In a typical year, the Easter holiday means a five day break for students—from Holy, or “Maundy” Thursday to the Monday after Easter Sunday off of classes. This means that most students usually travel off-campus, whether to their or a friend’s home. But, with the changes to the schedule for the Spring 2021 semester due to COVID-19, the Easter holiday was just three days—with just Friday off of classes.
With students being encouraged to limit travel, this left the college with a unique position to try to plan events on-campus for students to celebrate the holiday. AC Taylor (’14), Director of Student Engagement, led the charge on this. To best inform decision-making, students were emailed in February to share what their Easter traditions are and to invite students to aid in planning for Easter in Houghton.
“Dean Jordan and I approached the weekend with two spheres, the religious observance, and the ‘fun’ things,” Taylor explained. The original plans were to have a Good Friday Service on the quad, an Easter Egg Hunt and Scavenger Hunt on Saturday, and a Sunrise Service on the quad and Koinonia worship service on the Chapel Steps on Sunday.
Just as most plans have in the past year, a wrench was thrown into this programming. On the afternoon of Thursday, April 1, it was announced that Houghton was entering a Tier One designation due to a spike in cases in a cluster of students. This meant that in-person gatherings were to be limited to essential ones only.
Quickly, though, plans were pivoted to allow for celebration to occur, albeit in a bit of a different form. One of these switches was that Friday’s service with Dean Jordan was streamed. Although Dean Jordan expressed disappointment in not being able to hold the Good Friday service as originally planned, he was grateful for a chance to observe the day in some capacity. “We are thankful for the chance to read the word of the Lord together, and to pray together,” he said. The service also included music in worship from the Koinonia team led by Izzy Murch (’23) and the Houghton Wesleyan Church.
As the weekend progressed, there was a different egg challenge spanning Saturday and Sunday, and there was virtual Easter Trivia on Saturday night. The dining hall also had a special Easter dinner on Sunday night, with lamb, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and more. The Student Life Office also also provided Easter bags filled with goodies and Bingo boards for the weekend.
While large gatherings did not occur, the weekend saw temperatures in the 50s and 60s and some sun on Sunday. Small groups could be seen sitting outside on the quad, enjoying meals outdoors, or going on walks and doing schoolwork out of their rooms.
The Catholic community on campus also organized transportation services so that students wanting to attend Catholic services throughout the weekend could do so, according to Jeffrey Fawcett (’23). These included vehicles traveling to Our Lady of Angels in Cuba on Maundy Thursday, St. Patrick’s in Belfast on Good Friday, and St. Patrick’s in Fillmore for Holy Saturday.
Taylor seemed pleased with how the holiday went. “I think the weekend went well. We ran out of Student Life Easter Bags, had students hunt for large eggs, and students opted out of other events. Our main goal was to provide students opportunities to interact with each other and know they were supported,” he said on reflection of the weekend. ★