I LOVE EASTER
Easter has become my favorite holiday. I am on a crusade to make Easter celebrations last more than one day. I want Easter to be as big as or bigger than Christmas. Gordon B Hinckley said, "There would be no Christmas if there was no Easter."
My crusade began when my husband and I were living in Texas. I met a little girl who went to one of the local Baptist churches. Shortly after Easter, she came to my home so excited about her Easter activities.She asked me what I got for Easter. I don't remember what I replied, but I remember being surprised at her excitement over Easter. I had never seen anyone that excited about it. She went on to share what her Easter was like, what she got, what she did. After she left, I was so embarrassed that I had a strong testimony of the Savior, but did not celebrate Easter other than a little Easter Egg hunt that lasted about an hour.
Around this same time, Easter Sunday probably, a woman who had grown up a Catholic gave a talk about her Easter traditions growing up. It was so enlightening. All of the symbols of Easter that I thought were Pagan or commercializations of Easter had beautiful religious symbolism and imagery. Once again, I was so embarrassed that I didn't know any of this, that Easter was a blip on my radar screen every year that I largely ignored.
I looked around me and noticed the same attitude in most of the people around me. There are no count down to Easter calendars at the stores, no month long celebration and expectations.
I started to ask myself, why? Why did I not celebrate Easter like I should? I realized that a big part was my traditions, or lack of, growing up. All we had was an Easter Egg hunt and baskets. Another reason for a small Easter was an effort to not lose the real meaning of Easter. We didn't want the Savior's sacrifice to be lost in candy and eggs. The end result, however, was not doing anything at all.
I thought about Christmas and why it was so exciting and fun. It was because we made it that way. We had fun traditions, fun foods, fun things, presents. When I was a kid, I didn't get the real meaning of Christmas, but because it was big and fun, I made it part of my life. Over time I learned the true meaning of Christmas and tried more and more to implement the lessons of the season in my life.
If I wanted my kids to look forward to Easter like they did Christmas, I had to make it something to look forward to. I had to have fun things. So, I looked up all the symbols of Easter and thought of ways to incorporate the symbols into our celebrations in a fun and memorable way. I bought a book that talked about how to have a more Christ-centered Easter over a week instead of one or two days. I have tried to extend that even further by decorating and talking about Easter about a month before Easter.
I will endeavor to share as much as I can of our Easter celebrations to inspire others. Hopefully you will get your own ideas of how you can make Easter a bigger part of your year and life.
My crusade began when my husband and I were living in Texas. I met a little girl who went to one of the local Baptist churches. Shortly after Easter, she came to my home so excited about her Easter activities.She asked me what I got for Easter. I don't remember what I replied, but I remember being surprised at her excitement over Easter. I had never seen anyone that excited about it. She went on to share what her Easter was like, what she got, what she did. After she left, I was so embarrassed that I had a strong testimony of the Savior, but did not celebrate Easter other than a little Easter Egg hunt that lasted about an hour.
Around this same time, Easter Sunday probably, a woman who had grown up a Catholic gave a talk about her Easter traditions growing up. It was so enlightening. All of the symbols of Easter that I thought were Pagan or commercializations of Easter had beautiful religious symbolism and imagery. Once again, I was so embarrassed that I didn't know any of this, that Easter was a blip on my radar screen every year that I largely ignored.
I looked around me and noticed the same attitude in most of the people around me. There are no count down to Easter calendars at the stores, no month long celebration and expectations.
I started to ask myself, why? Why did I not celebrate Easter like I should? I realized that a big part was my traditions, or lack of, growing up. All we had was an Easter Egg hunt and baskets. Another reason for a small Easter was an effort to not lose the real meaning of Easter. We didn't want the Savior's sacrifice to be lost in candy and eggs. The end result, however, was not doing anything at all.
I thought about Christmas and why it was so exciting and fun. It was because we made it that way. We had fun traditions, fun foods, fun things, presents. When I was a kid, I didn't get the real meaning of Christmas, but because it was big and fun, I made it part of my life. Over time I learned the true meaning of Christmas and tried more and more to implement the lessons of the season in my life.
If I wanted my kids to look forward to Easter like they did Christmas, I had to make it something to look forward to. I had to have fun things. So, I looked up all the symbols of Easter and thought of ways to incorporate the symbols into our celebrations in a fun and memorable way. I bought a book that talked about how to have a more Christ-centered Easter over a week instead of one or two days. I have tried to extend that even further by decorating and talking about Easter about a month before Easter.
I will endeavor to share as much as I can of our Easter celebrations to inspire others. Hopefully you will get your own ideas of how you can make Easter a bigger part of your year and life.
When is Easter?
2013 - March 31
2014- April 20
2015- April 5
2016- March 27
2017- April 16
2014- April 20
2015- April 5
2016- March 27
2017- April 16
Making my home look like Easter
I have some special Easter decorations. Double wide red ribbon becomes Passover blood on our doorways. I am still looking for an outside decoration that can be Passover blood. I will report on that as soon as I find something.
I collect white (or cream, white can be very hard to find) lambs to fill the house. I try to buy a new one every Easter.
Easter lilies, lots of them. I always try to buy some that have only one open bloom and lots of closed blooms. They open over time and give me joy for weeks.
One of my friends brought me a special gift. A Easter set with a tomb, Jesus, Angel, disciple women and apostles. It is beautiful. I love it.
I collect white (or cream, white can be very hard to find) lambs to fill the house. I try to buy a new one every Easter.
Easter lilies, lots of them. I always try to buy some that have only one open bloom and lots of closed blooms. They open over time and give me joy for weeks.
One of my friends brought me a special gift. A Easter set with a tomb, Jesus, Angel, disciple women and apostles. It is beautiful. I love it.
I love to put open Easter eggs around the house. I love the symbolism of Easter eggs. New life, the empty tomb, sunrise colors to remind us that Christ will come again as the sunrise and from the east.
Over the course of the week, we put up pictures telling the story of the Easter week. We add a picture or two everyday, depending on what part of the story we discussed that day.
My favorite decorations are a set of pictures. There are actually three pictures with three of my favorite scriptures. The first one is of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane with Alma 7:11-13. The second is the Crucifixion with John 3:16. The last is the Resurrection with 1Cor 15:55.