Easter celebrations across the world

• Thousands of pilgrims celebrate in the Holy Land

Christians in the Holy Land commemorate the day followers believe Jesus was resurrected in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

The cavernous Holy Sepulcher church in Jerusalem was packed with worshippers on Sunday. The site is where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

A Mass is expected later in Bethlehem's Nativity Church, built atop the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.

Catholics and others are celebrating Easter whereas Orthodox Christians, who follow a different calendar, were marking Palm Sunday with processions.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis presided over a solemn vigil service Saturday night. In his homily, Francis said the Easter mystery requires the faithful to seek an answer "to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity, and our very existence."

• Christians attend emotional Easter services at church in Garissa, Kenya.

GARISSA, Kenya - Grieving Christians prayed, sang and clapped hands at an Easter Sunday service at a Catholic church in Garissa, a Kenyan town where Islamic extremists killed 148 people in an attack on a school.

Security forces patrolled the perimeter of Our Lady of Consolation Church, which was attacked by militants almost three years ago. Grenades lobbed at the building sprayed shrapnel into the interior, injuring some worshippers. Another Garissa church was also attacked that day and 17 people were killed.

Sunday's ceremony was laden with emotion for the several hundred members of Garissa's Christian minority, which is fearful following the attack by al-Shabab, a Somalia-based Islamic extremist group. The gunmen who attacked Garissa University College on Thursday singled out Christians for killing, though al-Shabab has a long record of killing Muslims over the years.

"We just keep on praying that God can help us, to comfort us in this difficult time," said Dominick Odhiambo, a worshipper who said he planned to abandon his job as a plumber in Garissa and leave for his hometown because he was afraid.

"Thank you for coming, so many of you," Bishop Joseph Alessandro said to the congregation. He said some of those who died in Thursday's attack would have been at the service, and he read condolence messages from around the world.

• Pope leads Easter service in rain-lashed Vatican square

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis and tens of thousands of people have braved a rainstorm for Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square.

Francis was shielded from the pelting rain by a canopy outside St. Peter's Basilica, while prelates carried umbrellas in the yellow and white colors of the Vatican. Following days of warm temperatures and sunshine, Rome early Sunday was lashed by thunderstorms, and the faithful wore rain slickers and held umbrellas during Mass.

Enduring the elements, the faithful seemed to be following Francis' urging during a late-night Easter vigil service Saturday in the basilica. During that ceremony, he encouraged people to go beyond their "comfort zone," banishing indifference from their life.

• Easter parade an eccelctic mix

NEW YORK - The bonnets appeared on Fifth Avenue for the annual Easter Parade - outlandish 21st century headpieces that were hardly bonnets, featuring everything from bunnies and butterflies to grassy, egg-dotted lawns and even a tall ship on the high seas.

And the parade is hardly a parade. Instead, while Cardinal Timothy Dolan celebrated Sunday Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the avenue was milling with people in homemade costumes that get zanier each year.

The crowd included Christians, Jews, Hindus, agnostics, atheists and others, including hundreds of tourists.

"It's all about versatility," said Mary Anna Smith, a New York custom milliner whose business card reads "The Tipsy Topper."

The 2015 Easter Parade bore little resemblance to the first one that started in the 1880s as a display of the finery prosperous New Yorkers wore to Fifth Avenue churches. In recent decades, the street gathering has morphed into a costume circus.

Smith wore a "hat" she fashioned from an elaborate kite and some fluffy white stuff into a bright blue sailing ship floating on sea foam.

"It's about sailing to new heights," said Smith.

She also created headpieces for two friends, one a massive butterfly and the other a tropical umbrella dripping with felt balls and anchored to a bird's nest, then to human hair.

Steps from the parade, the trio was tending to last-minute touches, adding bobby pins to make sure the contraptions didn't topple.

"It's Easter and I didn't want to be too garish," said Smith's friend, Kristen Lee Sergeant, a Manhattan jazz singer in a simple green dress. "But then again, I do have a huge butterfly on my head!"

For their first Easter Parade, the Maxwell family wore costumes themed on the 1984 American sci-fi comedy film "Ghostbusters," which has nothing to do with the Easter theme of Jesus' resurrection.

"We put all these parts together off of eBay and different other sites," said Ronald Maxwell, a Manhattan computer consultant who strapped a huge, menacing looking "proton pack" to his back, with pink and white bunny ears on his head.

Wife Hilary Maxwell, a dog walker, wore a Ghostbusters-style dress she bought from an online uniform supplier. And their 12-year-old son, William Maxwell, donned a full-body, greenish pantsuit that totally concealed his head.

Carmen, a 4-pound Chihuahua, was not happy with her getup.

"She didn't love this one because it's kind of heavy, and she won't walk in it. But if I carry her, she's fine," said owner Melissa Mejias.

Mejias used a Simplicity pattern - yes, they have a dog line - to sew Carmen's coat from her old shirt, adorning it with a flowery headband plus a necklace meant for tweens.

Mejias wore her mother-in-law's old, dark red velvet Easter hat.

"I'm carrying on that tradition," said Mejias.

Sort of.