How Do You Celebrate Easter?
With the time change and some of my tulips poking their green leaves through the soil, it comes to my attention that in spite of the snow which fell this morning in defiance of the weathermen's predictions, spring is not far off. Easter is only three weeks away. I was thinking about Easter - what decorations I have, what activities we do, and in general thinking about the traditions that we have, and I have some questions for my readers. I hope you'll take a few minutes to give me a thoughtful answer.
1. Do you decorate your home for Easter? If yes, what kind of decorations do you use? Is it all chicks, bunnies and eggs? Are they "Easter" decorations or "Springtime" decorations? Do you have anything to help you remember the religious purpose for the holiday?
2. What Easter traditions do you have? Do you and/or your children get new clothes? Do you give baskets full of gifts and candy? Do you get up early in the morning? Do you color eggs and have Easter egg hunts? Do your children believe in the Easter bunny? Do you read the Easter story from the scriptures? What other traditions do you have?3. Do you have traditional foods that you eat on Easter - a special breakfast or dinner?
4. Do your children understand why we celebrate Easter? Does Easter have the same significance to them that it has for you? What have you done to teach them about Easter in the past? Which of your Easter traditions are most meaningful to you?
I don't have much in the way of Easter decorations. In the past I have posted pictures form the Gospel Art Kit around our home. We usually color hard boiled eggs some time around Easter, and hunt for plastic eggs filled with candy on Easter morning. My children do not get baskets filled with gifts, and they very rarely receive new clothes. We usually try to read the Easter story some time during the season. We usually have a good dinner on Easter - usually ham, although this year it will be turkey because we happen to have one in our freezer. I hope that my children appreciate that Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I hope they realize that Christ's resurrection made it possible for each of us - every one of us - to be resurrected ourselves, to receive a perfect body, to live forever. We've tried to teach them. A couple years ago, I put references for scriptures about the
resurrection in the plastic eggs and had the children look up the
scriptures before they could redeem them for candy. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to do that again. I'm thinking I might also have them watch the video below, for a more visual impact.
We haven't really done much in the past. With our kids so young, their attention span usually only lasts a minute or so. Last year we showed them a picture of Jesus and talked about how much he loves us, and that was about it. We did an easter egg hunt hosted by David and Donna up in Rexburg. The year before, our apartment complex hosted an easter egg hunt. Three years ago when I was living with Heidi we read the Easter story together, and then sang as many hymns we could think of on the topic, that was fun. We've joined various family members for Easter, joining in whatever they had planned, but we've never had an Easter on our own yet. This year is a first, and so far we don't have many plans or traditions. We do have a ham sitting in our freezer we may pull out. We have a New Testament picture book that we might read about the atonement and resurrection in. We'll probably do an Easter egg hunt of some sort. We never buy new clothes for our kids, but they have a grandmother that loves every excuse to get them new clothes, and two new adorable suits showed up in the mail yesterday.
ReplyDeleteLike April we don't have any traditions yet and kids are still little to understand and sit still for very long, but we have gotten Claire an Easter dress the last couple years and we tried to dye eggs last year (we may or may not try that again). Last year we got her an Easter basket with a little candy and small toy and we hid a couple eggs along the way. We've always been close to home so we usually eat dinner with mom and dad. I'm still looking for new traditions to start or try though as my kids get older to teach about the real meaning of the holiday. :)
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