Last weekend, visitors swarmed Hilltop Boilers in Newfield to taste free samples of maple syrup, play “guess the weight of the pigs” and compete in a sap-lugging contest. This weekend, they’ll be able to enjoy the same activities on Saturday, but if they show up on Maine Maple Sunday, they’ll be out of luck.

Michael Bryant, owner of the sugar house, will be in church with his family.

Sap drips into a bucket at Maple Hill Sugar House in Newfield, which will be open on Easter for Maine Maple Sunday.

This is one of those rare years when Maine Maple Sunday, which is always held on the fourth Sunday in March, is also Easter Sunday. Many of the state’s sugar houses, anticipating that customers would rather spend the day in church, visiting family or hunting Easter eggs, planned to be open on alternative days – either Saturday, or a different weekend altogether.

“Everybody knows that their sales are going to be down on Easter,” Bryant said.

The last time this happened was in 2008, but there was more chatter this year among sugar houses about changing the date of Maine Maple Sunday so it wouldn’t overlap with the Easter holiday. Bryant conducted an informal survey of syrup makers over the winter and found that, of approximately 95 sugar houses that will hold open houses this year, 10 to15 decided to open the weekend before or the weekend after Easter weekend. Usually a third of the state’s sugar houses open the Saturday before Maine Maple Sunday to capture extra business. This year, two-thirds will be open either Saturday only or Saturday and Sunday.

“I’d say there are seven or eight that have totally canceled because of the Easter conflict,” Bryant said.

Bryant said his primary reason for shifting his own open house is that Easter is a religious holiday, “one where I want to be in church, and I want to be with my family. There’s still an awful lot of Christians out there who feel that way.”

He also worried about lower profits if he opens on Easter and said it’s tough to find the 30 people he needs to work on the religious holiday.

“Personally, I don’t want to take all these other families and split them apart and beg people to come work for us when we know that sales will be down,” he said.

Bryant decided to open March 19 and 20, and he will open again Saturday. He took out extra advertising to publicize the changes, and it worked: 4,200 people visited last weekend, compared with the 4,000 to 6,000 people he usually sees on Maine Maple Sunday weekend. Add another 2,000 to 2,500 visitors expected Saturday, and it will be the best year he’s ever had.

Bryant does worry about people showing up this Sunday and being disappointed that he’s not open. But they can just drive a couple of miles down the road to the Maple Hill Sugar House, where owner Ashley Gerry (who doesn’t celebrate Easter) has decided to open as usual. Gerry has opened on both Saturday and Sunday of Maine Maple weekend for years now, including years when Maine Maple Sunday falls on Easter.

“The crowds are lighter,” he said. “Usually they come earlier in the day and it thins out in the afternoon, but people still enjoy doing it.”

The best thing would be to set the date for Maine Maple Sunday year by year, Gerry said, but it’s a statewide event and Maine is a “split state” where northern and southern syrup makers are on different schedules. Gerry finished making syrup a week and a half ago, he said, but “if parts of Aroostook County have even really made much, I’d be surprised.”

Hold the event a week or two earlier, and those northern sugar houses are left out; hold it a week or two later, and people who live in southern Maine are thinking more about raking lawns and riding motorcycles than eating maple syrup.

Gerry said New York is in a similar situation and sets two dates for their open house weekends – one for the northern part of the state, and one for the southern region. This year, some New York sugar houses opened March 19-20, and others will be open April 2 and 3.

The Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association chooses its open house weekend from year to year, but it’s typically held either the third or fourth week in March. This year, they chose the first weekend in April to avoid conflicts with Easter.

“It’s not anything that is set in stone from year to year,” said Amanda Voyeur, spokeswoman for the group. “Obviously, the intent is to have it be at a time when there is still some sugaring happening so visitors get to have that experience of seeing stuff happen.”

Whether the unofficial alternative dates in Maine create confusion or offer welcome choices for busy families, this will be the last time sugar makers will have to contend with this issue until 2027 – the next time Maine Maple Sunday falls on Easter.