Last Christmas my family and I began practicing Advent. Each day had a scripture we read, a hymn that we sang, a family activity, and a small treat to enjoy. This daily celebration of the birth of Christ leading up to Christmas brought a whole new level of value and spirituality to our Christmas celebration. So much so, that my wife and I began to wonder how we could replicate a similar experience for Easter. The more that I thought about it, the more that I wanted to do something similar. I know that Catholics celebrate Lent each year before Easter, but my wife and I wanted something that felt more like Advent, something more celebratory in nature. At least for most of it.
But, I kept putting it off, for a number of reasons. Then the church released this video:
This hit me like a ton of bricks. Or, more specifically, the Holy Spirit bore a powerful witness that this is what I was being called to do and had been called to do for months now. Now I couldn’t diminish or ignore that call though. An Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ had issued the call for us to create Easter celebrations that will deepen our testimonies of and relationships with our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He had even referenced the ancient customs and traditions of other churches as examples of things we might do ourselves, in a similar manner that I had been thinking about using Advent and Lent as templates for a Latter-day Paschal celebration
What a wake up call.
Using Advent as my model, I am going to design a 25 day celebration of Easter. That is the 24 days before Easter and Easter itself. Each day will have
- a scripture
- a hymn
- a story/quote from a church leader about the Savior
- an activity you can do as a family
The scriptures will not just come from the Bible, but will include the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price as well. The books of scripture revealed in these latter-days are especially potent witnesses of the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and their testimonies will not be neglected. Activity wise, they will not always be “religious” in nature, fore two reasons. First, because there aren’t that many thematically appropriate activities. Second, because the primary point of the activities is making sure that you and your families are doing fun things together as you celebrate the coming Easter.
There certainly will be some times of solemn remembrance, especially Holy Thursday and Good Friday – the days commemorating the arrest and crucifixion of Christ. But the majority of the time will be focused on celebrating the glories of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the wonderful meaning it has for us.
I have chosen to name this project Latter-day Lent, not because of it having an relationship to the Catholic celebration of Lent, but because of how that celebration got its name. The word lent originally meant Spring and the celebration of the Easter season became the great Spring celebration as Christmas is the great Winter celebration. The concepts eventually became synonymous such that Spring and Easter became one. And while we are not Catholic and do not conform to their concept of the celebration, our Latter-day Lent is the Great Celebration of Spring – the Celebration of Easter, the celebration of renewal, rebirth, and life beyond death.
Below are the pages for each day. I have broken the first three entries into six days each so that the final entry will contain all seven days of Holy Week in a single post.
Christos Anesti!