During the COVID-19 pandemic, the unknown met the known. By this, is meant that the pandemic revealed the capacity of societies to interpret a very unfamiliar experience with already existing stories, rituals, and other cultural resources. It seems that religions similarly revealed their innate ideas about sociality and sacrality, about ritual formality and change when the COVID-19 lockdowns effectively cancelled public religious celebrations all over Europe. An initial study of the level of religious restrictions failed to deliver a clear answer to why some countries restricted religion more than others, though it is obvious that the form, extent, and the level of restrictions as well as the controversy surrounding the religious lockdowns should be able to provide unique insights into the dynamics of European religion-state relations.