As we all know, the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has caused the majority of countries to go on lock down and/or strongly encourage people to stay at home in a self quarantine. Because of this, schools have been shut down, parents and other adults have been asked to work from home and everything but essential businesses have been closed.

One thing that I’m sure was at the bottom of everyone’s list is how they were going to celebrate Easter. Those with children, especially young children, might feel they are missing some important memories and milestones. Going to church on Sunday mornings, while not being just an Easter tradition for some, is definitely something a lot of people do on Easter Sunday.

Luckily, most churches have found a way to move their services on a virtual platform so people from the church can worship at home with their same pastor, minister, priest, etc.

But, speaking in the non-religious sense, there are still many Easter traditions that a lot of Americans partake in on Easter Sunday.

For instance, my family used to always go over to our neighbor’s house after church to do a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. This Easter egg hunt would include probably 100 or so eggs and six or seven families who all gathered to watch us younglings search high and low for brightly colored eggs.

This, of course, should not be done this year due to the virus. Gathering more than even a few people in the same space would likely violate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Snapchat has a virtual Easter egg hunt every year with a similar set up as Pokemon GO, where you need to drive or walk around town and be within a certain radius to make an egg appear, then virtually collect the egg. This year, however, to help people stay in their quarantine, Snapchat made the Easter egg hunt where there is no radius in place and eggs generated randomly all around the world.

This is so you can still have the enjoyment of participating in this event, or maybe younger ones used this as a real Easter egg hunt substitution, without breaking lock down rules or quarantine suggestions.

The way you collect eggs, as stated before, is you scroll among your city and other cities around the world. While doing so, you would see three icons, an egg, a rabbit and an Easter egg basket. Each of these give you different amounts of eggs you collect, and you can compete with your Snapchat friends for who can collect the most virtual eggs.

I, for one, enjoy the fact that Snapchat made this worldwide virtual Easter egg scavenger hunt for its users. I personally found enjoyment in not only seeing some of the world to find the eggs, but I enjoyed feeling like a kid again, searching for eggs around places I wouldn’t normally go to or see.

It was such a great idea for Snapchat to make this virtual Easter egg hunt to encourage people to stay inside their homes and to bring some of the non-religious traditions to everyone. While everything being moved to virtual platforms will not bring the same feelings as being around friends and family during services and picnics, it is a great, safe alternative for the pandemic we are in.