Holy Week Activities 2013

I want to repost this idea page as I am looking over it myself to think about how we want to celebrate Easter and Holy Week.  We got out some of our Easter books and decorations last week, so now the Easter bunny is coming up in conversation and I want to redirect the focus on to what we as a family are truly celebrating -- Jesus' death and resurrection!  So, here is the post, with some updates in italics:


Time sure has gotten away from me. I have so much to catch up on, but with Palm Sunday just two days away, I want to get this one out there. I think it was last year that I decided I wanted to do more with our family to celebrate or mark Holy Week. Beyond Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday we've never done a whole lot. And yet, if you look at that week in Jesus' life so much happened to him and among his disciples that it's something I wanted to change in our celebration.

Our oldest son is now old enough to enjoy doing some participatory learning activities and get something out of them. And our youngest loves participating and doing what big brother does -- and he'll learn, too. So I started thinking about things I want to do. The Good Friday service is late by the standards of our kids' bedtimes, so I started there, wanting to do something. Then I realized that Jesus washing his disciples' feet was part of the Last Supper the night before his death. I've been part of foot washing "ceremonies" before and they are so powerful, I thought that would be a meaningful way to have our family participate together. From there, I looked online for some other ways to celebrate and remember the events of that week in age appropriate ways. I hope you find this helpful if you're looking for things to do yourself.

This was the starting point for the most helpful ideas.  http://www.christianitytoday.com/holidays/easter/features/activities.html
From there, I am adapting them to be more age-appropriate as many of the suggestions are for school-age kids.  This link is no longer active.  It was so good!  Grrr.

Palm Sunday

We'll attend church. If we decide to do more than that, it will be to act out the processional into Jerusalem as we read the account from Scripture. We'll use palm branch color sheets for the boys to color on, cut them out and sing, "Hosanna!"

Thursday

We'll do a foot washing ceremony, taking turns washing each others' feet. We'll talk about what Jesus did for his disciples and what it means. As our sons get older, we'll reenact the Last Supper more fully.

Good Friday

We'll read the story out of our children's Bible of Jesus' arrest and death.  

Saturday

A Festival of Light service, with a reading shortened or modified from the link above.  This is one thing I wish I'd kept from last year, since I can't find the page anymore!

Resurrection Sunday

Easter service

We'll do the regular Easter bunny thing, but I've already begun talking about what we are really celebrating on Easter. I want our kids to know what this holiday truly means to our family and why we recognize it. We do a lot of jelly beans, so we may do this:

In a plastic egg: Jelly Beans that are the following colors

• black : Stands for the darkness of our lives before Jesus when we were still in sin
• red: Stands for Jesus shed blood
• white: Stands for our sins that are washed away
• yellow: Stands for streets of gold in heaven
• green: Stands for growing in Jesus

This is our start. I loved many of the other ideas from the website for other days, particularly making pretzels as a reminder of our connection to God through prayer and the account of Jesus being anointed. My hope is that we'll add more activities as part of our celebration as our kids get older. This is a small way to make sure our focus is on the right thing during this holiday season.

We *may* add pretzel making this year; I'll see how ambitious I feel.  Another idea, from one I modified, a prayer walk through our neighborhood.  Getting out in our neighborhood and praying for the people who live around us and helping the boys learn how to pray for others.

Also, MOPS international has some great ideas on their website, including Easter cookies and a 12 day Resurrection Egg activity, which starts TODAY!

I'd love to hear what you do with your family, whether you try some of these or share a new idea with me.  I'm looking for more!  Let us encourage one another.