This past weekend was Good Friday, and in case you were unaware, in the Christian religion Good Friday is to honor the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Good Friday is celebrated annually on the Friday before Easter.

As a Christian, I feel my religious freedom is being taken away from me. My college doesn’t cancel all classes in commemoration of Good Friday, along with many other colleges in the United States. Our Spring Break was scheduled a week before the week of Easter, unlike other colleges. Why would we not get the week of Easter off of school instead so everyone could have been at home with their families? On Christmas, the birth of Jesus, we get an entire break from school (roughly four weeks). So, why on the day of his death, do we still have classes?

I was forced to miss the Maundy Thursday service my church holds every year because I couldn’t be home. A Maundy Thursday service is held in celebration of the Last Supper before the death of Jesus. All of the churches in my community come together for this service and it is unfortunate I couldn’t be there.

I missed out on communion, something that is important to the Christian religion and me. I feel like college is taking away my time to Celebrate Jesus, and these few days on the week of Easter are more important to me than other regular holiday. They hold true meaning for my family, my church, and me. I’m not asking for the entire week off, but I want to be able to honor my Savior for the sacrifices that he has made for me, but instead I was in classes all day.

For the out-of-state students or students with a large distance to travel, it’s difficult to get to go home for Easter, a national holiday. I wanted to spend as much time with my family as possible, but with classes on Friday it allowed less time to be spent with them. I have friends that live states away and weren’t able to visit their family on a holiday. If they would have had Good Friday off they could have gone home to see their families for Easter.

Easter is a big deal in my community. Every year my church holds an early morning breakfast to get together in a celebration preceding the service. Later, we always hold an Easter egg hunt for the entire community to partake in. Looking around over the weekend, it’s heart-wrenching that some of my peers were not able to be with their families and were stuck on campus. The campus tried to make up for this by hosting an “Easter dinner.” Sorry, but I wasn’t impressed. A themed dinner will not make up for them not being with their families last weekend.

“I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.” 1 Corinthians 7:35