stayed at home, the streets were mostly swept as if empty, mobility largely came to a standstill. With heavy hearts, people gave up visiting their families, the Easter egg hunt was cancelled. In the hope that the lockdown and adherence to the strict rules would soon defeat the corona virus. A year ago, at Easter 2020, I thought and said to my family, "A year from now, at Easter 2021, we will say, remember how weird Easter was a year ago, when everything was closed, when we couldn't meet anyone." Well, I was wrong. A year later, we are still caught up in the pandemic. We are at the beginning of the third wave, and if the experts are to be believed, this one may be particularly bad once again. But after a year of the Corona pandemic, people are strained, annoyed and also tired of the ever new slogans of perseverance. At Christmas, in the second lockdown, we were told that we only had to hold out now, forego the family celebrations, then we could have a good time in spring in view of the vaccinations starting at the end of December and the rapid tests soon to be made available, then meetings would be possible again at Easter. Unfortunately, we are experiencing the opposite, the announcements were wrong, because far too little vaccine has arrived in Germany in the past three months, because there is also a huge lack of rapid tests. And the annoyance is growing, because the politicians lack clear rules and pragmatic decisions. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke of a "crisis of confidence" on Holy Saturday - and quite rightly so. For Christians, Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the celebration of hope, because life triumphs over death. And there is hope even in the second year of the Corona pandemic. In Berlin, it can be observed very well right now in the 60 to 70-year-olds who are trying to get vaccinated with the serum from Astrazeneca. So many of them dial the hotline number 40, 60, even 80 times to get a vaccination appointment. The anger about the miserable organisation of this call centre is understandably great, but so is the joy about an early vaccination appointment. It will be a feat of strength that lies ahead of us in the coming months, until then, hopefully at the end of September, everyone in Germany will have received a vaccination appointment. So let's hang in there - and remember all the important distance and hygiene rules, including contact restrictions. I wish you and your families a happy, hopeful Easter.