Make Holy Week Special

Make Holy Week special. Take advantage of the traditions of your denomination for celebrating Holy Week. Take steps to indicate that this is not life as usual, but a special time set apart. Do that through what you eat, what you do in the evenings, what you talk about, and what you do upon waking and going to sleep. For example, you might set aside an evening to read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Passion and Death. Encourage your local church to try to involve younger people in any Holy Week ceremonies, and prepare your children for such participation by explaining what the symbols and readings mean to you.

If you know of Easter and Holy Week traditions from your ethnic heritage, introduce them to your children. Many families decorate eggs—symbols of the Resurrection—or put together Easter baskets that will be blessed at church. Many churches have services that are filled with meaningful symbols—like light shining forth in the darkness that cannot overcome it—and those rituals speak volumes directly to your child’s heart. The story of Jesus’ suffering and Death are at the heart of Christian faith. They are at the heart of our very existence and meaning. It’s easy to be too busy or too distracted to attend to these rites and lessons. But we deprive our children of life and meaning when we do so.