Jain Mahavir Jahanti. Birthday of Mahavir, principal god of the Indian religion of Jainism. Also celebrated by many Hindus. Worshipers gather in temples for a puja service, meal and a ceremony in which the deity of Mahavir is cloaked in a dress of pure silver. Passover, eight-day commemoration of the Exodus, begins at nightfall.
Families gather for a long, festive seder meal.
The foods, readings and rituals evoke the themes of the biblical flight from bondage. Eastern Orthodox Saturday of Lazarus. Focusing on the man Jesus is said to have raised from the dead, the liturgy stresses the resurrection of all believers. For Old Calendar Orthodox, today also is the Annunciation of the Mother of God. It is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of Orthodoxy.