This past weekend, the University was feeling the holiday spirit with several celebratory events that took place across campus. 

On Saturday morning, the Concert Committee and Bison Sound worked together to put on a socially distanced Egg Hunt on the engineering quad. Two lucky winners were even able to find special golden eggs that held tickets to next year’s concert. Hundreds of eggs were scattered across the engineering quad with many students racing around to collect as many as they could. Concert Committee member Kaity Bednarski ‘23 spoke more about the event, saying, “We were really excited to see people getting out in the nice weather trying to bring as much festivity to Bucknell as possible. Although we can’t have a concert this year, we were just excited to be able to sponsor this event.”

In addition to the Egg Hunt, Rooke Chapel offered several opportunities for students to attend Worship on Easter Sunday.  In-person services were held on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. at the Rooke Chapel Memorial Grove. Additionally, the 11 a.m. service was streamed via Zoom for those who were unable to attend the in-person service. 

“We saw just over 100 guests between the two services – students, faculty, staff, and family – and a few dozen more via Zoom and Facebook,” said  Chaplain Kurt Nelson, Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. “ It felt joyous, and connected, and meaningful to be back together, even though we can’t sing and embrace just yet. I hope folks were able to hear afresh the good news that love and life are triumphant. It was a meaningful day for me, and I am grateful to all who made it possible.”

The Chaplain also spoke more about what the service entailed: “We read the Easter story from the Gospel of Mark – which is full of mystery and awe and wonder. And we read Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar for the young people – an Easter tradition.”

In addition to the Easter festivities this past weekend, members of the Jewish community on campus celebrated Passover with two Seders–– one at 4:30 pm and another at 6:45 pm, including an option to attend virtually via Zoom––  hosted by Hillel on Saturday, March 27th.“Though we were unable to conduct our large Passover Seder as done in previous years, we were able to hold two smaller student-led Seders. Any Jewish student who wanted to participate in all of the usual Passover traditions were able to in a Covid-safe way. This would not have been possible without Rabbi Goldberg and the Jewish Life staff, who we at Hillel, the Jewish student organization, are extremely grateful for,” shared Manning Martus ‘21, president of Hillel

“Going through the Haggadah and alternating paragraphs kept people involved and interested. They served delicious matzah ball soup, my personal Passover favorite” said Seder attendee Emma Davison ‘23. 

In addition to the Seder, the Berelson Center offered lunch, dinners and snacks that were kosher for the holiday to help students observe Passover. Berelson offered lunch services between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and dinner from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., with the exception of Friday, as Hillel hosts Shabbat dinners on Friday evenings at 6:30 pm. They were also committed to delivering kosher meals to those in isolation housing during the week of Passover. 

With the travel restrictions still in place on campus, the spring holidays weekend may have looked a bit different this year for many students. Nevertheless, the religious organizations on campus still encouraged students to celebrate.