Lent begins February 6!

I’ll never forget our family’s first Christian Easter. With the children snuggled down for the night, my husband Tripp and I dutifully filled five waiting baskets as we had done all the years before. But something seemed to be missing, which was strange because something had really been added - our understanding of the true meaning of Easter - Jesus’ Death and Resurrection.

“Did we forget anything?”  I asked as we arranged the last colored eggs.

“I’ve got the same feeling,” Tripp said.  “I think it’s just because we’ve changed.  The most important part of Easter now will be church tomorrow morning.”

Looking back some 20 years later, I understand the unsettled feeling we were sharing. Two children who had celebrated Easter with baskets and bunnies had grown up with little else to pass on to their own children. Yet since we wanted our new relationship with Christ to be part of our family’s daily life - not just Sunday only - Tripp and I were always interested in ways to bring the message of Jesus’ resurrection home.

We needed traditions.

Traditions - especially those children can see, hear, feel, smell and taste - provide vivid impressions on which parents can build year after year.  There are many which will enrich your own family’s celebration of what might be more accurately called Resurrection Day.  Choose a few from this collection, share their meaning in whatever words your children will understand, and keep the ones you like as part of your family’s Easter heritage.  

Lent

Lent is a forty day period before Easter set aside as a season of soul-searching and repentance.  The forty days reflect Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for his own time of spiritual reflection.  Sundays, because they commemorate the Resurrection, are not counted.  In  the early church Lent was a special time when new converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism on Easter. 

Churches which follow a liturgical calendar - annually reliving the major events in Jesus’ life - place great emphasis on Lent.  Whether your own church makes much or little of these forty days, your family will benefit from preparing in advance to celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection. Children will cherish Easter more with anticipation sweetening the weeks before.  

1. New Life: As Lent begins, help your children plant crocus, daffodil, or hyacinth bulbs in a bowl of sand, covering halfway.  Leave in a dark closet for two months, keeping soil moist (a process known as forcing bulbs).  When shoots appear, let them bask in the sun.  Don’t forget to leave one bulb unplanted as a reminder of how they began.