Easter celebrations

This is a little too late if you celebrated Easter a few days ago, but for those in the Orthodox church there's plenty of time to get prepared.


We usually go camping at the Easter public holiday time as part of a community of about 150 campers all camped higgledy piggledly all over a cow paddock. How do we bring Easter to this setting?

We take a tea light candle in a holder and we light it at meal times on our little camp table. On Good Friday and Easter Saturday it sits on the table unlit, but on Easter Sunday at breakfast time it glows and flickers in the breeze because Jesus, the light of the world is alive.

We eat hot cross buns only on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Hot cross buns are special Easter food, that are not so special if you've been eating them everyday for the last 6 weeks. Even better is if you make your own hot cross buns so you can be part of the preparation for this special day.

We attempted this when we had a three week old baby. I like seeing the photos of the older two sitting in the bench in their pyjamas, piping crosses on buns. The buns themselves were inedible solid rocks, but the memory of the participation lingers on! I think we'll try it again this year, especially since there won't be hot cross buns in the shops by the time Orthodox Easter comes around.

And we have an Easter egg hunt. As my son pointed out today, I should get hollow eggs, because they represent the empty tomb, and the hunt is like Mary and Jesus' friends coming to find the tomb empty.

We had bacon and eggs and tomato for breakfast on Western Easter a few days ago. My middle daughter told us why we have this for breakfast at Easter (we've never done it before though). The yellow yolk is the son of God risen, the halved tomato is heaven opened up for us through Jesus' resurrection. I don't know about the bacon. I'm sure she could come up with something!

Another cool idea is to take a teacup or goblet. I found some fancy ones at the op shop. Fill it with soil from the garden and plant a candle in the middle. On Easter Thursday soak some wheat grains in warm water. On Good Friday, scatter the seeds on top of the soil, or just underneath. Keep it watered, and well lit and by Easter Sunday the wheat will have sprouted into new life. Light the candle on Easter Sunday because Jesus is alive. If you keep the cup on the dinner table you can watch the wheat grow at each meal.

As part of our kindergarten celebrations, we take two large gumtree sticks from the garden and tie them into a cross. Then we tie autumn leaves and native flowers and foliage we have collected all over them. We take our crosses and go for a walk singing Easter songs all the while, God's not dead, He died upon the cross etc. Then the decorated cross can be 'planted' in the garden. My daughter did this quite naturally without suggestion from me a few years back while we were camping. This year we had big kids join us for our little procession and they loved it too.

And of course for our Easter celebrations we will get dressed in 'special Easter clothes' whatever the kids decide that is, and go to church to light candles and share the bread and wine which is Jesus body broken for us.

The God candle

I chatted with some mums, sans kids, in a noisy Greek restaurant surrounded by 40 bikers who included our husbands. We made a little holy huddle, shouting to be heard about our desire for our kids to live as Christians, dedicated to Christ.

My middle child is very good at making connections between her prayers and God's actions. She remembers what she has asked God for, and tells me when she sees God answer. She has a little round carpet that she calls her prayer mat. She will take it off to a quiet corner and decorate the space with icons, candles, tinsel, a gold goblet, stones and anything that helps her tell a bible story. She has a prayer journal that she places there too.

She has moments where she cannot believe that God loves her because she feels so bad. She knows she does not do the good things she wants to do. She has moments when she is overwhelmed at how sinful the world is, and moments when she is filled with complete joy at the wonderful way God has made things. It is very easy to know your child is developing a relationship with God when they come out with things like this. It's a little harder when they show no interest in prayer, or church, or at 5 or 7 0r 13 just say, "God is dead."

One thing we all did in situations like these, was never give up. We continued to say bedtime prayers with our non participating children, or said grace, or continued to take them to church.

Sometimes we have crazy ideas, like a Saturday night family worship night where the family sits around and sings songs and reads the bible and has little talks about God. I say crazy because despite all those American books that recommend the idea, every person I've met who has suggested it to their partner has not been greeted with enthusiasm. Possibly because it is so contrived. (Feel free to comment if you have found a way to make it work for you. Everyone is open to ideas that work. )

What has worked for us, is little everyday rituals that slip into family life. My all time favourite easy-to-start-with God ritual is what we call, "The God candle." We found a little triangular plate that we sit a big fat candle on. It sits on the dinner table and each night at dinner we light the God candle to remind us that God is always with us, and that He is the light, who chases away the fear we have in the darkness. We have a candle snuffer, and whoever snuffs out the candle says a short prayer.

At night time when the kids are scared of the dark, we pray, we sing, "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal , Have mercy on us," we ask God to lock up the scary things and send them away ande I leave the God candle flickering away on a cleared, high shelf.

Morning Prayer

My girls do not like getting out of bed. No one in our household has ever been an earlier riser, (except no.1 son, who knew he had to lie still in Mum's bed until 8 - 0 - 0 was on the clock.)

I go into the girls' bedroom and kiss them on the head. When they stir they get a cuddle. I lift them out of bed. The youngest puts her little arms around my neck, the oldest feigns sleep, and I carry them to chairs in the lounge room. They bury their heads down in the cushions and put their tails in the air. I do have a photo...

I've been reading "7 times the sun," a Steiner inspired book about developing everyday rituals with your kids. There are various short rhyming verses included to say as part of a morning ritual, but to me only welcoming the sun seemed to be lacking in depth, and any true meaning. I've been half heartedly keeping my ears open for a little verse that better expressed a thankfulness to God. I couldn't work out either just when to say this verse without making it all a bit contrived. How could I make it a natural part of the morning?

This morning the girls were snuggled into their chairs, one either side of our little prayer corner book shelf. I stood in between them and started my morning prayers. I looked down and wondered. Then I read aloud, "Arising from sleep, I thank you, O Most Holy Trinity, that for the sake of Your great kindness and longsuffering, you have not had indignation against my, for I am slothful and sinful...You have shown your customary love for mankind, and raised me up as I lay in heedlessness, that I might sing my morning hymn and glorify your sovereignty..."

I did wonder if I should translate into kiddie language, but mostly I left it.

I finished the rest of the prayers silently as the girls slowly started talking.

This evening as I put them to bed (the second time. The first time I was cross at them for not putting away their game like I had asked. I thought I should go back and do it gently) they asked, "Can you say one of those prayers like we said this morning?"

It was another moment to be stuck on the fridge, this time for me, to remember that, "Yay, I did something right. I did something that impacted on them. I have helped them want to pray."

We finished our thankyou prayers, and our please help prayers, and I tried to recite the little blessing for the mother of God, "Truly it is right to bless you, ever blessed and most pure Mother of our God. More honourable than the cherubim, and more glorious than the seraphim, in purity you gave birth to God the Word; True Mother of God, we magnify you.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

God bless you.