{"id":14378,"date":"2014-04-18T13:18:09","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/when-easter-and-christmas-near-more-americans-search-online-for-church\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:22:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:22:24","slug":"when-easter-and-christmas-near-more-americans-search-online-for-church","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/04\/18\/when-easter-and-christmas-near-more-americans-search-online-for-church\/","title":{"rendered":"When Easter and Christmas near, more Americans search online for \u201cchurch\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Priests and ministers have long noted a sharp increase in church attendance around the two most significant Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter. Some have given those who attend services only at those times of year a name \u2014 \u201cChreasters<\/a>\u201d \u2014 and churches have launched campaigns to get them to attend more regularly<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Google searches for \"church\" spike during Easter and Christmas seasons<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

More Americans search for \u201cchurch\u201d around Easter than at any other time, with the Christmas season usually ranking second, according to Google Trends data<\/a> between 2004 and 2013. Google\u2019s Trends tool measures the popularity of a search term relative to all searches in the United States. Data are reported on a scale from 0 to 100.<\/p>\n\n

Easter is Christianity\u2019s oldest and most important holiday, during which Christians celebrate Jesus\u2019 Resurrection three days after he was crucified. In liturgical terms, Easter Sunday is a moveable feast. Its observance, which comes at the end of a 40-day period of penance, fasting and self-examination called Lent, changes within a range of time each spring. Between 2004 and 2013, Easter was in March three times and April seven times.<\/p>\n\n

Google searches for \"church\" rise as religious holidays near Easter Christmas<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

In 2013, the highest share of searches for \u201cchurch\u201d are on the week of Easter Sunday, followed by the week of Christmas and the week of Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of Lent.<\/p>\n\n

The lowest share of searches occur on the week of Thanksgiving in November each year, and the summer months have consistently low levels of interest in web searches for \u201cchurch.\u201d\u00a0Sociologists also have previously reported low levels of church attendance during the summer months. Laurence Iannaccone and Sean Everton analyzed weekly attendance records from churches and argued that people are less likely to attend church when the weather outside is just right in a journal article titled \u201cNever on Sunny Days<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More Americans search for \u201cchurch\u201d around Easter than at any other time, with the Christmas season usually ranking second, according to Google Trends data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[161,319,305],"bylines":[835],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-14378","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-beliefs-practices","category-online-search","category-platforms-services","bylines-noble-kuriakose","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short 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