7 Ways for Your Family to Experience the REAL Easter
Did you know that bunnies and chicks have nothing to do with Easter?
What a surprise!
Yes, I know that they are the focus of most Easter celebrations. They are comfortable and cute … unlike the cross and death at the center of the real Easter.
What Jesus accomplished on the cross is the pivotal moment in all of history, the greatest victory of all. As Easter week approaches, here are seven ways to make Holy Week and Easter Sunday meaningful, memorable, and worthy of the attention and celebration the Resurrection deserves.
1. Have your kids reenact Palm Sunday. Help them use fabric or construction paper for costumes and palm branches. Make a Hosanna banner to hang across the fireplace mantle or a doorway of your living room for the performance. Review the story in Matthew 21:1-11 to find roles each family member can enact. Then have an adult read the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry as the children act it out, and end with a prayer of gratitude.
2. Buy seven 3-inch pillar candles and then purchase and download the DIY candle wraps in our ETSY store to apply to the candles. Arrange them down the center of your table or along a fireplace mantle or on a tray in your kitchen.
During Holy Week follow these steps for meaningful daily devotions beginning on Palm Sunday:
On Palm Sunday light all the candles (1-6) except the seventh that says, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.” On this day read John 6:35, 51. Talk together about what it means that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Then blow out all the candles.
On Monday, light candles 2-6 (all but the Bread of Life and the Resurrection and the Life). Read John 8:12 and talk together about why it’s important that Jesus is the Light of the World. Pray and then blow out the candles.
On Tuesday, light four candles (3-6), then read John 10:9. Talk about doors and why we need them and how Jesus is like a door. Why did He describe Himself that way? Then blow out the candles.
On Wednesday, light three candles (4-6), read John 10:14-15 and talk together about Jesus as our Good Shepherd. Pray and extinguish your candles.
Thursday’s Scripture is John 15:1 and 5. After lighting two candles (5-6), talk about vines, how grapes grow on vines, and what they need to flourish. How is Jesus like a vine? Pray again together and blow out the candles.
On Good Friday light the remaining candle and read John 14:6. This verse contains a trinity of names Jesus uses for Himself. Talk about what they all mean to us as His disciples. Pray together and blow out the candle. It is a somber day worth our honor and remembrance.
On Silent Saturday, light no candles, and if you plan ahead, buy a piece of black fabric to drape over your row of candles to symbolize the death of the light of the world.
On Resurrection Day light all seven candles and read John 11:25. Make this a day of celebration and joy, for the greatest miracle of all time has accomplished our salvation!
3. Use Resurrection Eggs to help your kids learn about Easter. God has used this resource to help millions of children understand the Easter story.
4. Watch the film Jesus together during Holy Week to feed our image-driven minds a picture of the awe-inspiring life of Jesus as He taught, loved, healed, and then died for you and me. The film is free for streaming online at jesusfilm.org.
5. Attend a Good Friday service. If your church doesn’t have one, go to another local church’s services. Gathering with other believers in a time of reflection and truth of what Jesus did for us the day He died on the cross will add greatly to your Easter experience.
6. Make Silent Saturday a day of mourning. Keep your blinds pulled or lights off all day to remind everyone that the Light of the World was extinguished on the cross. Help your family feel a sense of the loss and devastation the disciples felt the day after their Savior had died.
7. Celebrate BIG on Easter Sunday! Wear all white to remember our heavenly attire one day and to symbolize we have been washed white as snow by the blood of the Lamb.
Plan a beautiful table setting with an all-white table, using the seven candles mentioned in idea number two above. Use lots of red rose petals on your table to represent His blood during Holy Week. Place vases of white roses or tulips on your table early Sunday morning to declare “Christ is risen” to everyone present!
End your Easter gathering with friends and family for a party with lots of balloons, sparklers, music, or any kind of festivities you can imagine.
Resurrection Sunday is the greatest celebration of all for believers in Jesus. Without the cross we would have no hope and Christmas would be meaningless. Because of what Jesus accomplished for us, let’s celebrate and worship with exuberance so all the world knows Jesus is alive forevermore!
Be sure to visit our Etsy store for different Easter resources to help you focus on the real meaning of Easter!
The candle devotion through Holy Week? Absolutely brilliant. A simple but powerful ritual that even children can feel. I loved your reminder that the true colors of Easter are red, white, and gold—not pastel distractions. That contrast hit me hard. So many of us have inherited a watered-down Easter, but this post reminded me to pass on something truer and more sacred.
I loved your suggestions . I did not discover this until the week after Easter but hope to follow it myself next year. I do think that the addition of a Maundy Thursday service and explanation is critical to this schedule.