The Prime Minister has greeted the people on the occasion of Easter.
Easter 2019 was observed on Sunday, April 21. However, Easter falls on a different date each year.
Easter is a Christian holiday that celebrates the belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The holiday concludes the “Passion of Christ,” a series of events and holidays that begins with Lent (a 40-day period of fasting, prayer and sacrifice) and ends with Holy Week, which includes Holy Thursday (the celebration of Jesus’ Last Supper with his 12 Apostles), Good Friday (on which Jesus’ crucifixion is observed), and Easter Sunday.
Garia Puja Festival
The Garia Puja is a major festival in Tripura.
The festival is held from the last day of the month of Chaitra till the seventh day of the month of Vaishakha according to Hindu calendar.
This festival is celebrated as a harvest festival by the ethnic tribes Tripuris and Reangs.
In the festival, a bamboo pole is worshipped with flowers and garlands by the tribals which symbolize the Lord Garia.
The ingredients used in the Puja are fowl chick, cotton thread, rice, eggs, etc. An important part of the Puja is sacrificing a fowl and offering the blood to the deity. After the sacrifice, the Garia dance is performed.
Agent Orange
The US has launched a clean-up project at a former storage site for Agent Orange in Vietnam.
Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces (Operation Ranch Hand) during the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
US forces sprayed millions of liter of Agent Orange over South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 in a bid to flush out Viet Cong communist guerrillas by depriving them of tree cover and food.
The active ingredients in Agent Orange are a combination of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T).