Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the findings of a survey carried out in Hungary on religious practices during the Spring 2020 lockdown due to Covid-19. We were interested in rituals of everyday life transposed to the online realm and the possibilities they afforded for practicing the rituals of the Holy Week.

Paper long abstract:

The corona virus changed peoples everyday lives as well as their religious practices. In order to document these changes, in April 2020 we created two online questionnaires with participants of a seminar at the Folklore Department of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Both questionnaires were addressed to members of various Christian denominations in Hungary and consisted of more than 50 questions. One was directed at the leaders of religious communities, whereas the other asked for the opinions of members of these communities. In the course of six weeks more than 200 leaders and more than 1300 community members answered the questions. We were particularly interested in the rituals of everyday religiosity (and the circumstances under which online, at home religious services took place) and in the possibilities they afforded for practicing and experiencing the rituals of the Holy Week. For Catholics, Holy Communion and confession seemed completely impossible while for Protestants the idea and practice of the Eucharist “at home – online” generated the greatest debate both within communities and among religious leaders even in public debates in and outside of social media. Going beyond publicly aired opinions, the responses to the questionnaires gave a more nuanced and complex picture of the strategies of believers and leaders regarding religious practices under lockdown. The paper will primarily present the various views, arguments and practices through summarizing the results of the online questionnaires, supplemented by the lessons learnt from the follow-up in-depth interviews subsequently carried out by the research team.