Why Eggs?

Do your children know why we eat eggs at Easter?
Chocolate eggs have long been a prerequisite at Easter time and a huge source of revenue for the high street. What is their significance and why have they become a symbol of this great feast, there is nothing in the bible about eggs or egg hunting. The biblical symbols of Easter are neither pretty or charming . A cross, nails, whips and tombs would not look enticing in a shop window, certainly not as decorative as eggs, rabbits and other springtime symbols. Eggs, despite being hijacked by commerce, do have a Christian meaning. In pagan Europe eggs were used as a sign of fertility and new life as they celebrated the long awaited arrival of spring after the long , dark winters of the northern hemishere. The early Christians understood the full meaning of what the pagans had only glimpsed. Springtime growth, the return of the sun and eggs all remind us of the hope of new life , the resurrection that we  can all experience in Christ: the essence of Easter.
In an article in Idea  - the magazine of the Evangelical Alliance, it was reported that a certain supermarket chain had to correct itself twice when making assertions regarding the meaning of Easter. First it reported that it was about the birth of Jesus, it corrected this to 're birth' before finally conceeding that Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus. There is obviously confusion and misunderstanding about this historical event that should knock us side ways and change us forever.

So - do your children know why we eat eggs at Easter time? Do your childrens' friends? Or your neighbours?

Maybe we should tell them.

Egg Activities.

I just discovered The Real Easter Egg Company from whom you can buy fairtrade chocolate eggs to give as gifts. On the box is the story of the real meaning of Easter.

Years ago I bought a set of Resurrection Eggs - plastics eggs that conrtain  small symbols that tell the Easter story. On her blog The Vicars Wife gives instruction on how to make your own. They are a good tool for an egg hunt and storytime combined.

Egg Rolling - a game that reminds us of the stone being rolled away

Egg Hunting - goes with out saying!

50 Days of Easter.

Easter is actually a season which lasts for 50 days. In his book' Living Easter through the Year' John Pritchard says

'We travel long and hard through Lent and Holy Week. The build up of spiritual pressure is immense. .......... And then comes Easter day- the most astonishing day in the history of the world. The Lord of history erupts into his own creation, shattering our closed minds and throwing open the windows of eternity. Christ is risen! There's ecstasy for a moment, sheer,wild, abandoned ecstasy.
And then we have a bank holiday.'

I  too feel the disappointment that Easter is over so quickly, unrecognised except for the queues of Bank Holiday traffic. Last year we decided to celebrate for the whole season - I planned a variety of activities, three or four for each week until Pentecost and wrote them out on slips of paper which I hid in a plastic eggs  suspended on a wreath I had hung on our veranda. The eggs were numbered and we opened one every Sunday and did the activities suggested throughout the following week. I kept it simple , sometimes a memory verse to learn, an Easter movie or book suggestion, an outing, a picnic breakfast to watch the sunrise.

It was fun and I want to do it again this year and invite you , my readers, to join me.  Please share your ideas for activities, resources, crafts, food, books, films, outings - anythings that helps to  keep the joy and thrill of Easter at the centre of our focus over the next weeks. Here are a few of the things that our family did last year - to give you the idea of what I mean.

Baked Greek Easter bread
Watched the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Miracle Maker.
Made a table water fountain and learnt Revelations7:17
Sunrise breakfast picnic
Went shopping for new clothes
Told jokes at the dinner table - there is, apparently, an old  tradition that the preacher would tell jokes in his evening sermon on Easter day and have the congregation roaring with laughter

Please post your comments and suggestions here and lets live Easter for the next 50 days!

An Angel in the Garden.

'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!'

HAPPY EASTER!

Good Friday Bread Making and Construction.

I enjoy making bread at Easter time.

This year I am using 'Bread' by Liz Herbert for all my Easter bread recipes. My husband gave it to me for Christmas. It is a Women's Institute publication and  is proving to be a very  practical and usable cook book. All the recipes have worked out well so far, I have just made Hot Cross Buns and plan to do Chocolate Brioche for Sunday morning breakfast.

The children have just finished making our Easter garden. This is a regular Good Friday activity for us. I think that it must be an English tradition as it is new to most of my American and New Zealand friends. I remember making miniature gardens in seed trays as a child, but my family , under supervision from their father, construct a small replica garden outside. Wielding saws and digging tools has more appeal to the boys than  dainty, crafty mini gardens!

More Egg Decorating Ideas.

 We have had great fun blowing and decorating eggs. I followed instructions on ehow for blowing eggs and then we decorated with poster and acrylic paints, glitter and sequins. We also made dye with food colouring which gives the eggs a lovely pastel colour.

We had fritata for lunch after all the blowing!

Maundy Thursday

Bread and wine on our Easter table.

Last night we shared our usual Maundy Thursday meal with friends. I cooked Lamb Shanks braised in Red Wine with Rosemary and Garlic served with mashed potatoes and green vegetables ( asparagus and green salad). Our friends brought dessert. In the centre of the table was the Seder plate containing  the traditional  symbolic foods for Passover. On the plate is a lamb bone, green vegetable, roasted egg, bitter herbs, salt water and haroset which is a mixture of chopped apple and nuts. Each item represents an aspect of the Exodus story - the story of God's  redemption of the Israelite people from Egypt.

• The lamb bone - the sacrificial lamb that God ordered the Israelites to eat before they left, the blood smeared over their doorposts ensured that the angel of death passed over them. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb ensuring that God passes over our sins.
• Haroset is a symbol of the mortar used by the slaves to build in Egypt.
• The green vegetable is a symbol of spring , the Israelite slaves experienced new life as we do in Christ.
• A roasted egg represents the temple sacrifice
• The bitter herbs represent the bitterness of slavery and the salty water, the tears of the slaves. Our enslavement is to sin.

Before we ate we read the Exodus story and the story of the Last Supper from the bible and then we shared bread and wine ( red grape juice for the children) around the table . It is a real treat for the children to drink their grape juice from real wine glasses!

Pysanky Eggs

Every Easter we try to come up with different ways to festoon our home and decorate eggs. This year I discoved Pysanky eggs while reading this site, they are amazingly intricate and  beautifully dyed eggs from the Ukraine. The design is drawn with wax before the eggs are repeatedly diped in dye to create the pattern. The Learn Pysanky site also offers colouring pages. I did not think that I would be able to easily find the supplies here in Cebu so we opted for colouring page eggs! Much easier  for children too. They looked lovely and it was a restful activity for a morning with friends.

After we were finished my daughter cut the egg shape out and glued two designs back to back and then hung them in a door way, they would also look good hanging on a branch.