Posted by 
CHICAGO (CBS) — Friday begins a most divine weekend. For Christians, it’s Good Friday, and for Jews it’s the start of Passover. Sunday is Easter, and we’re in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Morning Insider Lauren Victory explains how faith leaders are taking advantage of this holy calendar coincidence.
Rabbi Frederick Reeves explained what will happen around millions of tables for Passover, while just blocks away, Ebenezer Baptist Church leaders already decorated the altar for Sunday’s Easter service.
For Christians and Jews, it’s not unusual to have the Easter and Passover celebrations fall around the same time, but Kim Schultz and the Chicago Theological Seminary noticed something unique about the 2022 calendar.
“There is Buddhist holidays, there are Hindu, Jain holidays … Orthodox Christianity,” she said.
Ramadan is April’s biggest outlier.
“31 years ago, we were celebrating Ramadan in April,” said Imam Tarik El-Amin of Masjid Al-Taqwa.
The Islamic calendar cycles differently than the standard Gregorian calendar, so the holiday overlap took three decades to happen again.
“It’s bound to happen if you’ve been blessed to be here long enough,” El-Amin said.
“We can see this as, quote unquote, ‘mere coincidence,’ or we can take the coincidence and make something out of it,” Reeves said.
Which brings us to the Interfaith Trolley Tour, an on-the-go opportunity to visit several sacred spaces on the South Side, including KAM Isaiah Israel.
“We’re going to give them a little talk about the room very briefly, and then also about Passover,” Reeves said.
The Chicago Theological Seminary booked speakers from Buddhist and Baha’i faiths and more.
A stop at Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque is also on the itinerary.
“Although there’s points of uniqueness there’s also a lot of sameness in these holidays that we have, so we had to be a part of it,” El-Amin said.
The trolley tour is organized and sponsored by Chicago Theological Seminary, A Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice at Lutheran School of Theology, American Islamic College, The Parliament of the World’s Religions, and the Hyde Park Kenwood Interfaith Council.
Stops on the tour include KAM Isaiah Israel, 1100 E. Hyde Park Blvd.; Ebenezer Baptist Church, 4501 S. Vincennes Ave.; Masjid Al-Taqwa, 9333 S. Escanaba Ave.; and the University of Chicago Rockefeller Memorial Chapel/Office of Spiritual Life, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Tickets are already sold out, but if you are interested in learning about Chicago houses of worship like Masjid Al-Taqwa or KAM Isaiah Israel, you’re welcome to follow behind the trolley in your own personal vehicle.
The trolley tour ends with an interfaith dinner. It is scheduled for April 24.
Source: ChicagoCBS
