Everything You Need to Know about Lent and Easter
We’ve got a whole series of resources for you and your family to tap into this season. Here’s a roundup of some of Minno Life’s most popular posts on Lent and Easter.
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Everything You Need to Know About Lent and Easter
What is Lent?
Lent is the season of fasting and self-denial observed by many Christians in the days preceding Easter Sunday each year. The word “Lent” comes from a word meaning “lengthening days,” with the Lenten season consisting of forty fast days as days lengthen in early spring.
Talking to Your Kids about Lent and Fasting
On the heels of Christmas, Lent can feel like a tough sell to kids. However, it’s a great opportunity to talk about the deeper parts of our faith, and to recalibrate their perspectives. That’s why, depending on the age of your kids, Lent can be a great tradition to incorporate into your family.
Teaching Our Kids to Wait for Easter
When it comes to Easter, Christians have historically followed a certain rhythm. Lent was a season of fasting and repentance. Then came Holy Week, when we remember Jesus’ final days on earth. The mourning of this week culminated with Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ death.
Simple Ways to Observe Lent as a Family
Five simple Lent and Easter activities for families. Use one (or a few) of these ideas to connect and grow this season.
A Lent Craft for Kids: The Jellybean Prayer Jar
Whether or not your family partakes in Lent, the time leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection can be filled with many kid-friendly activities that will teach them about God’s love in action. For those of us who do practice fasting, prayer and almsgiving during these 40 days before Easter, coming up with a feasible fast for a child in which a deeper meaning can be taught is tricky! The Jellybean Prayer, mentioned last week by one of our Facebook friends, is an activity which my family has absolutely LOVED doing this past week! It’s the perfect Lent craft for kids.
Have you ever wondered why people tend to eat pancakes on the day before Ash Wednesday? Believers around the world celebrate Shrove Tuesday each year and if you’ve never celebrated it yourself, read below to learn what Shrove Tuesday is and how you can celebrate it with your family.
Choosing Structure as Freedom: Reflections on Lent
Lent. It’s the season of giving up, sacrificing, preparing. During “Lententide,” we turn our eyes and our hearts more fully towards Christ and the cross in anticipation of Easter Sunday coming soon.
What is Holy Week?
What are the Days of Holy Week?
Holy Week recounts the final days of Jesus’ life including his death, burial, and resurrection. Discover the history of honoring Holy Week and more details about Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday.
Holy Week marks the final week of the season of Lent and it recounts the final days of Christ’s life, as well as his death, burial, and resurrection.
How to Talk to Your Kids about Palm Sunday
In telling this story to children, it is easy to get caught up in the cute green construction-paper palm branches and little voices shouting “Hosanna.” But I think there is more to this story for our children to learn. Here are a few ideas about how to talk to your kids about Palm Sunday.
The first Sunday of Holy Week is Palm Sunday, which remembers Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. Jesus fulfills the prophecy from Zechariah when he says in Matthew 21:5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'”
Maundy Thursday is the fifth day of Holy Week leading up to Easter, which remembers the Last Supper with Jesus and His disciples. We call this event the “Last Supper” because it is one of Jesus’ final meals with His disciples before He is crucified. They had gathered for Passover Supper, which set an important context for what Jesus did at the Last Supper.
Good Friday remembers the day of Christ’s death and the moments leading up to it. Many Christians devote this day of Holy Week to thinking about Christ’s final hours and the suffering that He endured. Services for Good Friday tend be somber, even though we know that Jesus rose from His death three days later.
The most important event of the Church Calendar is Easter Sunday. On this day Christians celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Not only has Christ paid for our sins on the cross, but He has triumphed over death! Jesus’ resurrection seals our hope for eternal life with God.
Everything You Need to Know About Easter
Easter Sunday is arguably the most important day in the Christian calendar, as it is the day that Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It marks the end of Lent, a 40-day season of fasting and penance. In contrast with the penitent spirit of Lent and the somber atmosphere of Holy Week, Easter is marked by joy, music, and jubilation. Christians observe the occasion by wearing their finest outfits, singing songs of celebration, removing the veil from the cross, and proclaiming, “Christ is risen!”
5 Ways to Prepare Children for Easter
Easter is a glorious day when we celebrate together the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Children get excited on Easter, but sometimes they don’t always understand what Easter is about. Read below about five ways that we can prepare children for Easter.
The History of the Easter Bunny
It was not until the 1800’s that the Easter bunny began to appear in stories. Numerous German books connected the animal to the holiday, and German candy makers produced a variety of edible bunnies. Eventually, the Easter bunny made its way to the United States, and Americans began to include the bunny in their festivities in the mid to late 1800’s.
Celebrating Easter as a Family
I love this time of the year. I find the way that nature comes back to life to celebrate another season and the hope of things to come fascinating. I love Easter Sunday morning with all of the children in their new spring outfits and hats. Our three children also look forward to the neighborhood Easter egg hunt each year to fill their baskets.
How to Bring Every Lesson Back to Jesus this Easter
One of the big mistakes we often make when teaching kids is that we settle for a moral lesson rather than use the cross to explain our motivation for Biblical morality. When we teach our kids that Christians look and act like something based on a set of rules or on things we don’t do, we set them up to be disillusioned with their faith, then we wonder why they walk away in college.
Teach Kids About Jesus All Year Long
You can teach kids about Jesus all year long! Help children get to know their Savior at Easter, but don’t stop there. . .
Sharing the Joy of Easter and New Life with Kids
Share the joy of Easter with children as you consider the miracle of new life this season. These Easter activities will show you how.