Interfaith couples blend Passover, Easter traditions
At the Passover seder Saturday, the McDonalds will eat hard-boiled eggs, and Sunday morning they will hide colorful plastic eggs for their daughters in their Kingston yard.
Like many interfaith couples, Joe, who is Catholic, and Renee, who is Jewish, will have a super charged weekend as they gather with extended family to feast and observe defining events in their religions.
“It’s nice to have the mix on the same weekend,” Renee said. “It’s an occasion to get everybody together and see both sides of the family.” Passover began at sundown Friday.
The McDonalds are an example of a growing number of interfaith families. A 2014 Pew Research Center study showed that prior to 1960, 81 percent of married couples shared the same faith. That percentage dropped to 61 percent between 2010 and 2014. Nearly 50 percent of those couples raise their children in the mother’s faith, but share some aspects of the father’s faith.
Today, the McDonald family will travel to the home of Renee’s aunt and uncle in southern New Hampshire to have seder with Renee’s parents, two siblings and their children. During the seder, Jews eat ritual foods and read from the Haggadah, which tells the story of their escape from the Pharaoh. After their egg hunt Sunday, the family will go to the Marshfield home of Joe’s parents for Easter dinner, where matzoh as well as bread will be part of the meal.
“They’re really good, they want to make it easy for us during Easter,” said Renee, referring to the fact that many Jews do not eat leavened bread during the eight-days of Passover, an observance based on the fact that Jews fled Egypt before their bread could finish baking.
This intermingling of tradition reflects the ways two sides of the family respect different traditions. In fact, these two major springtime holidays can be viewed as similar. Jesus was Jewish and the Last Supper may have been a seder. While Easter is a holier time than Passover, they both mark freedom and liberation — from slavery for the Jews and from death for Christians.
“The Jews went on a courageous journey in the face of danger, and Jesus died for his teachings (and rose),” said Rev. Ken Read-Brown of Old Ship Church, a Unitarian-Universalist congregation in Hingham. “The exodus was a journey of hope and the message of Jesus is of hope.”
Often, Passover and Easter fall on the same days, but some years they are weeks apart. Easter, based on the solar calendar, always is the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Passover, like all Jewish holidays, is based on the lunar year and is celebrated on the 14th day of the seventh month, Nisan, at the full moon. Next year, the holidays are just two days apart, but nearly a month apart in 2024.
The McDonalds are raising their two daughters in the Jewish faith and attend Congregation Sha’aray Shalom in Hingham, where about half the couples are interfaith. Nonetheless, they include Christian elements that Joe, the Plymouth County sheriff, want their children to experience.
“My husband and I talked before we married, and it was important to me that the kids be brought up Jewish, and Joe was fine with that, but he did want them exposed to Catholic holidays,” said Renee, a part-time legal assistant. “My daughter had a bat-mitzvah, but the Easter Bunny comes and Santa brings gifts.”
In the Hingham home of Meg and Murray Glazer, the couple likes to talk about the connections between their faiths.
“For me, both holidays are about hope and renewal,” said Meg, an Episcopalian, who first learned about Passover as a child in Sunday School. “Just because it’s a Jewish holiday, it wasn’t something as a Christian that we didn’t need to be aware of. I feel there is a tremendous intertwining between the religions.
She didn’t have her own seder until she began her relationship with Murray, who was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States from Israel at age eight. While raising her daughter with her first husband, she attended Palm Sunday and Easter services.
For his part, Murray was married to a Catholic woman and raised their children in that faith, so he was very familiar with Easter observances, but he also celebrated Passover.
“I see both as hopeful,” he said. “There was a miracle that opened up people’s eyes and reinforced their faith.”
Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church
Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church will hold an Easter worship service at 10 a.m. Sunday, followed by an Easter egg hunt and Easter brunch.
Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church is located at 1230 S. Central Ave., Lodi. For more information, call 209-333-2526 or visit
St. Peter Lutheran Church
St. Peter Lutheran Church will hold a traditional organ-led Easter service at 8 a.m. Sunday in its newly-renovated sanctuary.
A free breakfast and Easter egg hunt will take place at 9:15 a.m., followed by a contemporary band-led Easter service at 10:45 a.m.
St. Anne’s Catholic Church
The Daughters of Isabella will hold a garage sale at 8 a.m. April 6 and 7 to support local charities and scholarships.
The garage sale will be held at 2155 Jerry Lane, Lodi. For more information, contact Janice at 209-6082778 or Mary at 209-368-3611.
United Congregational Christian Church
First Baptist Church of Lodi offers free lay counseling to the community, with trained volunteers available to talk about personal, marriage or family problems. To make an appointment, call 209-224-4917.
Christian musician Shawn McDonald will perform at the church at 6 p.m. Saturday, with guest band Kingdom opening. Proceeds will help send students from First Baptist Elevate and Vinewood Student Ministries to Camp Barnabas.
General admission tickets are $20, while the $25 VIP tickets include early admission and a Q&A session with McDonald before the show. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $10 each. To purchase tickets, visit
First Baptist Church of Lodi is located at 267 N. Mills Ave., Lodi. For more information, call 209-3341332 or visit
The Home Church