A new poll shows how Utahns celebrate Easter

SALT LAKE CITY — The Curtis family of six sat around their dining room table with a bin of plastic eggs, bags and bags of candy spilling out in front of them as they all worked to fill eggs for their neighborhood egg hunt this weekend.

But before filling the colorful eggs, Jayne and JR Curtis, along with their four energetic young children, started their evening's activities by focusing on the religious side of Easter. Each night during the week, the family commemorated Holy Week with a different activity.

Wednesday was focused on the Last Supper; the family sat around their living room ottoman to eat food common in a Passover Seder meal. Each member of the family took turns reading a description of what each food represents.

The Curtis family, who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, celebrates Easter as a religious holiday, but they still enjoy the fun side as well, including Easter egg hunts and visits from the Easter Bunny.

Six-year-old Jay shared that his favorite part of Easter is the egg hunts, which he said he is "really good" at. When asked why he celebrates Easter, Jay confidently said "to celebrate Jesus' resurrection."

How Utahns will be celebrating Easter this year

A recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted by HarrisX poll asked Utah adults about their planned Easter celebrations.

Respondents were asked, "Which statement best reflects how you will celebrate Easter this year, if at all?"

The options were "I will celebrate it as a religious holiday," "I will celebrate it as a secular holiday" and "I will not celebrate Easter."

Fifty-four percent of respondents said they will be celebrating Easter as a religious holiday, with 31% planning to celebrate it as a secular holiday. Fifteen percent said they will not celebrate Easter.

Among respondents who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 87% said they will celebrate Easter as a religious holiday, with 9% celebrating it as a secular holiday and 4% not planning on celebrating Easter.

Of those who identified as atheist or agnostic, 9% said they'll celebrate it as a religious holiday, with 57% celebrating it as a secular holiday and 34% not celebrating Easter.

Respondents were also asked how much money they plan to spend on Easter this year.

Forty-one percent said they plan to spend less than $50, and 35% said they'll spend between $51 and $100. Another 18% of respondents said they'll spend between $101 and $500 and the final 5% said they'll spend over $500.

The answers differed slightly between those with children and those without children, with 51% of those without children saying they'll spend less than $50 compared to 37% of those with children planning to spend that amount.

This survey was conducted online from April 9-12 among 841 adults in Utah by HarrisX. The margin of error for the sample is +/- 3.4 percentage points.

Focusing more on Christ and Holy Week this year

"I like Easter because I like to learn about the restoration of the gospel," said 8-year-old John, who added that he also likes eating Cadbury eggs during the Easter season.

The family's Holy Week activities began with recognizing Palm Sunday. On that day, each of the kids took turns pretending to be a donkey carrying Jesus into Jerusalem, with blankets lining the ground representing palm leaves. When it wasn't their turn, the other kids would wave pieces of paper and shout "Hosanna."

Jayne shared that she got the ideas for their weeklong festivities from a book called "Holy Week," which listed each day, with an activity and a scripture to read.

She added that Tuesday was her favorite day because it was about Jesus cleansing the temple, so the activity was for the kids to clean the house.

"They were thrilled," JR added, smiling.

Along with remembering the Last Supper, Wednesday's activity focused on service, so after their meal, they went around the table sharing what they appreciate about each other. Later, they filled eggs as a way to help serve their neighborhood.

When sharing what they appreciate about each other, Jay said that he was grateful for his older sister Evelyn, 10, helping him make an automatic door in Minecraft.

Gwen shared that she heard John playing the piano one evening, "And I'm like, 'Yay, John's awesome.'"

The family started recognizing each day of Holy Week last year, following their church's recent emphasis on celebrating Easter in a more meaningful way. Recognizing each day of Holy Week is something Jayne said they want to continue doing in years to come.

As a whole, the family has worked to make Jesus Christ more of a focus of their Easter celebrations.

"I feel like it makes a difference in our family, for sure, too, to be able to not just celebrate food, candy and the eggs," Jayne said. "It just makes me want to really bring Christ in our home every day."

On Easter, the family will be visited by the Easter Bunny, who will fill baskets for each of the kids, and they will also recognize Jesus' resurrection with the final activity from the Holy Week book.

The Curtises make Easter their own

JR shared that he has loved to be able to create new traditions with his family.

He added that he and Jayne have a lot of Christmas traditions that they got from their parents and don't have many that are really their own, but with Easter, they've been able to figure out what they want to do with their kids and create their own traditions as a family.

"I love the idea of our family being able to do things that we're like, this was really fun, and this also taught them a lot, let's do that again. And coming up with stuff when we don't have that same tradition pressure," JR said.

Jayne also shared that sometimes when they do these activities and celebrations, she isn't able to do everything she wants to do or it doesn't work out perfectly, but that it's OK because at least they're doing it.

"We are so imperfect but I just love that we're doing this," she said.

As the family prepared for the weekend's Easter egg hunt with their neighborhood friends, JR shared that he would be dressing up as the Easter Bunny for the event.

Not all of the Easter activities included the whole family. Their oldest daughter, 12-year-old Gwen, shared that she had been reading the church's "For the Strength of Youth" magazine when she found a page with a list of "20 Ideas for a Month-long Easter Celebration."

Gwen hung the page up in her room and has worked to do some of the activities that were listed, such as writing about Christ in a journal and making a paper palm leaf.

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