Ideas For My Pocket: a Support Group for Families: As From a Cocoon, He Rose from the Tomb

Easter is a glorious time of year! The entire Earth celebrates the Savior’s victory over death with an eruption of new Spring growth! How do we capture this joy in our families and teach our children the Easter message effectively?

Ideas Families have Tried:

1. Tell the Story of Jesus

Teach your family about Jesus and the Resurrection, that because He died and lived again, we all can too! No person’s body has to stay in the grave! It is definitely a reason to celebrate!

The internet has segments of Jesus’ life on video, which would be perfect to watch during Easter. See “Because ofHim” http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694. Some communities are blessed to have Easter Pageants or Passion Plays that depict His life and resurrection, or a Family can read segments of His life in Bible Stories or directly from Scripture.

For Family Home Evening before Easter, the Rogers family gets out their special sparkly plastic Easter eggs. Each contains a special Easter symbol. One by one, they open these numbered eggs that contain:

1—a sacrament cup, symbolizing the Last Supper

2—small scrap of soap, like Jesus used to wash the disciples feet

3— a square of red fabric that represents Christ’s robe

4—a thorn, that is stickery sharp, like they put on His head as a painful crown

5—small piece of twine, like the rope they tied around Jesus to take Him to Pilate

6—shiny red object that represents the drops of blood from all His pores

7—small nails, like the soldiers used in the Crucifixion

8—tiny bag of crushed rock, since there was a big earthquake after Jesus died

9—white cloth, as Jesus was wrapped in and laid in the tomb

10—stone, such as closed the sepulcher

11—a nice-smelling clove to represent the spices that the ladies brought early on the First Easter morning.

12—empty, as is the Empty Tomb

As they discuss each one, the Easter story becomes alive.

I remember as a young girl waking up early and going to a sunrise service on the temple grounds near us. I remember the symbolism that connects the new day’s sun rising with the Son of God rising from the dead. When I talked it over with Mark, we decided to wake our family early, bundle up and go outside to a special place where we could watch for the sun to rise altogether Easter morning. One year we all piled on the Merry-Go-Round. Once it was the Trampoline. But most of the time we climb on the porch roof! It’s quite an adventure to look down on the sleeping houses in our neighborhood!

A check on the internet gives us the exact time to expect the sun. Our family sings Easter hymns and watches for the Eastern sky to gradually turn pink, then lighter and lighter, until at last, there it is—the sun! It is a great symbol and a great start to Easter morning that continues to be a favorite tradition.

When her kids were young, Tyra collected every picture she could find of baby animals, such as a chick hatching from an egg or ducklings with their mother. She found pictures of new buds and plants, flowers from bulbs, butterflies from cocoons and every sort of new life. There were some in children’s magazines, from coloring books, or from the computer. She backed each picture with construction paper and hung the pictures with clothespins on a clothesline of yarn held up with pushpins on the wall. Discussing the pictures one by one helped her kids celebrate the Spring and the newness of life that goes with Easter. Whenever she could, Tyra also liked to take her young kids to visit baby goats or chicks or any animal available to pet and wonder about. Tyra taught her kids even eggs are a symbol of the new life given us from Jesus.

Kids see eggs all over at Easter time, but how many of them know why we use eggs at Easter?

The Sherrills have an original Easter treat. Every year, their kids expect new socks and underwear for Easter. The kids have come to love it! It’s great to have fresh under things, which have worn out since back-to-school. The new underclothes remind them of the newness of life that is part of Easter!

Sabrina grew up without the Easter Bunny. In her home Easter was a very religious holiday. The family put on new clothes their mother had made, and they spoke of the Resurrection because of the Savior. Sabrina’s husband Ralph had grown up enjoying the visit of the Easter Bunny. So the couple had a compromise. Instead of baskets left by You Know Who, Sabrina would make up a treasure hunt for the kids. She left clues planted over the house and yard, the first one dropped miraculously at the door by E.B. (When the whole family was together at the table, the doorbell would ring. No one was there!! A neighbor boy would have been asked to secretly leave the first clue on the doorstep and ring the bell then run fast!) At the end of the treasure hunt there would be a small gift for each member: sandals, Sunday socks, or pajama pants for each. One year, Sabrina framed all varieties of a temple picture for each of her children as their gift. She let each pick his or her favorite to put up. She wanted to keep alive the sacred feeling for Easter that had been engendered in her as a child.

The Kartchners like to eat healthy. For their Easter treats, they choose to fill plastic eggs with nuts, raisins, dried fruit, and a little candy. Each item is set out in a bowl and the family circles the table, picking up a plastic egg and filling it from each bowl. It’s really fun to get to parade around the table filling up the eggs together! Sometimes, Daddy sticks a dollar bill in one or two eggs. Occasionally, a mischievous brother fills an egg with cotton balls, grains of rice, or a different “surprise.” The children go in one area of the house and decorate paper sacks with Easter designs, while Mom and Dad hide eggs in another part of the house or in the backyard. Then the children find them, letting the little ones go first to find the easier-to-spot eggs, stopping at their quota so that all can have an equal chance. There are always one or two eggs that escape everyone and turn up much later, to the finder’s delight!

Spend some time with your family. Enjoy together the new buds and flowers and trees with a walk through beautiful gardens or bike through the neighborhood together.

The Stratton’s love to have an Easter picnic and enjoy the Spring warmth. They go to a park for a picnic and games. Everyone brings pot luck or a simple assignment. Sometimes, each family brings a different kind of sandwich, so everyone can swap. Cousins love getting together to play and catch up.