Holy Week
Holy Week is an exciting time and I hope to give your families ideas about how to keep God at the center of this week and have family-friendly fun.
Supplies:
- Resurrection Eggs
Lynchburg Store
Palm Sunday
Scripture Reading: Mark 11:1-11
Connection: Palm Sunday is a marvelous way to initiate Holy Week. Sunday is a day of rest, enjoying family, and time to worship the Lord. In the story of Palm Sunday, town citizens gave Jesus the greatest respect as they laid down their coats and palm branches to welcome Jesus to their town.
Supplies:
- Resurrection Eggs
Activity: Today as a family, look for ways to decorate your house for Easter week. In your decorations make sure to include a palm tree. One idea for decoration is you can use window paint and give the illusion of Stain Glass. Then Open the first Resurrection Egg, it will be the teal egg containing the Donkey. Following opening the egg, read the part of the booklet that goes with the donkey.
Monday
Scripture Reading: Mark 11:12-19
Connection: Jesus was outraged at what was happening in the Temple. Jesus said “‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Today is a good day to work on making your home into a house of prayer.
Supplies:
- Plastic Eggs
- Some kind of treat to put in the eggs
- Sheets of paper or cards
Activity: Today, think of a few families you want to reach out to and ask to pray for them. Decide how many eggs you would like to devote to each family, then put treats in all of the eggs but one. This is called “egging”. Then write on a notecard, “You have been “egged”. We have hidden ___ number of eggs in your yard. Do not be discouraged when you find an empty egg. It is a reminder that the tomb is empty and our Savior has risen. Happy Holy Week! Please let us know how we can pray for you this week. Love, (insert names). Then as a family hide the eggs in the family’s yards and leave the note at the door. Hopefully, families will text you with a prayer request. Then put the prayer request on your palm tree. Throughout the week, work with your child to be intentional with prayer. Children will have a visual reminder of the prayer requests that are happening to their loved ones and their community. Thus taking steps to establish your home as a place of prayer.
Tuesday
Scripture Reading: Psalm 19:1, Psalm 150, 2 Corinthians 5:17
Connection: March 20 is the first official day of Spring, which makes April the first official month of Spring. This is a time of year for new life as the plants blossom and animals come out of their deep slumber. Nature serves as a testimonial of God’s love to us; just as spring causes rebirth in nature, we have the opportunity to be reborn through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”.
Supplies:
- Twine or String
- Tale of the Three Trees
Activity: Today, find a nature trail and go for a walk with your child. Look for ways to talk with your little one about God’s handiwork. On your walk have your youngster pick up sticks and then use the twine or string to tie the sticks and create a cross.
Wednesday
Scripture Reading: Mark 14:3–11
Connection: We are returning to Jesus’s final Days. In this story, we see a woman honor Jesus by anointing him with expensive oils. Then we see Judas betray Jesus. As Jesus’s death is looming, people are handling it very differently.
Have you ever wondered why individuals dye Eggs on Easter? This is a tradition that goes back over 1,000 years from Mesopotamia. The Greek Orthodox Church adopted the tradition and the eggs spread through Europe and eventually to America. The eggs portray the tomb and resurrection. Often these eggs were dyed red to illustrate Jesus’s blood spilled for us and the shell is the tomb. After the eggs are dyed, they are cracked while someone says “Christ has Risen” and the second person agrees.
Supplies:
- Eggs
- Egg Die Kit
- Resurrection Eggs
Activity: Today is a great day to dye eggs and talk about how Jesus’s sacrifice is observed in many ways. While the Greek Orthodox dyed eggs, many Catholics around the world are going to church and having ash crosses put on their forehead, thus today is called “Ash Wednesday”. The next thing you can do is to open the pink egg and read the page that goes along with it. The pink egg conceals silver coins.
Thursday
Scripture Reading: Mark 14:12–72
Connection: The Last Supper took place during an important Jewish Holiday, Passover. Passover observes the historical event of God delivering the Jewish people out of the oppressive hands of the Egyptians. This story can be found in Exodus 12, the Lord gave detailed instructions on how this festival should be observed. One such instruction is unleavened bread; this means the bread is prepared without a rising agent, for example, yeast. The Twelve disciples were Jewish and would have participated each year in the Passover celebration. The last supper took place at the start of this seven-day celebration. In this celebration they would sit together and enjoy a meal, while remembering and praising God for his deliverance out of Egypt, in just one short day Jesus would deliver us from an evil worse than Egypt… Sin.
Supplies:
- Grape Juice
- Unleavened Bread Supplies
- Resurrection Eggs
Activity: A way to commemorate this day is by making unleavened bread as a family. There are many wonderful recipes you can find on Pinterest. Using the unleavened bread, take Communion as a family. This would be a great time for the scripture reading for the day. Then have your child open the next eggs. The light purple egg contained the cup and an orange egg which enclosed the praying hands.
Friday
Scripture Reading: Mark 15
Connection: In many countries all over the world, Hot Cross Buns are served on Good Friday. The recipe is believed to first belong to pagan communities but was adopted by Christian Communities. On top of the buns, a cross is baked into the bun and spices are added. Spices are said to symbolize how bodies were preserved by spices after death. Mark 15 covers the death of Jesus and the events of the day many know as “Good Friday”.
Supplies:
- Hot Cross Buns ingredients
- Resurrection Eggs
Activity: There are many great Hot Cross Bun recipes that can be found online. Then while they are cooking, there is a fun Nursey rhyme that can be sung. Children can clap while they sing the verse below.
Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns, One ha’penny, Two ha’pennies, Hot Cross Buns!
If you have no daughters, Give them to your sons,
One ha’penny, Two ha’pennies, Hot Cross Buns.
Have your child get the next eggs, green, yellow, light orange, light green, purple, and light blue. These eggs contain a whip, a rooster, a crown of thorns, nails in the cross, a spear, and a linen cloth.
Saturday
Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:62–66, Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Connection: In this part of the story, individuals make certain that a heist of Jesus’s body cannot take place. Many people had heard Jesus proclaim that he was going to rise from the dead after three days, and they wanted to make sure that could not happen. Meanwhile, the Jewish people are still celebrating Passover. The Jewish people are waiting for a Messiah just as they read about in their Torah (The Jewish Holy Book). In Isaiah, the Messiah’s death is prophesied and Jesus fulfills these accounts.
Supplies:
- Sedar Meal Ingredients
Activity: A Sedar meal is a traditional Passover Meal. This is a multistep dinner that includes traditional Jewish dishes and stories from the Old Testament. There are churches in the community that holds Sedar dinners and would love to host your family. If you want to host a dinner for your family the link below includes what happens in a traditional Sedar.
Sunday
Scripture Reading: Mark 16:1–8
Connection: Christ has Risen from the grave. Today is a celebration that even death could not defeat our God.
Supplies:
- Resurrection Eggs
- Jellybeans
- Envelope
- Bleach
- Food Coloring
- Water
- Clear Glass Container
Activity: Today is a day to celebrate by going to church and observing the day with family. There are a few ways to keep today focused on Christ. One way is through the Easter Egg Hunt, you can put verses about Jesus in the eggs along with the treat. Another way is through a Jellybean prayer. You will need Jellybeans in an envelope. You will need one Jellybean of red, green, yellow, orange, black, white, purple, and pink. Then on the outside write the poem below.
Red is for the blood Jesus shed,
Green is for new life ahead.
Yellow is for God’s Light so bright,
Orange is for the edge of night.
Black is for the sins we’ve made,
White is for the grace he gave.
Purple is for his hour of sorrow,
Pink is for our new tomorrow.
A jar of jelly beans, colorful and sweet,
Is a prayer, a promise, a special treat.
Make sure that you open the last two eggs, they should be dark pink and white. The pink egg contains a stone and the white egg is empty.
The last activity is a fun science experiment to show kids what Jesus did for us. This show how Jesus’s sacrifice washed away our sins. The link below will give detailed instructions.
https://www.amoderndayfairytale.net/2015/03/disappearing-sin-easter-science.html
Small World, Big Stories 