What does society owe to Christians who celebrate Easter?
As nearly 10,000 runners took to the streets of Jersey City, New Jersey, on Sunday for the city's annual marathon, churchgoers in the area struggled to find parking spots.
Since this year's race fell on Palm Sunday, a popular religious service that starts the Holy Week journey to Easter, it was more disruptive than usual for the churches situated along the race route.
Christian leaders and their congregants spent weeks this winter fighting for changes to the marathon plan, which they said would cause unacceptable disruptions to a sacred event.
City officials acknowledged the frustration, but said, when scheduling the marathon, it was essentially impossible to avoid overlapping with a holiday of some kind.
'We are somewhat a victim of Jersey City's rich cultural and religious traditions and heritage,' said marathon organizer Steve Lipski during a city council meeting in March, according to the Jersey City Times.
Although anyone who's organized a spring event likely sympathizes with Lipski's perspective, there's a growing sense among churchgoing Christians that the practice of pausing regularly scheduled programming during Holy Week has fallen out of style.
It was once common for schools, sports clubs and other community organizations to acknowledge and accommodate religious aspects of the Easter season.
Now, after major shifts in the U.S. religious landscape and, in the case of public schools, some legal battles, it's increasingly left up to Christians to carve out the time they need for Easter around secular events.
To be fair, Christian attitudes about churchgoing likely helped drive the change. These days, even committed church members often feel comfortable missing worship services to sleep in, go on a hike or watch sporting events, said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, which conducts surveys on faith and culture.
'Even on Easter, there's no longer this expectation that literally everybody's going to be there,' he said.
The way McConnell sees it, an uptick in scheduling conflicts around Easter is a natural result of recent religious trends.
Since 2007, the share of adults in the United States who identify as Christian has fallen from 78% to 63%, according to Pew Research Center.
Today, just one-third of Americans say they attend religious services in person at least once a month. Nearly half (49%) say they seldom or never attend worship over the course of a typical year.
To be clear, it's still common for Christians to attend church on Easter, and most Protestant pastors say the holiday is among the best attended Sundays of the year, as Lifeway Research reported in 2024.
But Easter attendance has declined as church attendance overall has declined, and it's created a situation in which secular event organizers have more leeway to schedule competing events.
'Culturally, it feels like we're beyond the point' where organizations take Easter breaks, McConnell said.
Another factor fueling scheduling conflicts this year is that Easter falls about as late on the calendar as the holiday ever does.
Unlike Christmas, Easter is not celebrated on a fixed date. It's also not linked to a specific week in a specific month, as Thanksgiving is.
Instead, Easter's date shifts each year because it's determined by a full moon. It generally lands between March 22 and April 25.
'The simplest way to explain the date of Easter is that it falls on the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the spring equinox,' according to USA Today.
Last year, Easter was on March 31. This year, it's on April 20. Next year, it'll be on April 5 before moving back into March in 2027.
While Easter jumps around, many secular events that happen each spring do not. That's why the NCAA's March Madness often involves a handful of Easter games, and why the Boston Marathon, held each year on the third Monday of April, falls on Easter Monday this year.
When Easter lands in mid-April or late April, it's less likely for it to match up with spring break.
Some schools still offer long weekends for Easter each year, but others have abandoned the practice in response to lower demand for time off or lawsuits claiming that public school holidays on Good Friday violate the First Amendment's establishment clause.
The emerging norm in some schools is for Christian students to receive a religious accommodation to miss class for a Good Friday church service or some other Easter-related event.
In other words, Christian families are taking the same approach used by non-Christian families who celebrate holidays that aren't widely observed in the U.S.
Families can also ask to be excused during Holy Week from other types of community organizations, such as soccer clubs. It's unlikely there will be pushback, especially when around 8 in 10 Americans still celebrate Easter in some way, whether with chocolate bunnies or church services — or both.
'As American culture grows increasingly secular, big Christian holidays are still going to be within everybody's consciousness, and so Americans are not going to be surprised if someone is celebrating Easter or Christmas,' McConnell said. 'But there won't be a cultural expectation to cancel sporting events, work or other things happening.'
Without cancellations, tough choices will sometimes have to be made.
For example, Christian athletes who qualified for this week's NCAA gymnastics championships will have no choice but to spend Good Friday in Fort Worth if they earn a spot in Saturday's finals.
Gymnasts from the University of Utah who are missing their typical Holy Week traditions are planning to create new ones in Texas by spending Good Friday doing charitable work.
Utah gymnast Jaylene Gilstrap said she always leans on her faith during competitions, and that this weekend will be no exception.
'When I compete I really bring the Lord into it everything I do, with prayer and everything. So it's just another chance to show appreciation (to the Lord), to preach and give prayer, giving him a little extra love and support,' she said.
For Christians who are frustrated by the current state of affairs, there are at least two reasons for hope that Easter weekend schedules may be more open in the future.
First, some large retailers are showing interest in giving their employees additional time off. More than two dozen major stores, including Target, Lowe's and Costco, will be closed on Easter Sunday this year, a slight uptick from recent years, according to The Washington Post.
Those closures likely have more to do with the rise of online shopping than renewed enthusiasm for the religious holiday, but the push to prevent worker burnout could still pay off for churchgoing Christians moving forward.
Second, the situation in Jersey City shows that change is possible when Christians speak up. Although this year's marathon wasn't moved from Palm Sunday, community leaders have committed to holding the race in early May from now on.
'I want to make it the best for our community as well as the best for runners,' said Lipski, the marathon organizer, about avoiding religious conflicts in the future.
Contributing: Trent Wood
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Time Magazine
18 hours ago
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That's why it's a good idea to meet yours where he is, Preston says, whether that's underneath the Mustang he's restoring or alongside him on his canoe. Her dad owned a trucking company, so growing up, she often joined him on weekends as he was washing and fixing 18-wheelers. 'He may have been asking me to hand him tools, but we were talking about school, or he was giving me advice,' she says. Think about what your dad is currently into, and meet him there. 'I think dads are most comfortable in whatever their element is. There will be a conversation you can have, and he won't even really know.' Sit next to him, not in front of him Eye contact can make a conversation feel like an interview, so try sitting next to your dad, suggests Nicole Herway, a therapist in Sandy, Utah, and the self-described daughter of a silent dad. Invite him to an event like a baseball game, which calls for both of you to be looking straight ahead, eyes fixed on the action. Or, go grocery shopping together. 'If I sit down in front of my dad and ask him to share something, he's just like, 'Oh, you don't want to hear that,'' she says. 'But if you're doing something together, even as simple as going to the grocery store, you can pull down a box of cereal and be like, 'Did they have this when you were a kid? What did you eat for breakfast when you were little?'' Next thing you know, you'll be hearing all about the boiled egg he had every morning, and how there was no such thing as cereal back in his day. Focus on the story, not the feelings Nostalgia is a silent dad's best friend, Herway says. Open up a conversation by asking him to share one of the simple stories he likes to tell again and again—but this time, ask for more details. The feelings are within the story itself, she adds, so even though your dad might not realize he's sharing certain emotions, you'll be able to notice and appreciate them. 'Dads love to say, 'It was 1962, and I was on the Red Devils baseball team,'' Herway says. 'People will think, 'Oh, there's another story, but my dad doesn't actually share anything personal.' But if you actually listen to the story, you'll see dad sharing about when he was worried, or he was overwhelmed, or he was excited. They may not label the feelings when they're sharing with you, but by sharing facts, they're letting you know what mattered to them.' Try a different type of communication Mike de la Rocha's dad didn't often tell his sons he loved them—though he did, 'more than life itself.' 'His own father never said 'I love you,' so he showed his love to me by providing, protecting, and doing everything a societally acceptable man is supposed to do,' says de la Rocha, author of the book Sacred Lessons: Teaching My Father How to Love. If you're struggling to communicate in a face-to-face conversation, consider other ways to connect. You could write your dad a letter, for example, or get into the habit of exchanging emails on the weekend or a text first thing in the morning, de la Rocha says. Developing a more communicative relationship 'is a process, rather than a destination," he adds. 'It's not going to be one-and-done.' Lead with humor Talking about weighty topics can be overwhelming for dads who don't share a lot. Diffuse that intensity with humor, Herway suggests. Share your favorite joke, show him a funny video on your phone, or introduce him to the latest meme circling the internet. 'I tell people, if your dad isn't cracking, try some humor—that's my secret weapon,' she says. Wisecracking helps ease the mood and facilitate conversation and connection. As Herway says, 'If the front door isn't working to get him to open up, try a window, try the garage, try a different way to get in.' Ask for help Silent dads are sometimes more comfortable focusing on their expertise than their vulnerabilities. Next time you crave a conversation, ask for help instead of firing off personal questions that may make him uncomfortable. Then listen closely to what he says, because it might be revealing. Imagine you're asking your dad whether or not he thinks you should buy a house you just toured, for example. As he's working through the pros and cons, 'You can hear that he wants you to be secure, he wants you to be safe,' Herway says. You can then ask an open-ended follow-up: What was the interest rate on his first house? 'Start with something he's comfortable with, and then see if you can go a little further," she says. 'Even though problem-solving scenarios aren't necessarily him opening up in the beginning, they can be a good gateway.' Open up first Vulnerability invites vulnerability. If you want your dad to go deeper, show him it's safe, Preston says. She's found that, since becoming a parent herself, she and her father can relate in new ways, so she makes it a point to tell him about her struggles with motherhood. 'It opens up the door for him to be able to share and say, 'You know what, I didn't always have it together when your mom and I were raising you,'' she says. 'If you want transparency, try being transparent.' And remember: Change won't happen overnight If you have a silent dad, it can help to think of your relationship like tending to a garden. 'You've got to prepare the soil, put the seeds in, water it, and wait for it to grow,' says Jill Lamar, a Philadelphia-based therapist with Thriveworks who specializes in relationships and family dynamics. 'You can't force it. You lay the groundwork and then continue to come back and keep gently prodding.' She encourages her clients not to romanticize their vision of an ideal father-daughter or father-son relationship. There are certainly ways to encourage him to talk more, but you won't change his personality and habits overnight. Be patient, and give him—and yourself—grace. 'We've all seen those movies where the father and daughter, or the father and son, have a particular connection and an easiness with each other, and of course we want that with our dads,' Lamar says. 'They may or may not be available for that—but you can delight in whatever they are available for, and keep being willing to work at it and hope for continued movement in the right direction.'
