TRC_TwoDozenEggsTraditionPage2

Tips on Raising Children

"Two Dozen Eggs Tradition"

Barbara Curtis

Page 2 Con't

Holy Week

11) Resurrection Eggs (TM): An egg carton filled with a dozen plastic eggs, each containing a symbol of the Holy Week, accompanied by twelve brief child-friendly lessons. (For more information, check the Internet.)

12) Palm Sunday : If your church doesn't make much of Palm Sunday, you might consider just once attending one that does. For an in-home celebration, read Matthew 2:1-11 together. If you have a large family or a few friends, you can put together costumes and act out Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem .

13) Seeds : Seeds offer a clear message to children of the power of new life. Rest eggshell halves filled with soil in egg carton. Plant a marigold, petunia, or

14) Art Museums : The Passion of Christ is the most-portrayed subject of Western artists. If you live in a metropolitan area, a visit to your local art museum may give your family much to ponder.

15) Housecleaning : Wednesday of Holy Week has been a traditional day in many countries for housecleaning, from the Jewish custom of cleaning before Passover.

16) Passover : Each year more Christians are drawn to celebrate Passover, the feast commemorating the departure of the Israelites from slavery (Exodus 12). Jesus had come to Jerusalem to celebrate and was actually crucified on Passover Day. He is the fulfillment of this tradition, as our own Passover Lamb.

17) Foot Washing : This Maundy Thursday event speaks volumes about Jesus' desire for us to serve. Read John 13. Wrap a towel around your waist, as Jesus did, and wash your children's feet. Your lives might never be the same.

Good Friday

18) Three Hours : Observe Jesus' crucifixion by reading the Biblical account together. Sing old hymns of the Crucifixion and the Cross: "Where You There When They Crucified My Lord?" "The Old Rugged Cross," "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Most Catholic churches offer Stations of the Cross, fourteen plaques circling the interior walls that depict the final hours of Jesus' life. You may want to visit and contemplate these, one by one.

19) Hot Cross Buns : Traditional Good Friday fare for the family to make and eat together

Saturday of Holy Week

20) Jesus : Watch Campus Crusade's beautifully crafted evangelical movie, scripted only with words from the Gospel of Luke.

Easter Sunday

21) Easter Greeting : Greet each other with "Hallelujah, the Lord is risen!" and answer, "He is risen indeed!"

22) Sunrise Service : Attend one offered by a church, or climb a hill with your family, worship together, and share a picnic breakfast.

23) Special music : Listen together to Sandi Patti's moving "Was it a Morning Like This?" Listen again. Discuss how it must have felt to see our risen Lord. Was anyone who saw him ever the same? Jesus said those who believe without having seen are blessed (John 20:29 ).

24) New clothes : New converts were traditionally baptized at Easter, wearing new white garments to symbolize their new life. If your family has new Easter outfits, share with your children where this tradition came from.

Somewhere in the Easter celebration, you may be coloring eggs and visiting relatives. Eggs then can become a subtle way of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Like seeds, eggs are very much a symbol of new life. Traditionally they were also a symbol of Easter joy, because they were a forbidden item during Lent. Nowadays, dyed, and taken to Grandmother's for an annual Easter egg hunt (as our family does each year), they can bear all manner of joyful messages.

Share with non-believing relatives and friends, what your family is doing for Easter this year -- maybe next year they'll join in.

Whatever traditions you keep, remember that for believers Easter is a celebration that really never ends.