tradition, tradition!

as easter approaches, i've been thinking a lot about how to celebrate it (and other holidays) with noah. for me, easter is the most special holiday of the year, and it's the biggest feast day in the church year. but easter is preceded by lent and holy week, which are neither very celebratory or very easy to explain to a child. but i don't want to skip over these hard parts with noah, and go right to the feasting. he's really still too young, but at some point i'd love for him to think about his own lenten discipline, and to ponder jesus's story, and to understand the sadness in the story that comes before the joy.

i've been looking for good children's easter books to help tell the story, and my favorite is jan pienkowski's easter. it's basically just the biblical story in the king james version, but the illustrations (beautiful silhouette characters and textured gold leaf detail) are what make it remarkable. one reviewer said she appreciated how the silhouettes make the story a bit less scary for children, and let them fill in their own ideas about what the characters are feeling. unfortunately it's out of print, but our library has it.

for this year, though, i was looking for something a little bit younger, and i finally settled on the story of easter by aileen fischer. it begins with a telling of jesus's final days, but then she goes on to tell a brief history of easter traditions, beginning with solstice celebrations and moving forward through easter european egg-decorating to modern-day easter egg hunts and fancy hats. the illustrations are also really classy.

a few other fun books i found:

rechenka's eggs by patricia polacco tells the story of a ukrainian woman decorating eggs for a festival, and how the goose she saves from death turns magical.

the birds' gift by eric kimmel, tells the story of a town graciously sheltering its wild birds during a harsh winter and how the birds repay the townsfolk in the spring.

and margaret wise brown's the golden egg book is a silly story of a bunny and a chick becoming good friends.

i'm excited also to share the joy of easter with noah. primarily this means (or will mean, once he can understand) the joy of christ's resurrection, which hopefully will be made real through our lenten and holy week observances, reading and storytelling, the symbolism of darkness turning to light and quiet solemnity into raucous bell-ringing... but i also want to make a space for the light-hearted joy of a springtime celebration with family and friends. i'm not sure exactly what shape that celebration will take over the years, but i imagine it will involve good food, easter egg dyeing and hunting, and the trading of special gifts. i'm still working on an easter basket for noah, which i hope will contain items that both point toward christ's resurrection but are also plain fun for him.

i especially love christina and sarah's lenten and easter gardens for how they help children see a tangible difference in the seasons. you can see sarah's lenten garden here. and here is a picture from christmas of the star path christina made for mary to progress on toward christmas. it was lovely. they have both used the book all year round by ann druitt to help them establish beautiful and concrete ways to help their children incarnate the changes of the seasons, the church year and holidays and festivals. i think i should get a copy of my own soon.

i would love to hear more ideas on meaningful and fun family traditions for easter and other important holidays!