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EASTER

Easter- the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

What is Easter?   March 31, 2024

Easter for Christians is not just one day - it's a 50-day period.

The season of Easter, or Eastertide, begins at sunset on the eve of Easter and ends on Pentecost, the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church (see Acts 2). The Easter season is more than just an extended celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.


In the early church, Lent was a season for new converts to learn about the faith and prepare for baptism on Easter Sunday.  The initial purpose of the 50-day Easter season was to continue the faith formation of these new Christians. Today, this extended season gives us time to rejoice and experience what it means when we say Christ is risen.


It’s the season when we remember our baptisms and as “Easter people,” we celebrate and ponder the birth of the Church and gifts of the Spirit (Pentecost), and how we are to live as faithful disciples of Christ.


Explore the resources below to learn more about the new life Christ brings to all and how you can celebrate Easter in your home:


Fr. Bill reads the Easter story

Presiding Bishop Curry's 2023 Easter message

50 Days of Easter - daily meditations by Forward Movement


How can your household sustain this “Easter spirit” of celebration all the way to Pentecost? Here are fifty ways to celebrate the fifty days. But don’t try to do them all! Each week, just pick a few ideas that seem right for you. You’ll be rejoicing long after the last jelly bean is gone!

1. Use a special candle at family meals to recall the light of Christ.

2. Read together from the Easter story: Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20-21.

3. Plan fun household activities—one for every week of Easter.

4. Put up a sign or banner that proclaims, “He is risen!”

5. Was anyone recently joined your church? Have them over.

6. Add an “alleluia” song—or three alleluias—to your grace before meals.

7. Put on an Easter play. Invite relatives and friends to a performance.

8. Make a poster of a life-giving cross. Add paper flowers and leaves to it throughout Easter.

9. Celebrate new life around you, take a picture of something that is blossoming, coming back to life.

10. Keep fresh flowers around.

11. Use the old Easter greeting and response: “Christ is risen! – He is risen indeed!”

12. Visit a lonely neighbor or do some other act of kindness to express thanks for the resurrection.

13. Talk about baptism. Tell stories of family members’ baptisms.

14. Plan an outing to a river, lake, stream, or ocean.

15. Drape a cross hanging on a wall with a strip of white cloth.

16. Make cookies in the shapes of Easter symbols. Freeze some to serve throughout the season.

17. Learn how other cultures celebrate Easter. Try out some of their customs and foods.

18. Make cards announcing the good news of the resurrection.

19. Visit the www.captainsforcleanwater.org to learn how to protect our waters.

20. Visit F.I.S.H or other local agencies and see how you can help them with your time, talent or treasure.

21. Listen to Handel’s Messiah and other Easter music.

22. Read about the Emmaus disciples (Luke 24:13-35); take a walk.

23. Visit www.cathedral.org and watch one of Washington National Cathedral's concerts or worship services.

24. Place a resurrection icon or picture in a place of honor.

25. Discuss what it means to be Christ’s “witnesses” (Luke 24:48)? Help each household member see that their witness matters.

26. Wear more white, or even gold! They’re the season’s special colors.

27. Pray the Daily Office, online at the Society of St. Clare.

28. If your household likes to sing and play instruments, have people over for a musical Easter celebration.

29. Read about the disciples’ amazing catch of fish (John 21:1-14). Then go fishing together.

30. Or imitate Peter, and go swimming (John 21:7).

31. Attend the All Angels Campaign Launch Party the Sunday after Easter to see how our buildings are being resurrected.

32. Talk about how the disciples hid (John 20:19) until the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost. Follow up by playing hide and seek.

33. Plant some seeds.

34. Think about and then act on one way you can help the environment come back to life.

35. Read Luke 24:50-53 or Acts 1:6-11. Ask household members to imagine themselves present at Jesus’ ascension. How would they have felt about it?

36. Watch a movie with an Easter theme.

37. Just before his ascension, Jesus blessed the disciples. Pray Numbers 6:24-26 together as a way of communicating his blessing to one another.

38. On Ascension Thursday, choose a household intention.

39. Add some Pentecost red (for fire) to your Easter decorations.

40. Read Acts 2, the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost. Read it in all the languages family members speak! (See the Bible translations at www.biblegateway.com/languages).

41. Decorate a cake with Pentecost flames and other symbols to celebrate the birthday of the church.

42. Talk about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (see Isaiah 11 and 1 Corinthians 12)

43. Make a Pentecost hanging or mobile that features a dove and tongues of fire.

44. Learn a prayer to the Holy Spirit to use in your family prayer time.

45. Play “twenty questions”: Have someone choose a Bible character or thing from the Easter and Pentecost stories. The group gets twenty questions (yes or no answers only) to guess the right answer.

46. List the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23; Catechism, 1832) on separate slips of paper. Have each household member randomly select a fruit to cultivate.

47. Fly a kite to celebrate the wind of the Holy Spirit.

48. Find ways to make Sunday meals special during the Easter season.

49. Continue the “special Sunday meal” tradition to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection all year.

50. Discuss why Sunday is holy.  Decide how you can keep the Lord’s Day as a household.


Holy Week- The Three Days before Easter

The last week of Lent, Holy Week, remembers the last week of Christ's earthly life, beginning with Palm Sunday's commemoration of Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  It continues with Maundy Thursday, a remembrance of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples and washing their feet, then Good Friday, the day Jesus died on the cross and finally Holy Saturday, the day Jesus spent in the tomb before being resurrected. 

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