I do not come from a church tradition that commemorates Lent or Ash Wednesday, but my husband and I have long been interested in observing more of the church calendar in our home with our family.We like the way that traditions like these can "bring to life" certain aspects of our faith to us and to our children. We also hope that they will provoke our children to ask us questions about the meaning behind the traditions and so open up good teaching opportunities. (like the Israelite children who asked their parents about the memorial stones that God had them lay down after crossing the river)
So, I was wondering if any of you have Lent or Ash Wednesday traditions that you observe at home as a family (or plan to observe someday) that you might be willing to share with us. If you've been reading my blog for very long, you know I love to hear ideas. It's so much fun and really helpful too! If you have something to share please feel free to leave it in the comments section of this post or to email me at kmagill1212 at gmail dot com. Thanks!
4 comments:
Last year, I gave my son some white homemade playdough and let him fashion a large, flat cross. I gave him some other colors to add decoration, so he decided to put a crown of thorns at the top where Jesus' head would be and we talked about purple as the color of royalty, so he made purple flowers for it. He also put red playdough flowers on each side to represent the nails in his hands. It turned out so nicely! Then we put six candles (birthday candles) into the cross, one for each week of lent, lighting all six, but then extinguishing one for each week of Lent, leading to darkness, Christ's light going out as he made his ultimate sacrifice. Then, on Easter Sunday, we lit all the candles to represent His resurrection and the Light of the world. My son was four at the time, and I was so amazed at his intuitive interpretation of the scene. He even arranged lumps of dough around the bottom of the cross. When I asked him about them, he said they were the people who shouted mean things at Jesus. It brought tears to my eyes!
That's a really neat idea, Donna- kind of like an "Advent" for Easter. I really like the reverence and the symbolism. Thank you so much for sharing!
I made an Easter Countdown for my daughter, we add a cotton ball to a picture of a lamb for each day during Lent and we make homemade Lenten pretzels during lent. These are my posts about them.
http://amommysadventures.blogspot.com/2009/03/lenten-pretzels.html
http://amommysadventures.blogspot.com/2009/02/lenten-countdown-lamb-of-god.html
Last year, I gave my son some white homemade playdough and let him fashion a large, flat cross. I gave him some other colors to add decoration, so he decided to put a crown of thorns at the top where Jesus' head would be and we talked about purple as the color of royalty, so he made purple flowers for it. He also put red playdough flowers on each side to represent the nails in his hands. It turned out so nicely! Then we put six candles (birthday candles) into the cross, one for each week of lent, lighting all six, but then extinguishing one for each week of Lent, leading to darkness, Christ's light going out as he made his ultimate sacrifice. Then, on Easter Sunday, we lit all the candles to represent His resurrection and the Light of the world. My son was four at the time, and I was so amazed at his intuitive interpretation of the scene. He even arranged lumps of dough around the bottom of the cross. When I asked him about them, he said they were the people who shouted mean things at Jesus. It brought tears to my eyes!
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