Mourners streamed through small houses and crowded yards as the small Christian communities in Sri Lanka collectively grieved.
By Nick Kirkpatrick and Katie MettlerChristianity’s holiest day — one of joyous resurrection — turned deadly Sunday morning when suicide bombers inside three churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka detonated bombs that tore open sanctuaries, shattered windows and splintered wooden church pews. Hours later, two more blasts near the capital city of Colombo widened the devastation.
Officials believe 290 people are dead. Another 500 hundred were injured. Though some foreign tourists were killed, most of the victims were Sri Lankan, leaving their families and communities to grapple with a degree of violence and carnage not seen on the island in a decade.The government announced plans for a mass funeral on Tuesday for the nearly 300 victims. In more-intimate spaces — on front yards and inside cramped houses — those who loved the victims gathered, too.
At some funerals, like Sneha’s, victims were sealed away in wooden boxes — a sign their bodies were too maimed to show. At others, blast wounds were covered by clothing and drapery.Many of the Sri Lanka victims were Christians, and nearly everyone in those tightknit religious communities knew at least one person who died.
On Monday, friends and relatives gathered to mourn Mary Noman Shanthi, 58, and Rohan Marselas Wimanna, 59, in Negombo.In many families, more than one member was killed. Dimitra Silva lost his 13-year-old brother, Anos Silva, and his grandparents in the St. Sebastian blast.Some mourners, those who were injured in the explosions but ultimately survived, were confronted with wounds of the body and spirit.
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