By Angie Norris
Easter weekends are usually filled with family, worship, traditions and lots of beautiful Easter lilies. This year during the coronavirus pandemic and the mandatory stay-at-home order, families are looking for new ways to keep old traditions alive.
Families who usually attend Good Friday service and Easter service are looking to online services for worship and making plans to stay at home and celebrate Easter, instead of traveling to see family members and friends for Easter brunch or dinner.
Yet, this is a great time to get creative with your family at home by decorating Easter baskets, making paper crafts, adorning the front yard and finding new ways to color Easter eggs (please see this week’s article on “Easter crafts for a ‘hoppy’ holiday week” in the Night & Day section).
Local greenhouses are even seeing losses, as churches and community members are not buying flowers for Easter as in years past. One local greenhouse owner, Bill Heidenreich of Heidenreich Greenhouse, is seeing the loss of business first-hand. Every year the business specializes in Easter lilies, azaleas and hydrangeas that local churches and community members from all over flock to purchase for their Easter celebration. “Everything was going OK until about March, then we had a major drop in sales. Churches were cancelling their orders and people stopped coming by,” Heidenreich said. “This is the first time we’ve ever had this problem and we are fortunate enough to have good people come out of the woodwork to help us continue to do business.”
Churches are now buying Easter flowers to give to their parishioners, and also use as backgrounds for their online Easter service announcements, which has boosted sales 42 percent. Heidenreich Greenhouse is also doing curbside shopping ran by Heidenreich’s three daughters for easier pick up. “To see people come and help and step forward is awesome during this time, it lets us know we are not alone,” Heidenreich said.
Attending church as a family tradition doesn’t have to stop this year. There are many local churches doing online good Friday and Easter services, so you don’t have to miss your way of celebrating. If you’re looking for an online Easter service to attend, here are a few local churches that are participating:
St John Lutheran Church- Holy Week Schedule via Facebook Live: Good Friday at 4:30 p.m.; Easter Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. They will also post to their YouTube channel after the service, if you do not have Facebook.
Mount Pleasant Christian Church- Join online Good Friday service at live.mpcc.info or on Facebook starting Friday, April 10 at 7 p.m. Also, Easter service online at live.mpcc.info or on Facebook on Saturday, April 11 at 6 p.m., and Sunday, April 12 at 9:15 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Garfield Park Baptist Church is offering Zoom, online and Facebook Easter services at 9:30 a.m. Easter morning. For more information on Zoom or services offered please visit gpbcindy.org.
You can still enjoy an Easter brunch with your family this year. Stone Creek Dining is offering a special Easter dinner for four to customers for carryout, which includes ham with a sugar glaze, green beans, mashed potatoes, bread, house salad with dressing made from scratch and carrot cake for $60. Call (317) 889-1200 or go to stonecreekdining.com/greenwood.
