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[David Coles]

Folks -

First, It's great to be among you - my wife (dw? she's catching me up on the lingo...) has been encouraging me to hop online and get involved in some of the discussion;  we seem to fit into this strange class of Bible-believing, God-fearing, Christ-centered families that doesn't have too much representation here in our town... we've been lurking on 7xSunday for quite a few months and we feel like we know most of you well - now it's time to get known I suppose.

In light of the season, we've been wrestling with the standard questions... how much of our Easter traditions are really pagan, even down to the day we celebrate?  I'm interested in carving out the things that don't glorify our Lord, but to be honest, I'm looking for somthing to replace them - We've long felt that we should hold the Easter season in higher regard than Christmas, but to accomplish this we really need a variety of ways to observe the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.  I'm starting to string together about a week of specifc days and events to commemorate, starting with the Triumphant Entry and ending obviously with the empty tomb.  I'm completely open to moving the dates to the appropriate times...

Root of the question - what do you all do to celebrate our Risen Lord?  What traditions, whether Hebraic like Passover or contemporary like a "sunrise" service do you incorporate into your Easter season?  Do you even call it Easter?  I understand that's pagan too...

I'm not looking to be dogmatic about all this - I belive this is one of those "higher calling" issues that once again puts us in the akward position of maintaining a clear conscience before God while setting a much higher standard for our family than our fellow believers in the church.  I've reached a point in my life that I need solid reasons behind the things that I do and teach my children...

"Daddy, why do we hunt for Easter Eggs?"

"Uhhm... well... it's actually an old pagan ritual, that..."

I need to be able to say "we spread the blood of the lamb on our doorframe to remind us of how God...." etc....

Thoughts?  What do you guys DO? 

[herbalmom]

Welcome to 7XS. Here is a link to a thread on Well Tell Me (WTM) that might help. If you don't know, WTM is a sister site to 7XS that is all about health & nat healing.  The second link is for the main page of WTM.

Do you celebrate Easter and if so, how?

http://www.welltellme.com

Blessings ~herbalmom

[Larry]

Hi David! Welcome!

It sounds like you have a good grasp on things.

We don't do Easter eggs etc. I read the Passover story to the girls and then we talk about it.

Larry

[ridgerunner]

Welcome David! 

Our only child is 2, so this isn't a questions that's come up yet.  But I'm thinking that when the time comes, it'll go down something like this:

*DD: Mommy, why do we have an Easter Bunny and eggs if Easter is about Jesus's resurrection? 

*Me: A bunch of people a long time ago started the stories about the Easter Bunny and Easter eggs, and now it's just something that people do for fun and candy and nobody really knows why for sure.  Since we're fun people, we do the scavenger hunt for eggs and eat candy, but we just don't let silly fun stuff be more important than Jesus.  We'll talk today about what 'Jesus's resurrection' is and how things would not be fun for us at all if that had never happened.  There are things about it we know (it happened), things we don't know (precisely when it happened), and personal choices that we make about celebrating Jesus.

I plan on keeping up celebrating Easter because for myself I worry about making a child feel like being a Christian restricts them from joy in their lives.  If all my child's secular friends and 95% of their Christian friends are celebrating this holiday but I tell her that she can't because the bunny and egg hunt have ancient pagan origins... I (personally) feel like that would be a first step at making Christian living seem dull and non-joyful. 

I also hope that maybe we could do a traditional Passover celebration leading up to Easter.  I had never thought of that until I read Forever Girl's thread ( http://www.7xsunday.net/forum/index.php/topic,23646.0.html ) about their family celebrating Passover, and it sounded like so much fun.  I have a feeling that if you celebrated Passover in that manner, Easter eggs would seem kinda dull.  Since they're something that children stop doing pretty quickly on their own anyway, I don't plan on making a big deal about it.  But, I can understand other people not doing it... I think it's one of those things where the best thing to do depends on the individual family. 

Also - my perceptions regarding true Christian living have changed drastically just in the last year... so, by next Easter I could have a totally different idea.    If so I'll dig up this thread and throw it out there. 

[Cherika Four Seasons]

Interesting discussion.
We have Palm Sunday the week beforehand to prepare for easter, then on Good Friday we read the story of Jesus' crucifiction, and there is usually a special church service too.  On Easter sunday, we have hollow chocolate eggs to symbolise Jesus' hollow tomb. There is lots of celebration and hugs, and we go to church and have a short, special service with lots of hymns.  I remember sunrise service's in the past, and also my stepdad once, on the thursday night before Good Friday, staged a reenactment of the disciples the night Jesus was crucified (peter and his lying,  Judas trying to give the money back, etc).  I'm not sure if that sticks out so clearly because it was so good, or because my nephew was born a few hours later 


btw, I don't really like the easter bunny either, always thought he/she was a bit creepy 

as far as pagan traditions, I think that has to do with the emporer Constantine (that spelling copuld be wrong) who after making Christianity the official religion of the empire, sought to get rid of pagan holidays, and replace them with Christian ones. So the spring goddes Eostre (again, spelling......dknow) 's festival was canned and replaced w/a celebration of Jesus' death and resurection.

so there are those pagan origins, for the date and name. but there's nothing pagan, imo, about celebrating Jesus' great sacrifice!


Oh one more thing, I have a set of hollow plastic eggs w/different tiny objects inside - a donkey, coins, whip, crown of thorns, cross, wine cups, etc. I've  used them with my nephew and sunday school class. With my nephew, it can be more of an advent thing, like christmas. A new hidden egg is found each day in the
 lead up to resurrection sunday, and used to tell a new part of the story.  With the sunday schoolers, they take turns opening the eggs and trying to remember what that object has to do with the story.

btw, hi David *waves*  You're idea of a week-long, biblically-based celebration sounds very good. I might steal it 

[andiclare]

We just celebrate Easter the traditional way, but we leave out the Easter bunny, etc.  Some of the kids in the family may participate in an Easter egg hunt or something like that, but any fun stuff is put in it's proper place. We go to church of course and usually have a big Easter dinner w/ family. The celebration is all about the Resurrection of our Lord.

When I read your post, this part jumped out at me.

We've long felt that we should hold the Easter season in higher regard than Christmas, but to accomplish this we really need a variety of ways to observe the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.  I'm starting to string together about a week of specifc days and events to commemorate, starting with the Triumphant Entry and ending obviously with the empty tomb.   I'm completely open to moving the dates to the appropriate times...

My fiance and I both had the same thought-- what you're talking about already exists! It's called Holy Week, starts with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday. It's fine if you want to carve it all out for yourself, but I do wonder why. Because what you're coming up with is a mirror of what the Church has already been celebrating for close to 2000 years. It's like trying to reinvent the wheel, know what I mean? 

As far as the appropriate time...well nobody knows the exact date of Christ's birth or Resurrection. So the Church just picked certain dates in the year (for various reasons; this in itself is an interesting study btw) and those are the days when the feasts are celebrated. It's the celebration, the gathering, communion, and remembrance that is important anyway. Not pinning down the actual date which isn't even possible.

[Larry]

I try to keep an attitude along the lines that Paul had with eating meat offered to idols.... as for as I can.

I have convictions that make "going along to get along" difficult or imposable sometimes, like Good Friday can't be the day Jesus was crucified.

[ridgerunner]

I try to keep an attitude along the lines that Paul had with eating meat offered to idols.... as for as I can.

I have convictions that make "going along to get along" difficult or imposable sometimes, like Good Friday can't be the day Jesus was crucified.

Makes sense to me... I just don't have any convictions about it.  (Hmm... Why don't I have convictions??    Must study... )

[andiclare]

I try to keep an attitude along the lines that Paul had with eating meat offered to idols.... as for as I can.

I have convictions that make "going along to get along" difficult or imposable sometimes, like Good Friday can't be the day Jesus was crucified.

But remember...we don't celebrate Good Friday as the day, the anniversary, that Christ was crucified on. We honor the fact that Christ was crucified for us every single day, or at least we should. But the Church picked the Friday before Easter to be the special day of remembrance, so the Church could celebrate and remember and honor Christ's Passion and death together as a family.

Families all have their special holidays...sister's birthday, grandma's birthday, mom and dad's anniversary, etc. It's the same with our Church family.

[Larry]

The "church" that chose Good Friday also chose to define ppl that refused to be baptized into the "church" or have their children sprinkled etc. etc. as pagans (original meaning of the word pagan would likely translate as "hick" or "country bumpkin") and tortured them to death.

I'm going to try to live by the book and forsake manmade traditions.

God has placed me in a time and place where it's, comparatively, very easy to live according to personal convictions. Why wouldn't I want to honer God by reading his book and trying to live according to his word?

[andiki]

My husband is one of those people that thinks that the only holiday we should celebrate is the Lord's Supper because it's the only thing commanded in the Bible. We do celebrate Christmas, but for him is just one more thing in life. I would celebrate Resurrection Sunday and other celebrations, but it also makes sense to me that it's not set in the Bible.

Just sharing...

[andiki]

Something else! I'd lke to celebrate Passover, because it's something tha the jews did. I'd suggest it to my husband to next year.

[BJ_BOBBI_JO]

Welcome David! 

I plan on keeping up celebrating Easter because for myself I worry about making a child feel like being a Christian restricts them from joy in their lives.  If all my child's secular friends and 95% of their Christian friends are celebrating this holiday but I tell her that she can't because the bunny and egg hunt have ancient pagan origins... I (personally) feel like that would be a first step at making Christian living seem dull and non-joyful. 

I also hope that maybe we could do a traditional Passover celebration leading up to Easter.  I had never thought of that until I read Forever Girl's thread ( http://www.7xsunday.net/forum/index.php/topic,23646.0.html ) about their family celebrating Passover, and it sounded like so much fun.  I have a feeling that if you celebrated Passover in that manner, Easter eggs would seem kinda dull.  Since they're something that children stop doing pretty quickly on their own anyway, I don't plan on making a big deal about it.  But, I can understand other people not doing it... I think it's one of those things where the best thing to do depends on the individual family. 

I'm thinking the same thing. I figure if we run hiding away from everything a pagan might do then we cant do anything. We mise well just sit around with glum faces bored to near death not being able to do CHRISTmas, Easter, and every other holiday out of the fear that it might be wrong. I say to make it a CHRISTian thing and dont let the pagans win. But in doing so my husband and I make known the reason for the season and that the bunny and eggs are just for fun and who doesn't like candy as a kid? Finding candy and eggs are fun to do anytime of the year but especially fun at Easter.

I remember when I was a kid there was some JW kids in my class/school. They always had to go sit in another room doing school work while our classes had our holiday parties. Their parents were not mean or abusive and tried telling them why they felt holidays were evil but it did not seem to matter to the kids. They always felt left out and silly being the only ones who could not eat some Easter jelly beans and CHRISTmas cookies. Even as young kids they could not figure out why all that was supposed to be ungodly. To them and all the other kids it had NOTHING to do with pagan garbage and was just a way to get some candy.

So IMO I say we should not live by the past and the ungodly things people did back then by  avoiding holidays because if that be the case then we mise well avoid any and all things in life out of fear that a pagan might have done something on that day or did something with that item. I say turn it around and put God back into it. Make it fun and educational instead of running from it.

[SC lady]

. . . . Returning to topic 

One of the things we did one year (along with Passover) was to decorate our front door. I found about 5 or 6 yards of some deep red fabric and hung it over our front the door posts (outside) on the Thursday evening of our Sedar (the kids really LOVE the meal, songs, stories, etc.). Duke taught about the events surrounding the season with little lessons for the kids each day leading up to Sunday. On that day, I rose up EARLY (before daybreak) and changed the red cloth with a white cloth. These were pieces long enough to drape down either side of the door. We used the symbolism of the red, the white and the placing of it on the doorposts to reinforce all the children had learned and to commemorate what Christ had done for us.

[andiclare]

The "church" that chose Good Friday also chose to define ppl that refused to be baptized into the "church" or have their children sprinkled etc. etc. as pagans (original meaning of the word pagan would likely translate as "hick" or "country bumpkin") and tortured them to death.

I'm going to try to live by the book and forsake manmade traditions.

God has placed me in a time and place where it's, comparatively, very easy to live according to personal convictions. Why wouldn't I want to honer God by reading his book and trying to live according to his word?

Of course, there's no reason you wouldn't want to. Please don't take offense, I didn't mean any.
The way we look at it is a little different. The ancient Church also gave us the Bible, so we can't just discount every single tradition of the church or we'd have to throw out the scriptures themselves as well, you know? In other words we believe we should throw out the bathwater but keep the baby. If that makes sense lol.

So personally, we do see the Church as a family of Christians and we have our celebrations like any loving family.

[SC lady]

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Root of the question - what do you all do to celebrate our Risen Lord?  What traditions, whether Hebraic like Passover or contemporary like a "sunrise" service do you incorporate into your Easter season?  Do you even call it Easter?  I understand that's pagan too...

. . . . . Thoughts?  What do you guys DO?

Okay guys, back to topic. 

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