Churches, businesses get ready for Easter Weekend in Halifax

First at Five looks at how Maritimers plan to spend the Easter long weekend.

From church services to Easter egg hunts, many Maritimers are preparing for a busy long weekend.

Easter Weekend is the holiest holiday on the Christian calendar.

“The meaning of Easter is that the son of God came to bring us home and that is why he rose from the dead to gather us up so he might take us to our heavenly home,” says Father Gary Thorn with Saint George’s Round Church, which has had services since holy week began last Sunday. “Tomorrow is Good Friday, the day he hangs on the cross and we meet here all day long for different services.”

Father Thorn says the congregation also gathers Saturday to clean the church as Saturday marks the Sabbath rest day, the holiest rest of the year. Saturday night they have the Easter vigil.

“Then Sunday morning we gather again and invite the whole neighbourhood to come and celebrate with us,” says Father Thorn.

Faith City Church also has a number of services this weekend and they are expecting quite the crowd

“For the whole weekend I wouldn’t be shocked if we have 700 to 1,000 people,” says Ben Margeson, Faith City Church associate pastor. “Everyone is welcome, you don’t have to be a member to be at any of this, you can come to any of it, it’s a time we get to care for people and show love.”

While churches will see lots of traffic this weekend, so will local businesses like Rousseau’s Chocolatier, which says this is their busiest time of year aside from Christmas.

“It means we can continue to operate all year round when it represents a significant portion of our bottom line,” says co-founder and COO Nathalie Rousseau.

This year Rousseau says the customers are most excited about the pastel colours.

“The robin eggs, they are stunning, beautiful robin egg blue colour and hazelnut and Nutella in them. People are going nuts for them – no pun intended – and they have the cutest little sweater bunnies,” says Rousseau.

For many it’s not Easter without an egg hunt. Argyle Fine Art is hosting its first hybrid egg hunt – part of it is online and part is in person in downtown Halifax.

“We will be hiding little Easter eggs all around downtown Halifax and at the art gallery and art bingo online and at the gallery as well,” says Emily Krueckl, Argyle Fine Art gallery manager. “We will be sharing hints on where to look on Instagram and we will be posting them throughout the day starting at 12 p.m. Saturday,” says Krueckl.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page