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Utah Easter celebrations are on this year, with COVID-19 precautions

Easter celebrations planned for 2021 despite pandemic

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WEST JORDAN, Utah — Easter is on in Utah this year, not to be deterred by the pandemic.

Some cities are finding ways to safely bring back the Easter egg hunts canceled by COVID-19 in 2020, while others are giving families a more socially distanced option.

A big shipment arrived in West Jordan Thursday, which made for quite the unboxing. City staff opened more than 20 large boxes, to check that all the thousands of eggs were there.

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"When [the community] found out that we were doing it this year, it's been like we're bringing back Christmas or something like that," said Marie Titze, City of West Jordan Public Information Manager. "People are so excited."

Titze lifted bags from the boxes. In each bag, dozens of plastic eggs filled with candy rattled around. She said they ordered 25,000 eggs for the West Jordan Easter Egg Hunt.

"This is one of the first events that we are having in person, right, that people won't be in that car. People won't be in their own family individual groups. We'll be outside," she said.

Last year, Titze explained, the city canceled their egg hunt and instead, West Jordan Police handed out the eggs at Title I schools. Video shows officers giving out bags of eggs, drive-thru style.

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This year, COVID-19 isn't canceling their Easter egg hunt a second time. The city worked with the Salt Lake County Health Department, Titze indicated, coming up with COVID-19 restrictions for the event.
For one, masks will be required for everyone.

"We're asking that families pre-register for it on our Eventbrite page, so that there's some sort of contact tracing to go back to," she said. "And then we will also have field marshals out on the grass, reminding people to please wear their masks, to wear them correctly."

West Jordan will divide the kids into different age groups, with each age group in a different field or area. Titze talked about how they've got lots of space-- 100 acres-- for people to spread out.

Families who aren't ready to gather yet, can head to Herriman on Wednesday, March 31. Herriman City Communications Manager Jonathan LaFollette said they're hosting their annual Basket Bash the same way they did last year.

"Herriman City is providing baskets of eggs that families can come pick up in their cars, a drive-thru process at Crane Park," he explained. Each bag has about 20-25 eggs. Families can then hide the eggs in their own yards and do a smaller egg hunt, LaFollette said.

What about the golden eggs that lead to fun prizes? Herriman has families covered on that, too.

"In some of the bags there are golden eggs, and if you find one of those in your bag you can bring that to the city hall and get a prize basket," he said.

While Easter will still look a little different than normal this year, it'll be a far cry from 2020.

The 25,000 eggs at West Jordan prove progress in the pandemic.
"If it's 15 minutes that people forget about the year that we just had, that's enough for all of us I think," Titze said.

Here are some of the festivities happening April 3 and 4:
Saturday, April 3