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By: Kaitlin Holley

This year Easter is different from the crowded churches and community egg hunts. This season brings a new tradition for Christians to worship the savior in their pajamas and to watch their pastors on the tv or laptops even.

Here are some things that local churches are doing to keep this week Holy.

“For me, Holy Week stands at the very heart of our church calendar, the holiest week of the entire Christian year. Holy week begins on Palm Sunday and continues until Easter Sunday. It celebrates the beauty, mystery, and power of the events that lead up to the resurrection. It reminds us of the passion and death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and his victorious resurrection, his triumph over sin, the grave, the death. And reminds us that one day soon he is coming back with the saints and the angels on that day. He will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” said Former local Pastor David Kees of Smiths Station Baptist Church.

Local churches are celebrating this sacred week online and staying connected with each other. Dr. Wiley C. Neal is the pastor of the Andalusia Church Of Christ. His congregation has been praying each evening at 7 p.m.

Pastor Trip Jones of Central Church of Christ will be having a sunrise service at Jones Vet Clinic on Easter morning at 6 a.m.

“Everybody will stay in their cars but watch the sunrise together,” Jones said.

Bob Madsen is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church and they are going to be serving the Love Thy Neighbor breakfast on Saturday.

“On Saturday, we are having our Love Thy Neighbor Breakfast and we are gonna do it take out. it’s free and they can just drive by and get a free breakfast,” said Linda Madsen.

First Baptist Church Pastor Kevin Wilburn said they will be streaming live on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

“Things are different right now obviously people are not where they are expected to be they are at homes and around screens,” Wilburn said. “Jesus was not where he was supposed to be either he was not in the grave he was risen. We are not gathering in cars but we are doing a special broadcast at noon for good Friday. On Friday at noon, we are having a recording that we have made that will be broadcasted on Mediacom(Channel 12 and 79.3) and on Facebook. This service will be called The Last Supper and will last about 15 minutes. You can participate wherever you are. We have been mailing resources to children through the mail. Sunday will be a special broadcast of the Resurrection Message and Skip Enzor is helping us with that. In this season and especially this weekend it’s not always about coming into a big room to celebrate Jesus, it is focusing and remembering from wherever you are that you can worship him.”

AFGT Pastor John Hunt is going to make Easter special for the children with a great idea of hiding them the night before in their yards.

“Saturday night our Children’s Department will be going around to our children in our church’s yards,” Hunt said. “They will be putting eggs in the yards so when they wake up they will be able to go on an Easter Egg Hunt.We probably are going to do a live communion on Friday night. Sunday morning we will be going live around 10:30 a.m.”

Some people celebrate holy week by putting pieces of palm trees above their doors. The palm branch symbolizes the victory of the faithful over enemies of the soul, as in the Palm Sunday festival celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Andalusia locals have been putting the special palms around their doors this week.