Family Easter Celebrations and Traditions
Ideas for Christian, Spiritual and Secular Easter Holidays
Mar 31, 2009
Easter is a time to celebrate rebirth and renewal, and it is possible to create meaningful family traditions for celebrating Easter whether you are religious or not. Here are some ideas to help you plan a family Easter celebration this year.
Christian Easter Celebrations
Easter is both a sombre and joyful Christian holiday, with the funereal tone of Good Friday offset by the jubilant excitement of Easter Morning. If you can, try to expose children to both aspects of your Christian Easter celebrations by attending both Good Friday and Easter Sunday services. Talking with your kids before and after can help them understand why rebirth is so meaningful when it follows death. Linking these concepts to real experiences of death and rebirth that children might have experienced, such as the passing of a relative or how flowers and leaves die in the winter and emerge again in the spring, can help increase children's appreciation of the Christian perspective of the Easter holiday.
Spiritual Easter Celebrations
Some families may wish to include spiritual aspects in their Easter celebrations without attending traditional Christian religious services. One of the best ways to appreciate rebirth and renewal is to take a family walk together in a park or nature reserve and observe the evidence of new life that spring brings. This could be melting snow, budding leaves on trees, baby wildlife, the warmth of the sun or daffodils blooming. Easter is also a great time to start digging in your garden together or planting herbs or lettuce in containers on your porch or seed trays in your window. Kids love to get their hands dirty planting seeds and can become devoted to checking back every day to see whether their seeds have sprouted yet.
Secular Easter Celebrations
Of course, the traditional secular celebration of Easter for children is the arrival of the Easter Bunny with his basket of chocolate treats. Parents can modify this tradition to suit their own tastes by switching out chocolate eggs for hardboiled ones or organizing an easter egg hunt where the plastic eggs are filled with tiny toys instead of jellybeans. Children can also decorate their own baskets to use during the egg hunt by attaching ribbons, paper flowers and glitter glue. Other family Easter traditions include buying new clothes to wear on Easter morning, eating hot cross buns and dyeing and decorating hardboiled eggs.
Whether you choose to celebrate Easter in one or all of these traditions, celebrating holidays with traditional activities helps children and adults mark the passing of the year and creates lasting memories. Whether you are Christian, spiritual or secular, there are meaningful and fun Easter traditions for your family. Have fun and Happy Easter!
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