Easter celebrations

[DanceswithGod]

How do you celebrate Easter with your children?

[His Bride]

My children are grown now, but when they were growing up we celebrated both Easter and Christmas with the emphasis on our Lord.

On Easter we go to worship with other believers, being grateful for our lives purchased at the cross. We worship because our God is alive and preparing a place for us. We ususally have a wonderful meal together, with family. We have seldom done Easter baskets and Easter egg hunts, etc. We do include a fair amount of chocolate, however.

[DanceswithGod]

Does anyone do anything with your kids on Good Friday? Does anyone commemorate His death, the death of our sin? And if so, how? What do you do? I don't want it to just be a day off of school, let's go spend money and eat at McDonald's.

[moonglow]

On Thursday's we usually go to the Maundy Thursday event at my mom's church they have every year. Which we did last night...right after dodge ball...lol...that was a rush getting there on time! There are readings from scripture about how the first Passover meal came to be in the OT, which is what Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate that week..Passover. We all sit at tables set up like a cross and in front of each of us are small samples of the foods they ate then. Unleaven bread also. They read scriptures explain everything, have songs throughout it all..its really neat. When they get to the part where He washed the feet of His disciples they have us all stand and turn away from the table and a deacon come and wipes our hands...(just not enough time to do everything exactly you know) Then it leads up to the reading of the scriptures where Jesus broke the bread and poured each disciples the wine representing His body and blood. Then as we walk out we sing The old rugged cross.

On Friday's I try to find a church around here having a Passion Play if possible to take my son too. Around here for as many churches as we have you would think that would be an easy task to do! But not so. Only two churches usually have something like that and not every year. Last time we tried to go to one so many showed up we had to go to the overflow room where they were going to have us watch it on a big screen..the show in the sanctuary...but something went wrong with the camera and we couldn't watch it so we all have to leave. :( At this other church they use a smoke machine for special effects and alot of incense...which is really hard on my allergies and my son's too so I haven't gone there for awhile. This year they are showing the movie The Passion of Christ...well I have it so why go there to watch it? :hmm: The other church is having something tonight...not exactly a Passion play..but I thought I would go and check it out...depending on how I feel...I am coming down with a sinus infection so that is kind of iffy right now. We might just watch the Passion of the Christ here at home.

On Sunday we will go to church with my mom and her husband then my sisters and their families will come up here for an Easter dinner...the kids are all getting a little old for Easter egg hunts but one of my sisters has a two year old grandson so they might do that for him and the older kids can help him find the eggs. In the evening if its on, then I like to watch the Ten Commandments movie. :) My very favorite thing to end the whole event. :)

I was raised with the whole Easter Bunny and basket thing even though my parents did attend church...everyone did this and no one thought a thing of it. I had no idea about the connection of the pagan event until I came on this board. We never 'worshiped' any pagan god doing this...it was just a fun thing for the children and the eggs symbolized a New birth in Christ. After finding out about all of that I still felt that there was no harm in it so we kept dying eggs and would write using the wax pen, He has Risen on them...things like that. I would use the same easter basket every year and put a picture of Jesus in it along with a little candy and a few toys and wrap it up and have it sitting out here for my son on Easter morning before going to church. This year he is 13 so I don't know he would want an Easter basket...lol. He didn't want to dye eggs last year and not this year...so I don't know..all that might be skipped this year.

Anyway that is the kind of stuff we do. :)

God bless

[sunsetssplendor]

Saturday morning is an egg hunt at church.

Saturday evening is church and afterwards we dye eggs together.

Sunday morning they open Easter baskets and dh and I prepare dinner.

[Followtheway]

You dont celebrate Easter since it is a pagan holiday to celebrate the fertility goddess Eostre. We as followers of Christ are to follow Passover.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (New International Version)

6Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

Christ Died as our passover lamb on wednesday morning (on the jewish calendar) not friday and was raised sunday night (on jewish calendar)

Messiah Jesus was also not born in December he was born during the feast of tabernacles which is in September/October. Christmas is the celebration of Mithras which was entered in by the Romans.

[AmyFlorida]

Our Easter weekend was wonderful. Saturday, I got up and made a pancake breakfast for my four year old daughter. (This is an occasion, as I generally use the stove as a storage cabinet, LOL...) After various household chores, we went and got stockings/shoes for our Easter outfits, hair ribbons, etc. I'm a single mom, so there's not a lot of money to play with, but we've been planning for Easter and this year each of us got a new dress. My daughter also got a pair of tights (we lived in Florida so she's NEVER worn them and thought they were very grown up.) We had our first experience with her colorint eggs, then went to dinner at my Mom's on Saturday night. Sunday morning my little girl was about to burst she was so excited! We put on our new dresses, and she had an Easter bonnet, took pictures and then off to church we went all dressed up. I love my church....LOVE it! We had the most fantastic worship service, which included a video production showing some footage from The Passion of Christ (I've never seen it), wow, was that powerful! We came home, had an egg hunt, and went to the beach for the afternoon. I've been thanking God off and on all day, there's just something so wonderfully joyful about setting this day aside for remembering the victory of our Savior over death and hell, and giving us eternity with Him. I love that our church today was filled front to back, side to side, with lots of faces I didn't recognize. For the "two day a year churchgoers", it put a lot of people in a place to hear the Gospel who wouldn't normally have been there. The praise and worship part of the service is always fantastic, but there seems to be something deeper, more from the heart on a day like today. :hug: I felt like I'd been given a big ol' hug from God. What a fabulous day!