Eastern’s campus often becomes deserted on Easter weekend according to Roger Songer, senior campus minister for Christian Campus House.

“It looks like a three-day weekend with the way people vacate,” Songer said.

Songer said most churches will have a very large celebration for Easter because for Christians, it is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, he said Christian Campus House is actually the exception to this since they will cancel their services this weekend.

He said since most students go home on Easter weekend, the house has accepted this and encourages students and their staff to go home and celebrate with their families at other churches.

Songer said when he first came to Eastern 27 years ago, students rarely went home, so Christian Campus House had a much bigger celebration.

“Back then people didn’t go home and didn’t really have cars,” Songer said. “Little by little the culture changed and we accept that.”

Roy Lanham, director and campus minister at the Newman Catholic Center, said this is the most important week in Christianity and in addition to their service Thursday evening they will have services at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday as well as at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday.

Lanham said because Easter is later this year, he thinks more students will be on campus because finals are coming up. He said he encourages students to do everything they can to come to a service this week, even if it means rearranging their work schedule or getting excused absences from class.

“I hope Christians around the world enter these days with a prayer and see it as a chance to grow in faith,” Lanham said.

Nick Murdock, a senior special education and elementary education major, said while he was born Catholic, he has adopted the beliefs of a variety of religions, including Pagan meditation.

He said the symbols of Easter are from both Christianity and Paganism. He said the egg is a Christian symbol of the stone rolled away from Jesus’ tomb and the rabbit is a Pagan symbol of fertility.

Murdock said most Pagans have similar basic beliefs as Christians and other religions such as, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

“Easter to me is a time of remembering what you have, being with your family and what you can do for your loved ones,” Murdock said.

While not related to Easter, the University Board has organized an egg hunt where students can find blue and golden eggs throughout campus.

Alyssa Anderson, a senior psychology major and UB vice president, said the blue eggs contain prizes inside, but finding a golden egg means the student has won a larger prize and must claim it at the Student Activities Center.

She said all the prizes are secret, but that every golden egg has an individual prize associated to it.

Anderson said 20 golden eggs are hidden and as of Thursday eight of the eggs still had not been found. She said there has been a lot of campus involvement since students do not have to go to any one event.

“We wanted to create something nostalgic with a sense of excitement,” Anderson said. “It’s a nice break from your day.”

Anderson said the egg hunt is not affiliated with Easter because the UB knew not everyone celebrated Easter and they did not want to leave anyone out. “Easter is not even about finding eggs,” Anderson said.

Today is the last day for the egg hunt. This weekend all dining centers will be consolidated to Taylor Hall and throughout the day Sunday they will offer an Easter lunch and dinner.

Seth Schroeder can be reached at 581-2812 or scschroeder2@eiu.edu.