Spending Easter Abroad with guest blogger Brooke Berry I’ve lived in the North of the Netherlands for nearly eight months as an exchange student, and I’m celebrating my first major holiday abroad (I went home for Christmas). There are lots of things, not just cultural that are shaping my experience of the holiday. My Arizona home is sunny, and it barely rains whereas I’ve been enduring days of continuous rain here in the Netherlands. I can’t imagine the Easter bunny hiding e

It’s not often that Christians and Jews are celebrating holidays at the same time, but in 2018, that’s the case on March 30, which is Good Friday and the start of Passover. Then, Easter takes place on April 1—no fooling! If you read my last blog, you know I’m Jewish, so Easter isn’t a holiday that was celebrated in our household. I do have memories of dyeing hardboiled eggs with my sisters—that unique smell is hard to forget—but it was merely a fun activity, not something ass

For many people—including me—St. Patrick’s Day is a reason to wear green and perhaps down a few brews dyed green with friends and family. This cultural and religious celebration is held annually on March 17, the traditional death date of St. Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Since the early 17th century, St. Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day. It’s observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Lut