Holy Week
For our family, yesterday marked the beginning of our Holy Week celebration. Over the past few years, we have begun to make Passover a key part of that celebration for our family. We know that Passover and Easter frequently do not line up on our calendars, HOWEVER, several years ago they did.
That week – the week of honoring Passover right before Easter made both of the holidays so much richer and more precious. Since then, we have chosen to line them up. So, for our family we will be celebrating Passover on Thursday, followed by Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And when we reach Monday next week, by the grace of Father, my children’s understanding of the import and need for the Cross will have grown some more….as will my own.
Blessed Holy Week to all!
(If you’ve got time, I’d love to hear how your family will be celebrating Holy Week. AND we are re-writing our Haggadah AGAIN this year. This time to accommodate a pwecoshus two year old who would NEVER make it through our “normal” plan. Or maybe it’s the Mom of the two year old who would never make it through the two year old making it through the whole liturgy. 😀 Either way, if you would like a copy of it, let me know – once I finish it – hopefully today – I will happily share it with you.)
Java Dawn 
I would love a copy, Dawn.
Thanks!
No problem-o!!! We had an emergency request for an ebook for this evening, so it’s gotten shoved to the back burner, so it may be tomorrow before I can have it done, but I’ll pop one off to you as soon as I finish it.
Just don’t let your son make Apple pie for desert. 😉 (I loved that btw!!! I hope Danica adequately communicated our enjoyment of it. We all just ROLLED)
How fortuitous! I was just going to email you and ask you if you would ming sharing your Haggadah. Last year we did Passover easter week (or was it the week before….it was right before easter either way.) because that’s when it fell. It was our first year. We have gone back and forth this year on when we are doing it, and have opted for the Jewish calender. (Partly because Purim is this week, which we have also wanted to start doing. Esther is one of those books we are just drawn to over and over and over again. Keeping it really really simple- dressing in costume, reading Esther, and maybe putting together some little treats to share with friends. Next year hope to add a few more things).
All that to say, can I see both your before and after Haggadah?
Easter is really sneaking up on me too fast this year. I don’t have any plans for Holy week yet. I just finished dishes from the big Saint Patricks Day feast. Hey! I married and Irishman it is required.
I will have to ponder this more.
Blessings,
~Margie
we did a Palm Sunday / Good Friday service (1st half / second half) on Sunday as a church. We are reading through Benjamin’s Box with the kiddos.
Thursday we do passover at our house (with our church, there’ll be about 20 of us).
Friday morning we’ll have hot Cross Buns (my mom’s tradition for Easter morning which I moved)
And we’ll make the Resurrection Cookies Saturday night / Sunday morning.
That’s about it. I wanted to do a whole Holy Week thing, but didn’t get my act together… but we are painting our dining room / kitchen… priorities (insert rolled eyes)
Lynn & Tiff – Haggadah sent. Let me know if you have any problems receiving it. 🙂
ReneeGrace, I’m coming to your house – with 20 already there, you wouldn’t notice 9 more would you? 😀 😀 (And I love the idea of Hot Cross Buns! That is wonderful!!)
This year, for the first time in ages, my kiddos are going to have colored eggs around Easter. 😆 We usually just have them for the first of spring. SO, we’ll be doing our eggs tonight for breakfast for tomorrow.
Jeff and I have been contemplating what to do for Good Friday – normally we take our Christmas tree and strip the branches and turn it into a cross for Good Friday, but an over eager street worker saw our tree up by the garage and jumped out of the truck and threw it in the shredder.
SO much for that idea. 😀 SO, we’re feeling a little….lost.
For Good Friday this year we are going to our Churches Tenebrae Service (Service of Darkness). The girls did so well on Christmas Eve, that we are going to give it a shot. It is rather somber of course, but with a couple of books, a good flannel graph, and some altoids, I think we can do it. (Tell me, do they make a crucifixion flannel graph?? I mean, I have a passover one, but it isn’t of the actually slaughtering of the sheep or the death of the first born….hmm…..)
Got the email, thanks so much. Don’t worry about the previous ones, really not a big deal. Ours last year worked well, VERY VERY simple. The hit of the night was when Ana’el got to dip her fingers in her wine and take the drops out- I think to her that sealed the coolness of Passover. She is really excited for it this year and keeps asking when it is.
Dawn, hope you find something that is beautiful, and beneficial, and brings glory to Him for this good Good Friday. 🙂
Do you all do anything for Purim? Tomorrow will be our first year-really excited.
Thanks Tiff, I hope so too!
We have done Purim, on a vary scant scale, but obviously we won’t attempt to do that this year, with us celebrating Passover at that same time.
I keep telling the children that I’d like to use this time to make goodies for our neighbors, instead of at Christmas. They wouldn’t understand it, but we’d enjoy it. (But, since we have predominantly elderly neighbors, we want to be considerate of them – and I assure you, they don’t understand our Jewish tendencies as it is.) 😆
We homeschool so every year during Holy Week we take a break from our normal Bible Study & school lessons and focus on the scriptures a little more deeply.
This year my husband has been able to participate so that has added a new flavor.
In our morning Bible time the kids & I cover the OT prophesies for the event that my husband will cover from the NT that evening. I give the kids a special assignment to have completed and share during our evening devotions.
Monday, they were to write an essay, poem or a song describing what Jesus meant to them. I was impressed with what they brought back. My son sang a song on his guitar, my daughter took 1 Corinthians 13 and added various names of God in the place of the word love.
My hope has been to bring these stories that they hear every year onto a personal level for them. To make them think about what Jesus did for them, not just anyone, but for them personally.
We had hoped to have a passover meal, but that didn’t happen. We will make our resurrection rolls on Saturday night. The kids enjoy it & I know that they have a better understanding about Easter than I did when I was their age.
Dana, that is SO cool. I hope you’re recording their things – a song? WOWZA. We have songs that the kids or mostly Jeff have written that have become family worship songs. We love that!
If you decide you want to “throw” a Passover meal together for tonight – it’s not that hard, you’d need parsley or lettuce, (we’ve used both) apples, grape juice, matzoh, salt and horseradish. (honey is good, but not needful) Other than that, you could just serve dinner. You wouldn’t need to mess with gefelte fish or anything like that. 😀
And if you want it, I’ll send you our abbreviated Haggadah. When the kids were all a little bigger, we used our “regular” service, but we rewrote it again this year (we’ve rewritten it now, through the years, about 10 times LOL) to accommodate a busy 2 yr old. It’s as simple as it’s ever been.
I know that Holy Week is over now, but yes…send me your Haggadah. I can plan for it next year. Thanks!!
I’d like a copy as well to plan for next year, the one we used last year was – well we didn’t end up doing it again this year. Thanks for your willingness to share.
Dana & Wendy – I will send those out in the morning. (Sorry- I’m up past my bedtime and I have a toddler on my lap that is too.) :O
You know, Saturday night is the first night of Passover. You could still pull it off, if you’re ambitious. 😉