Emily Hilliard will cook a festive brunch with friends on Easter Sunday. But none in her Washington, D.C., social circle of foodies, folklorists and fiddlers will go to church that day.
In Denver, Ambra Vibran will enjoy an Italian feast with cousins that Sunday. But, she says, "my spiritual life is in hiking, skiing, kayaking and enjoying God?s creation."
Eleanor Drey plans a Jewish traditional meal where family and friends will talk about freedom. But it wasn?t on Passover. Folks are tied up with their kids? spring vacations. They?ll gather at Drey?s San Francisco home in April instead.
This time of year, most Americans are celebrating essential stories of Christianity and Judaism: God freeing the enslaved is a key Passover theme. Easter?s core is Jesus? resurrection, offering a doorway to salvation.
But many celebrate with a twist.
While 73 percent of Americans call themselves Christian, just 41 percent say they plan to attend Easter worship services, according to a March 13 survey of 1,060 U.S. adults by LifeWay Research, a Nashville, Tenn.-based Christian research agency. Passover is a home-centered celebration, but it?s not known how many Jews plan to recite the prayers and serve symbolic foods at their Seder meal.
In the gap between faith and practice are millions of people who delight in Easter and Passover as "holidays," not "holy days."
They?re just as Christian, just as Jewish, in their own eyes as people who follow traditional scripts ?? church on Sunday before carving the ham or the Seder rituals before slurping the matzo ball soup. They?ve simply redefined their spirituality to center on the people at the table ? shared time, shared values with their nearest and dearest.
"Relationships have replaced religion for many Millennials," says Esther Fleece, who spent three years specializing in outreach to young adult Christians for the evangelical group Focus on the Family.
Fleece, now a literary agent in Orange, Calif., is a devoted churchgoer herself. This year, as always, she says, "I?ll invite my Creaster [Christmas and Easter] friends to come with me Easter Sunday."
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Still, Fleece says, many won?t come. They don?t think they need it.
"Religion gives people a basis for morality, for hope and a greater purpose," Fleece says. "Millennials form their friendship groups around similar interests. They reinforce and encourage each other."
Fleece?s friend Vibran, 30, takes the view that "religion has evolved over the years. I feel like it?s whatever you want it to be. I believe the Catholic moral values, but I don?t feel I have to go to church to consider myself a believer in that."
Hilliard, 29, might find herself singing old-time hymns on Easter. However, the singing is not about theology. Hymns offer "a connection to tradition and history and to feeling part of something larger than yourself," says Hilliard, who plays the fiddle.
The meal that Hilliard?s friends will cook together reflects their support for food from local growers and sustainable farm culture. At the table, "You are beholden to each other. You do talk about values and ways of living."
Unlike earlier generations, "Millennials prioritize relationships, especially family, over religion," explains Jess Rainer, who co-wrote a book drawn from the survey, The Millennials: Connecting to America?s Largest Generation.
This cultural religion view is not confined to the young. When Gallup tracked people?s happiness every day for a year in 2008, the peak of the first five months was Easter Sunday, when people logged the most hours with those who make them happy.
Since tension is not conducive to happiness, many cut one flash point ? God ? out of the holiday conversation. Easter becomes less about resurrection and salvation from sin, more about a universal longing for rebirth and the joy of spring. Passover shifts from liberation at God?s hand to human responsibility toward one another.
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