(LifeSiteNews) — Popular home improvement chain Lowe’s will close all of its stores nationwide for Easter Sunday this year.
The company will give a paid day off to its 300,000 employees and shut down its more than 1,700 locations. This is the sixth year in a row that Lowe’s has closed for the central Christian feast.
“I’m extremely proud of the commitment of our 300,000 associates who support our communities while providing excellent customer service not only in spring but all year-round,” Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said. “In recognition of our teams’ continued hard work, we are pleased to provide a well-deserved day off so they can spend Easter with their loved ones.”
Several major retailers are closing for Easter as well, including Costco, Sam’s Club, Aldi, Marshalls, and HomeGoods.
Home Depot will remain open, however, as will Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and others, though some may have holiday hours.
Easter, celebrated on April 20 this year by the Catholic Church and most other Christian groups, commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the “crowning truth” of faith in Christ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 638).
“The Resurrection is not a thing of the past, the Resurrection has reached us and seized us. We grasp hold of it, we grasp hold of the risen Lord, and we know that He holds us firmly even when our hands grow weak,” Pope Benedict XVI commented. “We will live through our existential communion with Him, through being taken up into Him Who is life itself.”
“Eternal life, blessed immortality, we have not by ourselves or in ourselves, but through a relation – through existential communion with Him Who is Truth and Love and is therefore eternal: God Himself.”
Easter Sunday begins the Catholic Church’s celebration of Easter Week, during which each day is a solemnity, capped by the Sunday of Divine Mercy.
Lowe’s reversed some of its previous diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies last year after backlash from conservatives, including ending participation in the radical pro-LGBT group Human Rights Campaign’s corporate survey, as part of a broader corporate trend away from leftism.