One of my favorite things about my role as mom is creating special traditions in our home. I want them to be fun and creative as well as opportunities for intentionally passing down our values and faith. Good traditions I think give children a sense of identity and belonging and are always presenting truth in an engaging and memorable way. I was challenged a few years ago when an author pointed out that most Christian homes spend a significant more amount of time and energy celebrating Christmas than they do Easter. Yet without the death and resurrection of Christ we have no hope as Christians. And so this convicted and inspired me that in our home we want to remember and treat Easter as the highest celebration of the Christian year! For truly our faith and hope rests in the atoning death of Christ on the cross for our sins and His resurrection that we might have life abundant with Him now and in eternity!
Lent gives us 40 days to prepare our hearts for Easter. My goal in our Lent traditions is to create opportunities for discussion about our need for a Savior and also build anticipation and excitement for Easter Sunday. For 40 DAYS we've been reminding the kids... "but Sunday is coming!"
The boys run downstairs, check the tomb (see link below to Holy Week traditions for building a tomb), find the empty linen cloth (kleenex) and run around shouting, "He's alive! He's alive! Jesus is alive!" :-) The candles are all lit (see Lenten candles below), we play music, and have a huge breakfast cross cake to celebrate our risen Savior!
This is a picture from Easter morning last year...
Our Lent/ Easter basket sits on our kitchen counter for the 40 days Lent. It's filled with Passover and Easter books, Resurrection eggs, a few Lent activity books, Passover and Easter dvd's, and a few items for reenacting the Easter story such as Palm branches. We'll use these resources to help keep a continual conversation going in our home about Jesus' path to the cross, his death, his resurrection, and what it means for our lives.
Books:
Over the years I've collected children's Easter books for our basket, and each week we go to a church library where each boy gets to check out an Easter book that goes in our basket for that week.
I really have enjoyed using the child's activity book "What We Do In Lent." There is an activity page for each of the 40 days of Lent, and as a disclaimer we use most of them. This is a fun, simple activity book for young children that takes us along the events leading up to the cross and Holy Week. It includes tips for family use and explains Lent and Holy Week very well in clear and simple terms.
DVDs:
The boys can pick one of the following dvd's to watch each Sunday of Lent. Kennon or I watch with them because these videos have sparked some incredible questions and discussions.
Resurrection Eggs:
Probably the boys favorite thing in the basket.
This video is from Easter last year when Caleb was four years old.
This video is from two years ago when Caleb was three years old.
Lenten Candles:
Each Sunday of Lent during our family devotion time we have seven candles. On the first Sunday, all seven are lit as we read our first devotional, and one candle is snuffed out during the reading. On the second Sunday, six candles burn as you begin reading, and you snuff out one of them and so on. So Good Friday, the last candle is blown out, and then on Easter, all seven candles are lit again. This is symbolic of how since the time Adam and Eve had to leave the garden of Eden and throughout history including the path to the cross, it appeared darkness was winning and overcoming the light. However on Easter morning, resurrection Sunday, the Light of the world conquered the darkness once and for all! You can find the devotional that sparked this tradition here. I've modified it to fit our kids' ages and woven in the Jesus storybook Bible.
Here are some past posts I've written about specific things we do to celebrate Passover and Holy Week:
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