This year marks author's first Greek Pascha (Easter) without her Yaiyai (grandmother), which will be even less about tradition now and more about honoring the love that made it all meaningful.
Lent has shifted from guilt-driven rituals to spiritual renewal, with prayer, good works and reflection. Benedictines also encourage reading a new book!
I start my column with the headlines from the past three years about the clashes between the Israeli forces and the Palestinians at the holy mosque of Masjid Al-Aqsa during the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims.
Easter traditionally is the most popular day of the year to attend church, with 62% of Americans reporting they took part in holiday services before the COVID-19 pandemic upended life in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. But, at a time when fewer people are identifying as Christian and church attendance has been slow to recover from the pandemic, celebrations of the most sacred day on the Christian calendar are becoming bigger and more detached from their religious roots.