Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Celebrating Eastertide

In the Godly Play story, "The Mystery of Easter", we teach children that Easter is such a great mystery to be enjoyed that we can't possibly fit it into just one Sunday! There is enough Easter to go around to last us the whole way to Pentecost six weeks later. Though the commercial world tries to tell us that Easter ends on Easter Sunday, that special day is actually just the beginning of the Easter season.


Because I did not grow up with the liturgical calendar, this concept was new to me when I discovered it several years ago. However, it has been quite refreshing for me knowing that I don't have to pack all the fun and meaningful activities for my family into one (stressful) day. We can savor Christ's resurrection and digest its full impact on our lives over a six week period. Not to mention enjoying all those fun art projects that we didn't get to before Easter. 


From a pedagogical perspective, it is also much better for children to slowly experience the truth and beauty of Easter over a longer period of time rather than having sensory overload on one day. So, if you have never followed the liturgical calendar or if the concept of Eastertide is new to you, I would highly recommend stretching your Easter celebration out this year and planning a few activities that you may not have gotten around to beforehand. 


Last night, we made "empty tomb cookies" with our kids at Grandmama's house. We used this recipe. The kids loved the crunchy meringue with a hollow center.


Mixing the egg whites with Grandmama

The long wait begins . . .


Storyteller from Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way and I had a wonderful time observing Lent with all of you through the Celebrating Lent Link-Up Party. Now, we'd like to celebrate Eastertide with you as well. Over the next 6 weeks until Pentecost, we'll be sharing once a week guest posts with you about Resurrection stories and other Eastertide activities. 


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