I love this idea!!
As each holiday comes (trust me there are TONS when you are combining two cultures) Lawrance and I talk about the traditions we want for our family. It's fun taking time to decide what is most important to us and contemplating how we want to celebrate these special days as a couple now and later as a family.
There are some distinct advantages of being a cross-cultural couple.
- We have lots of holidays to celebrate.
- We can blend the best of two cultures.
- People give us a little more freedom because we are "different."
- Compromise is easy since there are fewer expectations.
Maybe it's because I'm left brained. Maybe it's because I'm a planner. Maybe it's because I am list maker. Maybe it's because I'm afraid if we don't have a plan in place, my children won't delight in (have a special connection to) American holidays.
But whatever the reason . . . I want to live intentionally, making the most of the time we've been given.
Besides reenacting the Easter story with playdough, does anyone have any other ideas, suggestions, or traditions to share about how you meaningfully celebrate Easter with your family?
A little off topic... but my extended family gathered for Christmas and not Easter because my grandparents would be still living in FL and my uncle is a pastor... and he and his family would need to be at their home church for the most important holiday of the year. One year when the cousins were little, we decided to have a play to tell the Christmas story, and we would also sing hymns as a part of the story. It was so interesting to see what the children would come up with that we did it year after year. Every year the story would be very different as the children aged and their interpretations of what they remember they've been told about the birth of Christ changed.
Most of my Easter traditions centered around church and not at home. At my family's church, the teens and pre-teens planned and conducted the Easter sunrise services, and I was always busy preparing mini passion play dramas, readings, something I was going to sing, etc.
Posted by: Sarah | Wednesday, April 08, 2009 at 07:50 PM
We are doing this for the first time this year: http://www.allhomemadecookies.com/recipes/drop/easterstorycookies.htm
And we have been doing this for many years: http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=297220&event=ETS
We start a week or so before Easter, open an egg as a family, and discuss the meaning of the symbol inside. (for example there is donkey to spur talk about Him riding into Jerusalem, coins for the pieces of silver that Judas took to betray, a goblet to spur discussion of the last supper, etc.)
Posted by: Carrie Comstock | Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 03:07 AM
Hi Amanda! Long time, no see. I do apologize! I'm a bad friend! I like the new design!
We certainly do the religious aspect of Easter but the Saturday before Easter, we have lots of fun. My senior year of high school my mom was trying to think of a way to get her kids and our friends (it was very important to my parents that our house be the hang-out spot so they could keep an eye on us!) interested in an egg hunt. She ended up hiding water balloons right along with the Easter eggs and it has created a fun family tradition that we all look forward to each year.
As she turned into a grandparent, she began setting up two separate egg hunts. One for kids and one for adults (actually we decided to let the kids go in with the grown ups at the age of 13.) It's completely secular and we realize that. It is fun though! :D
Posted by: Bethany | Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 08:03 AM
This sounds like SO much fun!!!! :)
Only problem we would have is finding a place to have an outdoor
egg/water-balloon hunt. I suppose we'd be able to do it in a public park
and then have a "water balloon piece finding hunt" to clean up afterward.
Thanks SO much for sharing your idea/traditions!!! :)
Posted by: amanda p. wu | Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 10:48 AM