Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegans break with tradition to celebrate religious holidays amid crisis

Temple Sinai Las Vegas

Mikayla Whitmore

The exterior of the Temple Sinai Las Vegas on March 10, 2017.

Katie Krikorian splits up hosting holiday celebrations each year with her two sisters. One sister hosts Thanksgiving dinner and the other hosts Christmas dinner.

Easter brunch belongs to Krikorian, who always looks forward to serving a traditional Easter ham to her husband, three children and extended family.

But COVID-19 is forcing the Las Vegas resident Krikorian to get creative with her beloved family tradition. She isn’t alone.

April is packed with significant holidays for Christians, Jews and Muslims, meaning the celebration of Easter, Passover and Ramadan traditions, respectively, have to include social distancing recommendations ordered by Gov. Steve Sisolak until the end of the month.

On Wednesday, Sisolak ordered the closure of religious gatherings of 10 people or more in Nevada, a decision he reached after consulting with religious leaders, who he said were all supportive.

The holidays are traditionally celebrated in mass gatherings, where friends share laughter and joy as they break bread. The rapid spread of the virus, however, is making that not only unsafe but illegal in some parts of the world. Italian authorities, for example, have outright banned religious gatherings.

Most houses of worship in the United States have also closed their doors to in-person services and have instead opted for virtual gatherings.

New Song Community Church in Henderson is streaming all its holy services on Vimeo and on Facebook. Many other church communities of various faiths are following a similar script by hosting services virtually.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas is continuing its suspension of Sunday Mass, including Holy Week and Easter services, until the end of April. They are instead encouraging religious leaders to livestream services, and for people to pray the pandemic will not only end, but draw everyone closer together.

Krikorian is disappointed that she won’t be able to attend Mass in person, as it is a big part of her Easter tradition, but she’s grateful that she can at least share a meal with her family.

This Sunday, Krikorian will still prepare an Easter brunch, but instead of sharing the meal in person, she’s taking extra steps to deliver it with zero contact to her elderly mother and immunocompromised extended family.

“We’re wearing masks and gloves to prepare the food, pack it up in to-go containers and drop it off at their doors,” she said. “That way, when we’re done dropping everything off, we can go home and Facetime and talk while we eat.”

Krikorian said her sisters and niece will also put together Easter baskets for all the children in the family and drop them off at everyone’s door.

“We’ve already got chocolate bunnies and books about Easter in the mail,” she said. “They want to make sure the kids don’t feel forgotten.”

Afsha Bawany faces similar challenges in trying to find ways to celebrate Ramadan physically away from other members of the community. Ramadan, which begins on April 23 this year, is a month of fasting, prayer and reflection in Islam.

“Being with my family at home will be fulfilling and I’m grateful, but it will be challenging this year,” she said. “When we break our fast together sometimes we go to the mosque or restaurants, and it’s really nice seeing people and families and seeing kids run around the mosque.”

Bawany is up for the challenge, however, and while her Ramadan plans have changed significantly, she plans to use the experience as a reminder of how important it is to help neighbors who have less than she.

Imam Fateen-Seifullah, who leads the mosque Masjid-As-Sabur in Las Vegas, is telling congregants that the pandemic will serve as a reminder that Ramadan is a time to slow down and to practice self-reflection.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult because fasting in itself each day from sunrise to sunset is a challenge,” he said. “It’s always reassuring to, and a kind of reinforcing of, the stick-to-itiveness and looking forward to breaking fast together. But the flipside of it is that as an individual, you’ll get to see what your convictions are.”

Fateen-Seifullah said he is following the lead of many other institutions in the valley to provide talks and prayers for online streaming, like trivia-of-the-day discussions and preparation for Ramadan in the context of a pandemic.

“We’re planning on having some (meal) delivery for breaking fast and then we’ll have a lot of daily online talks and readings of the Quran,” he said.

The eight-day Jewish festival of Passover, which started Wednesday night and will go on until April 16, is also going through a certain level of improvisation for Jewish communities around the world and in Las Vegas. Temple Sinai, for example, a Reform Jewish synagogue near Summerlin, is offering a virtual Passover Seder Livestream for its congregants.

For Rabbi Yitz Wyne, who leads the Young Israel Aish, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Las Vegas, celebrating Passover with his congregation will be a challenge, as the use of electricity during the sabbath or Passover Seder dinners is prohibited in orthodox Jewish law. “We are doing a lot of Zoom, Facebook Live and Skyping of classes and other gatherings to prepare people for the seders, and the holiday,” he said. “Another wonderful thing people are doing is making a commitment to call several individuals every day in order to maintain a connection with the community.”

Wyne said members of his congregation are also distributing hundreds of Kosher meals to families who have been negatively affected by the virus in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in aid through Jewish Nevada.

All these things, he said, have not only maintained a strong sense of community, but have also enhanced everyone’s appreciation for one another.

“When this blows over, I am expecting a true resurgence of communal involvement and activity,” he said.