By Eunice Sung

Brittney Adinuba woke up at 8 a.m. on Easter to do her hair and put on a floral dress, just to make her way to the living room and turn on the TV to watch a YouTube livestream of her church service with her family.

“It was a really huge difference,” said the junior behavior and community health major. “I was kinda disappointed because all my life I celebrated Easter going to the church building and I wanted to keep that tradition. But due to the coronavirus, we couldn’t do that.”

On March 30, Gov. Larry Hogan issued a stay at home order in response to COVID-19, the “deadly public health crisis,” according to a press release from the office of the governor. So this year, the University of Maryland community used online platforms in order to celebrate the day of remembering the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Adinuba usually celebrates Easter by spending it with everyone at her church. They ate dinner all together in the church basement and took pictures with each other and the pastor.

“Everyone’s really joyful and it’s a really great time,” she said.

Despite the missed opportunity of gathering with her congregation, Adinuba was still able to have an intimate party with her family and continue their tradition of cooking and eating Nigerian dishes. 

Adinuba also took advantage of watching a free streaming of the play “Jesus” from Sight & Sound Theatres – an entertainment company based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that produces Bible stories live on stage. She planned on physically going to see it with her family, but had to cancel due to COVID-19.

“The play being free is actually a benefit for everyone because there’s some people who don’t have the money to go see that play, or they don’t have a way of travel or they never even heard of it before,” she said. “But [someone could] somehow [flip] the channel and they’re able to see it and be touched by it.”

Andy Qu, a freshman computer science major, also watched the play on Easter and said he never would have heard about the play or the theater if he hadn’t been stuck at home. 

“The subject of the play was already known to me because I am a Christian … but it was really entertaining to watch and a really awesome representation of those events that happened,” Qu said. 

Jessica Senasack, the Baptist chaplain at this university, participated in a campus event called Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, which was held virtually on Zoom. Senasack said that this year, the event was sponsored by a number of chaplaincies: Baptist Collegiate Ministries, Catholic Terps, Episcopal Terps, Lutheran Campus Ministries, Terp Hub, Methodist Terps and United Campus Ministries.

In past years, students marked 14 to 15 stations with chalked arrows on the ground for a procession of students as they physically carried a large cross along the path with a crowd following behind, according to Senasack. Participants sang together as they walked. Once they arrived at each numbered station, a reader stood on a small step stool to recite verses and the crowd answered with a responsive prayer.

“One big thing for churches right now that’s really hard is that we can’t sing together,” she said. “Even if you’re all live on video stream, you’re not in sync.”

During the Zoom call this year, two students took turns singing between each reader’s designated “station” readings while everyone else muted their microphones and sang along, according to Senasack. 

Noah Simmons, a junior chemical engineer major, hosted the Zoom meeting that day and wrote two reflections for two of the stations. Since participants weren’t able to reflect and process information while walking this year, Senasack said each reader wrote reflections to help others understand the verses shared at each “station.”

Simmons said he’s glad to have platforms like Zoom to stay connected, but there’s definitely a key element missing since everyone can’t physically be together.

“It’s been difficult, but not unbearably so,” Simmons said. “However long it has to go on, I’ve made peace with it. I can handle it.”

Featured screenshot courtesy of Eunice Sung.