Good Friday and Easter Sunday are among the most important events celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church – yet, it seems that the spiritual importance of these days is being lost.

Good Friday is the day when Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. The Catholic Church, traditionally, asks that the faithful observe this day by fasting.

Yet this year, as has been happening in the recent past, the faithful seem to have shelved the issue with many people even being spotted eating cheesecakes and the like while on the Seven Visits. There is an element of hypocrisy in such behaviour, not to mention disrespect towards the faithful who opted to fast.

One also must mention the fact that many shops, including confectioneries, grocers and other general retail outlets were open for business just like any other day. If one moved on into the evening, many nightclubs and restaurants were open for business as usual, with the latter being especially busy.

This leads one to think that Easter, much like Christmas is losing its spiritual value and has become commercialised.

The biggest example of this commercialisation is Christmas Day, the day that Our Lord was born. Over the years, Easter has become a victim of the same fate. Holy Week used to be a time of religious reflection, especially on Good Friday. It was a day when the Catholic faithful remembered the Passion of Our Lord and did so with sacrifices that, big as they might seem, cannot be compared to the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, the consumerist wave seems to have also hit Easter, with people spending more and more on materialistic things such as cards, Easter eggs, chocolates, figolli and gifts.

In this day and age, society has, in itself, become stressed out. One understands people need to unwind and let their hair down – however, we should never forget the spiritual meaning behind religious feasts. Christmas, as already mentioned, is the biggest victim of our so-called new-age society.

Many forget this was the day Christ was born, preferring instead to indulge in an alcohol-fuelled night out followed by the opening of presents in the morning. Now we have started to turn Good Friday into other holiday, one linked to entertainment rather than reflection.

Of course, we should all rejoice on Easter Sunday as we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus but to have Good Friday become just another chance to make merry simply because it is a holiday verges on the ridiculous.

The responsibility to safeguard the true meaning of Easter lies not with the Church – there is only so much the Church can do in this respect – but within each and every one of us.

Unless we want Easter to become another present giving ceremony followed by over-indulgence in chocolate eggs, we must all look deep within ourselves and realise that the Easter weekend is the culmination of our faith.

This year, we also witnessed the saga of the Victoria procession disagreement. Without going into the specifics, should it not suffice to point out that the Good Friday procession should be a religious and reflective experience? Yet, this year we simply saw different factions in the Gozo capital squabbling over who should be allowed to hold a procession and march in the morning or evening.

Does it not go against the very intrinsic Catholic values that are supposed to govern the day? Unfortunately, this issue can also be judged as putting other values before those religious values we are supposed to cherish as faithful followers of Christ.

It is up to us to seek the meaning of this Holy Week. It is up to us to try and be good followers of Christ. And, perhaps, the easiest way to do this is to stop and reflect for some time.

What is more important – buying Easter eggs and cards and making merry on Good Friday or remembering that Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for our salvation?

The answer lies within each of us.