In all I am, do, and will write, my aim is to hit God's mark. I will have moments of being misguided as I am not perfect, but know that I serve a God that loves me through it all.
Anyone care to enlighten me on how baskets full of candy, over-priced matching outfits, painted eggs, bunnies and little chicks have anything to do with the true meaning of Easter? Or, am I wrong in even calling next weekend, Easter? I've never done a word study on Easter or even bothered to research all the other hoopla that comes with it.
I do, however, remember that this coming weekend marks the remembrance of Christ willingly giving His life for me and rising from the dead.
Glory to God! Creator of LIFE!
So a dilemma started a few days ago. My children noticed that we don't paint eggs, or hunt for them. We don't believe in an Easter bunny, and we don't hand them baskets full of dollar store toys or candy.
We are such party-poopers. What to do?
We actually had a fabulous conversation regarding what Easter/Resurrection is. They all agreed that it made no sense to muddle up God's story with all that other stuff that didn't appear to remind them of what God has done.
They voiced that they were rather sad that they didn't do egg hunts, etc and asked if we could to it anyway. Why not do "the other stuff" on a different day?
Brilliant!
Thus, we will be celebrating SPRING on March 20th from now on. Here is the plan my children and I worked out using the letters from the word 'spring'.
S: Slurp a smoothie.
Pretty self explanatory.
P: Plant something pretty.
We will be planting something in a container this year as we might be moving soon, but we will begin to plant flowers or trees or ...
R: Race for riches.
This is the "Easter egg hunt" substitute. We have plastic eggs. I'll be putting something silly or yummy or whatever in the eggs and hiding them.
I: Invent or inspire.
An art project or poem or story writing opportunity.
N: Nibble a nummy.
A special dessert treat will be made. I'm going to try out making 'Nest Cookies' from a recipe that I found at GreenStyleMom.
G: Give goodness.
The sky's the limit on this one. Maybe we will share our art or poem or nummies with a neighbor. Or, maybe visit a nursing home and read someone a story, etc. I'm going to leave this decision to the children each year.
See. We can have fun.
Now, maybe I should look into celebrating those silly little Christmas cluttering things on a different day so they don't take away from Christmas's true meaning. We already don't do stockings. We do Treasure Boxes...you know, like what the magi brought. Didn't I read somewhere about an early December day that involved shoes? (An idea similar to filling stockings.) Where did I read that?
Follow the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(holiday) -- A few paragraphs down you will find different countries with the description of their traditions involving shoes. However, it is in early January not December. I've copy/pasted an excerpt:
In Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and Uruguay, children (and many adults) polish and leave their shoes ready for the Kings' presents before they go to bed on the eve of January 6. Sweet wine, nibbles, fruit and milk are left for the Kings and their camels. In Mexico, it is traditional for children to leave their shoes, along with a letter with toy requests for the Three Kings, by the family nativity scene or by their beds. In some parts of northern Mexico the shoes and letters are left under the Christmas tree. The shoes may be filled with hay for the camels, so that the Kings will be generous with their gifts. In Filipinas Christmas officially ends on the Feast of the Three Kings (Tres Reyes or Tatlong Hari in Tagalog), also known as the Feast of the Epiphany. Filipino children leave their shoes out, so that the Three Kings would leave behind gifts like candy or money inside. In Puerto Rico, it is traditional for children to fill a box with grass or hay and put it underneath their bed, for the same reasons. These traditions are analogous to the customs of children leaving mince pies and sherry out for Father Christmas in Western Europe or leaving milk and cookies for Santa Claus in the United States.
Researching this tradition brings to my mind that this would be a thrifty way of beating the Holiday buying frenzy. We could wait until after Christmas and buy stuff on sale! Woohoo.
Posted by Pro-active Mom at 5:31 PM, May. 13, 2008
