Editorial Ta Nea: A responsible Easter

Last Easter Greeks exhibited patience with public health travel restrictions that banned movement to the provinces due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

They promised themselves that the following Easter they would freely gather in their ancestral provinces and villages for a really big celebration.

The months passed and Greek Easter is around the corner but the epidemic this year is again clearly in full swing.

This year we know much more about the virus and how to protect ourselves. We also know that hopes for a regular Easter will be dashed once again.

The situation is disappointing but the measures are necessary in this most critical last stretch as the epidemic is now raging.

In a relatively short time – depending on the speed of the vaccination rollout and on the level of compliance with the remaining public health restrictions – we can reasonably expect to manage the situation on different terms.

Until the epidemiological situation improves, strict public health restrictions are necessary and we shall once again have to celebrate Easter on the balconies of our homes.

Having celebrated Christmas with similar restrictions, the faithful must religiously abide by public health measures this Easter.

To put it in the framework of Christian teachings, the faithful must demonstrate their faith in practice and sacrifice their personal needs for the sake of the common good.

In any case, both the faithful and those who deny the realities of the epidemic must once again consider their personal responsibility.

Their needs are not greater or more important than public health.

Their wrongly perceived freedom to send their children to school without having taken the legally mandated COVID-19 self-tests cannot infringe upon the rights and freedom of others.

Human beings are not gods.

Especially at Easter, which brings to the fore the fact that we are all mortals, they have no right to risk the lives of others.