Skip to main content

Five Ways to Celebrate a Christ-Centered Easter

 Last night I did a presentation for our Relief Society on activities to help make our Easter celebrations more centered on Christ. Here are my top five ideas with a bonus:

1. Watch Lamb of God: The Concert Film by Rob Gardner, DVD, 2021.

Watch for free on BYUTV:

https://www.byutv.org/a47204d9-b33f-4cfb-b14c-6ec17c75dde8/lamb-of-god:-the-concert-film?player-open=true&content-id=a47204d9-b33f-4cfb-b14c-6ec17c75dde8


Highly recommended!


2. Jerusalem Dinner like the one Jesus may have eaten (ie. naan bread, cheese, olives, dates, grapes, raisins, cucumbers, honey, fish). Sit on the floor, dress in costumes. Very memorable.

https://www.helpingofhappiness.com/as-the-homemaker/2018/3/28/jerusalem-dinner-and-other-holy-week-traditions



3.  Empty Tomb Rolls: https://www.northcarolinacharm.com/empty-tomb-resurrection-rolls/ This website has the story.
I have to confess I have not actually made these rolls myself but someone else made them for our meeting and they tasted pretty good. They also look pretty easy to make, using refrigerated crescent roll dough from the store. 

Resurrection cookies are another option but require a little more effort. There's great narrative that goes with them though!



I have made these for several different Easters. This year was my most successful and I think it was because the dirt was quite wet before I put it on the cup and pie plate. The wheat berries loved the moisture and I kept it covered until it sprouted. I also had plenty of time to grow the grass since I started it about 4 weeks before, so my wheat grass actually needed several haircuts. It kind of looked like a hedgehog before I added the other props. It was so cute.

You can also go a different direction with it and grow wheat berries in a little pot and give it as a gift of hope at Easter (idea from Emily Freeman):

5.  Dye eggs using onion skins. I got the idea from Emily Freeman's book called "Celebrating a Christ-centered Easter" and this was an interesting project for me. I collected onion skins for about a month (you're supposed to have skins from 15 onions).  Then you boil skins in a pot with 4 cups water and 2 Tbsp. vinegar for 30 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then add 6 eggs and boil gently for 20 minutes. After it cools, refrigerate the pot overnight. In the morning, you remove eggs and let dry, then polish with some olive oil. The red eggs symbolize Christ's blood. The tradition comes from Eastern Europe where people kept their beliefs alive during communism which was trying to stamp out religious belief. During the Easter season, people greet each other by saying, "He is risen!" And people respond, "Indeed He is risen!"




Bonus Idea:
This comes from Emily Freeman's book also. She tells the story of Simon in the scriptures who carried Christ's cross for him (see Matt. 27:32). The tradition she adds is to take a piece of jute rope and make it into a bracelet with a knot to "forget knot" to serve others as Simon served Christ. I like the idea and I'm going to try it this year.
















Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hansen Family Reunion 2024, Thursday afternoon

For lunch on Thursday, Lauren and Kurt made Cafe Rio which was delicious.  On Thursday afternoon, we had free time at the lake. Heidi and Aaron rented a pontoon boat and took people out for rides. This was very popular. Some of us went on the kayaks and/or swimming or just hung out on the beach.

2024 Hansen Family Reunion, Wednesday

Recently we had another Hansen Family Reunion at Bear Lake. We've been having these destination reunions since 2008. There were about 70 of us in attendance. Bruce and Michelle organized the activities and did a good job. I enjoyed myself! Hopefully lots of other people did too. We showed up on Wednesday afternoon and enjoyed a taco salad dinner, served by Neil and Kristie's family. We also worked on two mixer games:  a word search with the names of all 100 Hansen family members as well as a Bingo card that involved finding people with different attributes like recent high school graduation, birthdays in certain months, etc. The word search was definitely the most popular. Also popular was playing Nine-Square and Sandy Pickle (a cross between pickle ball and badminton). Thys and Katrina might have won! After dinner, we had an FHE activity/lesson. Liz had made a book with stories of the first ancestors to join the church. She had selected different stories for us to act out in g...

Hansen Family Reunion 2024, Thursday Evening

 For dinner on Thursday, Mark and JoEllen served us yummy pulled pork sandwiches with chips and coleslaw and fruit salad. Afterwards we took pictures and had our traditional talent show. The 14-year-olds minus Drew Videos follow these pictures: Videos of the talents.   The Bergesons went first: Followed by Neil's and Kristie's family: Bruce and Michelle: The Morris Family: Brian: Kent and Melanie: Kurt and Lauren's family talent: The Fergusons: Mom and Dad (mostly Dad):