Easter Countdown

For several years I’ve meant to write more descriptively about our Easter countdown. It’s an important family ritual. I remember that I did it for the first time when my daughter was in kindergarten, and I’d seen “Resurrection Eggs” in Walmart. “Hmm,” I said to myself. “That’s a good idea. But I’ll bet I could do it more cheaply by gathering the items myself.”

When all was said and done I had abandoned the eggs idea altogether because as you can see, my objects are all different sizes. It had also cost me more, not less, than the Walmart version. But of course when you make something yourself it means a lot. Especially when I remember that first year, when my daughter realized what Jesus had gone through for us. “That’s terrible!” she exclaimed, and studied my face carefully, looking for evidence that it was indeed terrible.

Talk about teachable moments. Talk about having influence. It was a pivotal moment in the till then abstract stirrings about the viability of home education. I knew then and there that I wanted to play a role not just in imparting knowledge, but in conveying its relative importance in the overall structure of life.

Each year since then, even as the girls have grown older, they have remembered and looked forward to this week of readings and revisitings of what I suppose I could call homespun icons. Some of them have been made out of clay, or foraged out of toyboxes, for the purpose. These are the visible things we touch and think about as we read of Jesus’s last week. There are a lot of events packed in there, and you could choose different ones to focus on, or take them in a different order.

Our way is slightly haphazard. I have never written it out before, so every year we choose the Scriptures to read, and they may not always have included these same ones. They vary greatly in length. Sometimes we talk about them; sometimes we just read them. It depends on whether anyone has questions. But here is the gist:

Day 1: Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

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Monday: Matthew 21: 12-17

Clearing the Temple

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Tuesday: Matthew 26: 6-13

Anointing of Jesus’s feet with perfume

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Wednesday: Matthew 26: 14-16

Judas agrees to betray Jesus

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Thursday: Matthew 26: 20-30, John 1: 29 (Ref. to Ex. 12)

Passover

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Good Friday: Matthew 26:31-74; John 18: 28-19:37

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Saturday: Matthew 27: 57-66; John 3:16

Jesus laid in the tomb

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Easter Sunday: Mark 16:1-8, John 20: 1-18, Rev. 19: 11-16

The Resurrection!

I usually put out a second angel with arms raised in victory, too. She stands for us!

I wrote this post earlier this week and it’s been sitting in my drafts folder. Maybe I’m afraid of ruining our tradition by making it more public like this. But I’ve been moved lately by things I’ve read about the importance of returning to these familiar stories with our children… all those times the Israelites remember, or fail to remember, God’s works on their behalf. All those rituals of remembrance. This is one way to keep the most important story Christians have to tell at the forefront of our consciousness in this week of weeks. My daughters are getting older, and we will need to find new ways to tell and retell the story. But this has been one way we’ve shared in the mystery, horror, and wonder of this holy season.