I love Easter.
I have such fond nostalgia associated with this holiday. Tulips and daffodils popping up throughout the neighborhood, the always surprising excitement of spotting a successfully flown kite at the park near our house, coming home from school to find that mom had put up the ceramic pastel egg basket and the tall Beatrice Potter-inspired bunny with the vintage dress…we always knew when Easter was close.
To this day I still feel that giddy anticipation when the air starts warming up just enough to allow the emergence of life, calling children to run through the crunch and sop of matted down, yellow-green grass, still soggy from snow, just to be outside.
Though I’m a little miffed that some things have changed since I was a little girl. Like egg dying kits. When did we get so fancy and ornate? Glitter kits, marbelizng kits, tie-dye kits. And that’s before the impossible standard set once you take a gander through Pinterest during the month of March. Good grief. Silk tie transfered eggs? Ain’t nobody got time for that! Maybe someday, without a newborn on the scene:).
It always saddens me a bit to realize that certain things just don’t stay the same. Life is changing so rapidly that I often find myself pining for how things used to be and grasping a little too tightly onto the traditions I cherished as a child. On the other hand, some changes are good! Like paper grass for baskets instead of that awful static-prone stuff that never seemed to completely go away before Halloween.
One positive change in particular that has taken place in our home is the recent refocusing of the Easter holiday in general. As I grew into an adult, it always kind of bothered me that my most prominent memories of Easter were the secular aspects of the holiday. So as I began molding my own children’s memories I have tried very hard to incorporate the Savior into our traditions, not just as a side-note or asterisk, but as the centerpiece of our celebrations. To be honest, this undertaking is still a work in progress. Because I am also attempting to balance the “fun” with the spiritual, making sure to preserve things like the smell of vinegar and the stain of indigo dye on our fingers as my children and I color eggs at the counter, I have not yet perfected this feat.
However, let me acquaint you with one key component of our latest efforts:
The giant egg.
I want my children to have a knowledge of what took place during Holy Week. So every night starting with Palm Sunday, the kids open this oversized egg to find an item or two that relates to an event that took place on that corresponding day leading up to the original Easter Sunday. For example, for Palm Sunday I put in palm leaves (from Hobby Lobby) and on Thursday I put in matza or pita chips to represent the unleavened bread eaten at the Passover meal. I usually have them open the egg either at dinner or during our scripture time. The kids take turns during the week being the one who gets to open the egg. Once the egg is opened, we discuss what the item relates to, talk about the significance of the event, and read about the event from the scriptures. I try to vary the items and stories each year to maintain interest, which makes it the perfect opportunity for me to review the events and their significance. It draws me closer to my Savior and increases my gratitude for His incredible life, sacrifice, and resurrection. And hopefully, in between bickering over who’s turn it is to open the egg and declarations of “I’m not eating that” (are fig newtons really that bad?), my boys will begin to cherish the spiritual memories they are creating as well as the secular ones.