This year, I will not be going to our overcrowded local neighborhood church racing through palm leaf craftspeople and sellers for Palms Sunday. I will not be attending a single day of Esboo el Alaam (Holy Week) prayers, and feel the communal energy that drives us as we all pray in unison. I will not attend El Gomaa el Aazima (Good Friday) at church and sit gazing through the crowd as I try to spot family members from afar before we start doing our 400 matanya (prostrations – a sort of worship in which we do the sign of the cross 400 times) – something I would always get excited about as a child. And I will not attend Easter Eve at the church by my grandmother’s house, the same church we’ve been going to for Easter Eve since I was a child, followed by our traditional family gathering at my grandmother’s later that night. Although I may not necessarily consider myself a particularly religious person, these religious holidays and all the traditions that are tied to them hold a very special place in my heart – and I realize…
Easter Celebrations Re-defined: Longing for Lifelong Traditions Amidst a Pandemic
April 10, 2020
