<\/p>\n
For Christians across the United States, Easter services on Sunday will reflect an extra measure of joy as the nation experiences rising optimism after a year of pandemic. Even if still observing restrictions, many churches may draw the largest numbers of in-person worshippers in months.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a season of major holy days for other faiths as well, occurring in a brighter mood than a year ago. Jews are observing Passover this week, and Muslims will enter the holy month of Ramadan in about two weeks.<\/p>\n
In Houston, the Rev. Meredith Mills is eagerly anticipating a return to in-person worship Sunday in the sanctuary of Westminster United Methodist Church. Except for a few Christmastime services that drew a handful of people, the church has been worshipping on its front lawn since October.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of our people are two weeks past their second shot of vaccine, so the comfort level is a lot higher now,\u201d said Mills, who had her own bout of COVID-19 in January. \u201cIt almost feels like we\u2019ve been in Lent for a year, and we are ready for Easter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mills recently made a video of herself walking through the empty sanctuary and reflecting on a year of realization that God is everywhere \u2013 in people\u2019s homes and \u201ceven over Zoom\u201d \u2013 but sacred spaces remain vital.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this space is about to reopen,\u201d she said. \u201cOn Easter Sunday we are going to be masked and distanced \u2026 but we\u2019re going to gather and we\u2019re going to sing, \u2018Christ the Lord is risen today, hallelujah, hallelujah.\u2019 We\u2019re going to let the \u2018hallelujah\u2019 ring off of these walls.\u201d<\/p>\n
At St. Barnabas Lutheran Church in the Chicago suburb of Cary, attendance inside will be limited to 50, but there also will be an outdoor service.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Sarah Wilson said that during the past year, the congregation has endured \u201cfear, exhaustion, change, confusion, irritation, disappointment, doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
But \u201cnow that more of us are getting vaccinated, we\u2019re also experiencing some hope,\u201d she said via email. \u201cEach time a parishioner tells me they\u2019ve gotten a shot, I\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, the Rev. Bob Stec with Saint Ambrose Catholic Church in Brunswick, Ohio, said his parish\u2019s theme for this Easter is \u201cAlive in Christ,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross our world we have all experienced a year of dying,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter a difficult and challenging year, we are ready to walk into a future full of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stec\u2019s church will be open for in-person worship, but for those still wary about gathering inside there will be drive-thru confession and Communion, and a depiction of the Stations of the Cross visible from the parking lot.<\/p>\n
At Mary, Queen of the Rosary Catholic Church in Spencer, Massachusetts, there will be an indoor service Sunday for as many as 200 worshippers \u2013 40% of capacity \u2013 and an outdoor service that can be heard over parishioners\u2019 car radios.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone wants to be back \u2026 but some chose not to out of caution,\u201d said the Rev. William Schipper, the pastor.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Jonathan Perlman with New Light Congregation in Pittsburgh said the Passover holiday has strong parallels to the pandemic in that \u201cit was first celebrated in quarantine,\u201d after God ordered Israelites in Egypt to shelter in their homes through the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we know that many of us took shelter in homes for an entire year; travel was forbidden; meeting in person in large groups violated basic principles of health,\u201d Perlman said via email. \u201cFor me, like my Israelite ancestors, there was something transformative about the entire experience. \u2026 The vaccination felt like a gift from God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perlman has been offering services virtually and in person at a chapel in the Beth Shalom synagogue. New Light formerly worshipped at the Tree of Life synagogue, where three members of its congregation were among 11 Jews killed by a gunman in 2018.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Motti Seligson with the Hasidic organization Chabad-Lubavitch said many U.S. Jews held Passover Seders in small groups because of the pandemic. There was unexpectedly large demand online for the Chabad.org Haggadah, a new instructional version of the sacred text for the start of Passover \u2013 that was designed for small Seders, with about 300,000 downloads instead of the expected 100,000, he said.<\/p>\n
Ramadan, a time for fasting and worship, is typically centered on togetherness as Muslims congregate for prayers and iftars, or evening meals to break the daily fast. Last year, the pandemic forced Muslims to re-imagine some rituals, and some will continue to do so this Ramadan.<\/p>\n
Salima Suswell, founder and executive director of the Philadelphia Ramadan & Eid Fund, said it is partnering with mosques to provide \u201cgrab-and-go\u201d iftars three days a week. For the feast at the end of Ramadan, it will distribute toys and decorations to help families celebrate privately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make families aware that there is a way to still enjoy the benefits of the holy month of Ramadan, while safely social distancing at home,\u201d Suswell said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a far cry from 2019, when the group hosted an iftar dinner at a museum and an end-of-Ramadan celebration in a park drew about 15,000, Suswell said.<\/p>\n
At the Muslim Association of Puget Sound in Redmond, Washington, worshippers may again gather to perform Ramadan\u2019s taraweeh prayers after being unable to do so in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are really excited,\u201d said Sheikh Adam Jamal, assistant imam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s people, seniors, who probably have been doing taraweeh (at a mosque) every year since they were young. \u2026 They\u2019ve missed it for a year \u2013 that was just devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, capacity will be limited at the mosque, which during Ramadan is typically packed with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder for prayers. People can also drive by to pick up boxed iftar meals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be different from before,\u201d Jamal said, \u201cbut it\u2019ll be closer than it was last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Spanish Fork, Utah, about 25,000 Hindus traditionally converge at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple to throw colored powder for the Holi celebration marking the advent of spring. This year, the gathering has been rescheduled for late September in hopes that all may join safely instead of drastically curtailing attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to have it at a time when everybody can come \u2026 If things continue on track and everyone gets vaccinated, we should be OK for September,\u201d festival coordinator Charu Das said.<\/p>\n
Das said he loves the festival because it celebrates diversity: \u201cIt acknowledges that we complement each other \u2013 different ethnicities, different nationalities, different genders. God creates in unlimited varieties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao and AP video journalist Jessie Wardarski contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Passover, Easter, Ramadan see brighter days<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47609"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}