Easter is a time of family celebration. As Easter approaches on Sunday, April 9, La Salle students described what their family traditions are for this holiday weekend. 

Freshman Madeline Schnyder’s family will have an Easter egg hunt and get little baskets. After that, her family will go to the park in their neighborhood to see the Easter bunny, and the younger kids will participate in an egg hunt. “It just gives a sense of community to our little town,” she said. 

The COVID-19 pandemic changed how some students celebrate Easter, including junior Mariam Hannosh, whose family used to go to the Multnomah Athletic Club. “We had a brunch, which is really nice, but now we just do it at home, which is also nice,” she said. Every year she enjoys “the sweets, of course, seeing my family, the weather,” she said. “I always like the weather on Easter; it just fits in.” 

Senior Will Argetsinger goes over to his grandparents’ for a huge Easter egg hunt with eggs hidden all across the back yard. “I love seeing my family, and the Easter egg hunt,” he said. “That’s what I remember the most from being a little kid.”  

Junior Hailey Heytvelt’s Easter tends to be a weekend-long event that consists of dinners at her uncle and grandma’s house and attending Mass on Easter Morning. “After that we have a little Easter egg hunt that the church puts on,” she said. “My favorite tradition is probably going to my aunt’s house and I [help] my aunts put together eggs that have money or candies or whatever for my cousins to do an Easter egg hunt.”

Sophomore Owen Kuntz’s family doesn’t celebrate Easter in a typical way, but instead his family will “[utilize] the lack of crowds at busy places,” he said, and go out for fun experiences. 

Several students shared that they love spending this small break with family and keeping the traditions they’ve had since they were little, such as brunches and egg hunts. Junior Olivia Hungerford’s favorite tradition is an Easter egg hunt at her grandma’s with chocolate and money filling the eggs. 

“This year for Easter, some of my extended family [are] going to come over,” Hungerford said. “We’re going to do an Easter egg hunt in the yard and around the house, and we’re going to have brunch with cinnamon rolls, eggs, and biscuits.”