Under the shelter-at-home order, people are having to find new ways to celebrate Easter and Passover. Many are going online while some businesses are keeping their doors open but changing how they do business.
Worshipers won’t be in Saint Mary’s Cathedral but there will be Mass. The Archdiocese of San Francisco said nearly half of the parishes are now livestreaming and some have seen three times the number of people they would have had at a traditional Mass.
“They are very well attended and we expect the attendees during Holy Week to be even more so particularly on Easter Sunday,” said Mike Brown from the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Since the order has been in place, people have been embracing virtual solutions.
“We have for many, many years held a second night seder as a community,” said Gordon Gladstone.
This year will be a little different for congregation Sherit Israel in San Francisco.
“We’re going to do the entire seder over Zoom,” said Gladstone. “It will be tonight and I expect tonight we will have several hundred people. The soup won’t smell as good for some people this might be their Passover.”
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Changes at Zazie too, the restaurant typically serves 500 people for Easter brunch but now, they’re doing a traditional Easter dinner to go.
“Trying to adapt to what people need and I think it's really tough for families to just go to the grocery store right now,” said Sarah Duncan, from Gentilly.
The new bar and restaurant Gentilly is also selling a reasonably-priced to-go Easter dinner. They say they want to be there for their neighborhood.
“I think any way that we can relieve stress or have any kind of intimate family Easter is what is ideal at this point,” said Duncan.
