"We haven't felt this sad since the war," said 36-year-old Rashmi Fernando, who was attending a service at St Sebastian's Church in Negombo, one of three hit in the Sunday attacks.
"I lost three cousins in the attack and another one is in ICU," said Fernando, who was with her daughters, aged three and eight.
"We're here to pay our respects and pray that my injured cousin will recover."
At least 310 people were killed after suicide bomb blasts ripped through three hotels and three churches as worshippers attended Easter services on Sunday.
On Tuesday, they were remembered with three minutes of silence that started at 8:30am (0300GMT), the exact time that the first of six bombs detonated.
Inside St Sebastian's, evidence of the bomb blast was still everywhere, with parts of broken religious statues and smashed pews littering the floor.
Services were held in the grounds, where more than a thousand people had gathered by mid-morning to remember the victims.
The atmosphere was heavy with grief. A first coffin, containing the body of a woman, was brought into the grounds. Her husband, an elderly man, stood beside the flower-topped coffin and wept uncontrollably.