WASHINGTON, D. C. (Wednesday, April 17, 2019) ––Holy Week is filled with red letter days and solemn liturgical vigils and celebrations and other seasonal pageants and extravaganzas. It also coincides with Spring Break for K-12 schools. The confluence means “increased traffic both on the road and at the airport,” including Ronald Reagan National Airport, the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Dulles International Airport. Those embarking on weekend getaways and week-long trips to another big city or resorts will be numbered among the 45 million Americans taking family trips this spring.

Myriad persons, the indefinite many, not the untellable few, are embarking on road trips for Holy Week/Spring Break. With 84 percent of people across the country saying they will participate in festivities around Easter in some form or another, tradition tells us the “heaviest traffic is expected on Easter Sunday,” April 21. That compares to 80 percent of American adults in 2015. Somewhere north of 20 million airline passengers will fly to their destinations during Holy Week, according to industry estimates. Others are opting to shun or skip “congested roads and hectic airports” and take to the rails to their destinations during the holidays, holy days, and Spring Break. Some resorts are offering families and travelers “Easter Packages.”

Like Peter Cottontail “hopping down the bunny trail,” gasoline prices are “hippity, hoppity” of late. Unfortunately, pump prices tend to increase across the country during mid-April, and especially around the time when Easter week travel takes place. Put simply, the ancient law of supply and demand is kicking in. Unexpected and planned maintenance at refineries making the transition from winter blends of gasoline to summer blends, coupled with tightening gasoline stocks, emerge as leading culprits behind the very expensive gasoline prices holidaymakers are encountering on their Easter and/or Spring Break road trips. Pump prices hit $2.83 per gallon nationwide yesterday, and $4.01 per gallon in California, according to AAA Gas Prices.

Historically, during April consumers experience the second highest monthly hike in gasoline prices of the year, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration dating back to 1991. “The average March sees a 5.1% one-month rise at the pump — a typical year’s biggest jump! Note, April is the No. 2 month for hikes at 4.3% and May’s next at 3.4%,” The Orange County Register reports. Gas prices averaged $2.03 a gallon on Good Friday 2016, the lowest price point for the holiday weekend since 2004, notes AAA. But recent price surges at the self-serve gas kiosk won’t deter families and motorists from making road trips at Easter, Passover, and Spring Break. Gasoline prices have risen almost 60 cents a gallon since January 1. “Americans spent $25.8 billion” on gasoline during February, compared to $26.2 billion in January.

 “Easter’s on its way.” For the third time this century, Good Friday and Passover will coincide. Both, like Easter, are the holiest of days, as well as “moveable feasts.” The idiomatic expression describes “a religious holiday that falls on different dates in different years.” In some traditions, the Easter or Paschal Triduum begins Thursday evening and closes with evening prayers on Easter Sunday, which is celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Passover (Pesach) 2019 begins at sundown Friday, April 19, and ends Saturday evening, April 27. “The first Seder will be on April 19 after nightfall.” 

It’s the season of the well-planned perfect escape and the start of the summer driving season. Four in

ten U.S. adults are planning to take a  family vacation in 2019, a recent AAA Travel survey reveals. Of the nearly 100 million Americans doing so, just under half (45 percent) are making plans to travel as a family this spring, while two-thirds of all family travelers (68 percent) will embark on a summer getaway.

U.S. airlines are on track to carry “an all-time number of passengers – 158.2 million people – this spring,” forecasts Airlines for America (A4A). It equates to “2.47 million passengers per day between March 1 and April 30.” That’s up from the “151.1 million people who flew to the destinations during the same period a year ago.” To meet the projected 4.3 percent increase in the number of passengers flying to their springtide destinations, airlines are adding more seats, explains AAA Travel Services. The seasonal period includes “several potential travel peaks, including US college spring breaks, Easter and Passover.”

During the busy Spring Break travel period the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) estimates its agents will screen “approximately 107 million passengers and crew from March 14 to April 28.” That figure represents “an increase of more than 3 percent compared to the same period last year.” During the Spring Break season more congestion is expected at the big three regional airports, Reagan National, Dulles and BWI.  Expect backups on airport roads during busy travel periods and at springtime. During Spring Break, Dulles International Airport is “offering 30% off daily garage parking rate on select dates.”

“Roughly eight in 10 U.S. adults plan to celebrate Easter” according to National Retail Federation’s (NRF) annual 2019 Easter Spending Survey. Six out of ten (60.1 percent) Americans say they will celebrate Easter by visiting family and friends, while “58 percent will cook a holiday meal, 51 percent will go to church and 17 percent will go to a restaurant,” the annual survey shows. Although it is not designated as a federal holiday, Easter is “the fourth-largest holiday spending period of the year.” This Easter, Americans will spend “an average of $151 per person on everything from clothing and candy to cards and flowers,” the NRF survey says. Consumers will spend a total $18.2 billion this Easter, “the second-highest level on record.”

Throughout Holy Week many Washington area residents will drive to their holiday get-together with family or friends and both. Some local families are heading to Grandma’s cottage or a favorite vacation spot to celebrate the red-letter days or other festive occasions, and to enjoy Spring Break to the hilt. Another survey reveals more families are “bringing friends and extended family along” while heading out of town for spring break. “Americans planning to go on a 2019 spring break vacation expect to spend $1,818, on average, for the entire trip,” according to a recent NerdWallet survey. “Spring Break” is defined as the week prior to and after Easter Sunday. Spring Break falls on Holy Week for students in the three largest public school systems in the region, Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and for students in D.C. Public Schools.  

The “eggstravaganza” is the thing. The 141^st annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House will be held Easter Monday, April 22. Hosted by First Lady Melania Trump, the tradition dates back to 1878 under the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes. Easter Monday is likewise a big day in the District of Columbia. It is a longstanding African-American family tradition at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Families will flock, frolic, frisk and revel in the zoo’s rich riot of animal life ranging from the Abyssinian ground hornbill to the Yellow-spotted Amazon River turtle, and all hippity-hoppity creatures and species large and small, plus Easter egg hunts, live music, and food trucks.

Family fun. Planning a vacation at Walt Disney World Resort during Easter Week/Spring Break? It is the most-visited vacation resort in the world and Easter is no exception. Expect large “wall-to-wall” crowds as Easter Bunny, and his wife, Ms. Bunny greet families in the Town Square Courtyard and make their star turn in the Magic Kingdom’s Festival of Fantasy Easter-themed Parade. Orlando’s world-famous theme parks and attractions are a top draw for families. Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World are slated to unveil new attractions this summer. Gas prices will average $2.76 a gallon during the 2019 summer driving season.  

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