Today is the 1st Day of our new tradition: “The 12 Days of Easter.” What is that? you may ask? Lemme ‘splain.
It all started last Easter with a certain dissatisfied feeling that I couldn’t really sort out. I knew going into Easter that I didn’t like any of our current traditions. Nothing was really BAD or WRONG about them. They just didn’t seem RIGHT enough. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew what I didn’t want to do. By a stroke of luck, (and maybe a little manipulation) I got out of planning anything outside of our service at church and I got a whole year to think things over.
As Easter began to near the horizon this year, I really hit on the main thing that was bothering me. Easter doesn’t get nearly enough attention. It doesn’t get half the attention and traditions that Christmas gets. And it’s just as important! We start thinking about Christmas at least a month – or two – before it even gets here. We start planning get-togethers, pulling out decorations, selecting gifts, singing songs… It’s a smorgasbord of celebration. And what does Easter get? A weekend? If it’s lucky. Maybe only just a day. Perhaps a special Easter service somewhere on the weekend, and probably a Christianized version of an egg-hunt with good intentions and a lot of heart but still struggling to really focus everything on Christ. I wasn’t satisfied with that. I should say, I’m not satisfied with that.
Just as important as Jesus being born is the fact the he was sacrificed for our sins and that he conquered death and rose again!! (I’m tempted to say it’s more important but that may be shaky ground and I don’t want any scathing lectures.) 😛 I decided I must commit myself to give Easter equal opportunity and to make Easter as much about Jesus as I can.
And now we arrive back at the present, March 28, the first day of the twelve days of Easter. I own a Resurrection Egg set, which we have used in the past. I really like the little symbolic pieces inside and the booklet that comes with it. I just didn’t like the egg hunt part of it. The kids didn’t want to listen to what I was saying, they wanted to open the other eggs with the candy inside. So this year we are taking the pieces out of the eggs, putting them inside little hand-sewn pouches, and opening them one at a time. Each day we will open a pouch, pull out the first piece (and then second and so on) and read the corresponding passage in the booklet. We will spend 12 days going through the entire Easter story, with of course the last pouch (the empty pouch) landing on Easter morning. Throughout the 12 days we will also do various other activities. We will decorate. We will make the hollow Easter cookies. We will attend our church’s Tenebrae service. We will watch The Passion of the Christ. We will get up early on Easter and watch the sun rise and read a passage. (Okay, we will TRY to get up early and watch the sunrise. We’ll try real hard.) 🙂
Anyway, it’s basically like Advent for Easter. And it’s something that I’m feeling really good about.
So like I said at the beginning… Today is the 1st day of the 12 Days of Easter!! I’m sooo looking forward to this!
[…] leaving the decorations up until Easter. Our easter celebration will culminate in a family get together Easter evening. It will also be a time of celebration for […]
What a great idea! I agree that Easter doesn’t get nearly enough attention! The whole point of celebrating His birth is that He came here to die for us! I’ve been thinking about our Easter traditions for a long time. I haven’t figured out what to do, yet.
I’m just curious if you have thought about addressing this issue with your pastor as well. Who knows how many other families feel the same way and haven’t found a way to change the family tradition. 🙂 Anyways… just a thought… And that whole sunrise thing – makes me really glad we had the time change already so we won’t still be suffering through it Easter Sunday.
What a wonderful idea! Christmas does get a lot of attention and Easter needs to get just as much. I might just have to figure something out like this to work in our home.
Happy Easter!
Great idea! Keep us updated on it. My daughter is only 1, but I’m already thinking of stuff like this!
Thank you for posting this! It is all SOO SOOOOO true! I know you and I have discussed this earlier this year, and I love the idea you came up with!! It is so creative, and sounds like such a great way to focus more on Christ this Easter.
[…] God has used her posts to remind me and convict me of my indifferent approach to Easter. My friend is so right when she asks why it is that we spend months planning, preparing, shopping, and […]
[…] several of you have asked about my 12 Days of Easter. You can find my original post here. I’ve written further about this here. Also, my friend Katie has been writing about Easter […]
[…] my own post about Easter from last year. I haven’t really started planning Easter for this year – I […]
I love this twist on the resurrection eggs! I honestly JUST learned about them this year and my daughter is 2 1/2. I’ve seen a smaller toddler ‘do it yourself’ version on pinterest which I have also contemplated since she’s so young… but sometimes it’s hard to know what to say that is going to make sense to a toddler?! I realized that, even though she would ‘repeat after us’ and pray every night ‘thank you Jesus for this day (add something she’s thankful for), amen.’ – when asked ‘who is Jesus?’ she didn’t really know! We have read countless… Read more »