Survey Insights on Interfaith Couples: How Easter & Passover Are Celebrated as Holy Days?

Interfaith marriages are symbol of tolerant societies. This century has witnessed a rapid growth in interfaith marriages. There are more interfaith couples today than they were in the previous century. The statistics say that there were 20% interfaith couples before 1960 which has grown into 45% only in the first ten years of this century.

America is one of the leading countries with a higher number of interfaith couples in the world. According to a 2010 survey conducted among 2450 Americans, Jews has the highest rate of interfaith marriages followed by the Muslims and Mormons. This shows a growing religious tolerance in American society.

However, religious ceremonies are a universal manifestation of this form of tolerance. This month is going to host plurality of religious galas. The Passover has already started and by the time you will read this article it will be Good Friday, while the Easter is just around the corner. So, we are going to experience a fusion of religious celebrations in April. But, how interfaith couples celebrate these religious events? Only a well-crafted survey methodology defining effective ways to test online surveys can best answer this question and, therefore, we are going to focus our article on results of an authentic survey.

Interfaith couples have different approaches to celebrate these rituals. More often, the celebrations of religious customs differ in terms of social and religious background of the couples. Some prefer to dress in formal outfits and spend time at synagogue or church, while others like to stay at home and eat hot cross buns or the turkey.

A recent survey shows variations in attitudes of couples towards celebrating these interfaith festivities. The survey, conducted by the interfaithfamily.com, indicates vital information regarding the behaviors of couples on these religious galas. Let’s have a look at them:

The Passover

The results of the Passover ritual suggest a slight increase in the Passover activities compared to the results of 2012. You can see a 10% increase in respondents who want to tell stories in the Passover. On the other hand, there is another 7% rise in participants who intend to eat Matzah on the event. Overall, there is higher number of respondents who showed interest in the 2013 Passover activities in comparison with the results of previous year.

Table#1: Respondents Who Plan On Celebrating the Passover

Easter Activities

Overall, the statistics of the Easter are really promising. However, the results are not as good as you see in the Passover activities (see table#1). From the above figures, you can easily deduce that there are fewer respondents who are willing to partake in the Easter activities. There are also comparatively less number of respondents who have any plans for the Easter dinner. We can conclude that there is lesser number of respondents who intend to contribute to the Easter celebrations compared to the Passover.

Table#2: Respondents Who Plan On Celebrating the Easter

A Look Into the Religious Activities

The 2013 survey shows a dramatic decline in numbers of respondents who are interested in the religious aspect of the Easter and Passover. As most of the respondents are Jewish (70%), you can see a relatively larger portion of respondents who are likely to take part in religious formalities of the Passover. However, the overall figure indicates a drop in numbers of the respondents who want to participate in religious activities compared to the results of 2012.

Table#3: Respondents Who Planned to Participate In the Religious Activities

Interesting Facts

The results of religious activities have a few interesting angles as well. There are 85% respondents who are comfortable with celebrating the Passover compared to the 45% of the respondents who shared the same sentiments for the Easter. On the other hand, there is higher uncertainty among respondents over their participation in the Easter event (34%) as compared to the respondents who express the same feelings for the Passover celebrations (6%). Non-Jewish respondents are three times (75%) more willing to contribute to the Passover than Jewish respondents (25%) who plan on celebrating the Easter. All in all, the report reflects a high number of respondents who showed inclination towards the religious aspects of the Passover and Easter.

Table#4: Total Respondents who are Comfortable or Uncomfortable with Celebrating the Easter and Passover

Conclusions

Considering the facts and figures from the survey, the difference between the attitudes of interfaith couples has more to do with their religious background than any other thing. As the figures show seventy percent of Jewish respondents, there is a higher percentage (85%) for the Passover activities compared to the Easter (45%). On the other hand, the results also indicate a lower percentage (34%) of respondents who are very uncomfortable or uncomfortable with the idea of celebrating the Easter than those who expressed the same feeling for the Passover (6%). In my opinion, this might relate to the Jewish connection of the respondents who participated in the survey.

Nonetheless, these figures just give an idea of the attitude of interfaith couples towards celebrating these religious ceremonies and, therefore, they should not stand for their entire community. We expect that more couples will celebrate the Easter and Passover this year and hope that this April will paint every interfaith couple in the beautiful colors of these two religious festivities.