well it's not long now to holy week and easter off course. Do you celibrate it?
Is it just an egg eating tradition in your house or do you still celibrate it as a majour event in christion religion calender?
What is the best part of Easter for you?

Have any of you been doing anything unusule or intresting for lent this year?

Below is the irish catholic charitie and their lent campaine this year, their been a bit of a fuss as the irish broadcasting corp has removed the add from air. Their silliness,

http://apps.trocaire.org/justworld/mod/trocaire/index.php

celtic

Good luck with your campaign Celtic Flame!
Yes, we always celebrate Easter.After all. it is a hallmark of our faith!We always go to church on Easter.We are Presbyterians. There is one particular sermon, I call it the Death Easter Sermon, I don't like it at all. It must be in some Pastor books because I have heard different pastors giving the same sermon.I think Easter is the most joyous event and I come out of the church all bummed out when I hear that one sermon!Sometimes I will be relieved when we walk into the church and I see who is giving the sermon because if it is the pastor who gave that Death sermon last year , I know he won't give it again this year!The worst thing is to try out a different church, go for Easter service , and then have the pastor give that sermon!

Every year we STILL dress up for Easter. But I never wear a hat.I'm not a hat person.Some Easters we would go to a fine Art Museum after lunch out (or breakfast or brunch) and enjoy the religious paintings.This was always a great learning experience for the kids.Some of the paintings would be very sorrowful and emotional for the kids.They would ask so many questions!
One great sadness for me is the fact my daughter, who is married and has a child, is not religious AT ALL. I don't think her and hus. have ever been in a church!But we all have a lifetime to find God and I am sure she will come around someday. I hope! But it is a shame for their child.I'm really wrestling with the fact their baby is not baptized.Having a problem with that but I KNOW I better not say anything more about it.Such is life!

Our neighborhood has an egg hunt the day before Easter. I used to put little furrie chicks in plastic eggs for that event for years.I must have a thousand little plastic eggs in my attic from all the egg hunts all 4 of my kids have particitpated in!

Celtic, I celebrate Easter as the beginning of spring, symbolizing birth and nature.

We decorate our house with hand painted Easter eggs hanging from a bouquet of pussy willows. Usually we have the family over and cook up a big Easter dinner. I also make Easter baskets full of goodies and give each basket to my sons and their wives.

The religious part is missing in my life. I'm afraid I have to admit that my religious beliefs have altered over the years. I believe in God, but I find my beliefs in Christianity are gone. I miss those beliefs. It was wonderful to let myself fall and feel held up by them. I'm sad about loosing my faith in that way, I truly wish I hadn't; but it would be blasphemous to force myself to act out a belief that isn't there, -- just for show.

I signed the petition. Thanks for posting the link. Only 2496 have signed so far. I'll be sending the link on to others I know would be interested.

My family celebrates Easter each year by dressing up and attending church. We come home from church and eat a big dinner which usually consists of honey glazed ham and scallopped potatoes, green bean casserole and cherry pie.

We let the children hunt colored eggs and usually have an Easter basket for each of them filled with candy and such.

I celebrate Easter mainly as the resurrection of Christ from the grave on the third day after His death. That's the other side of the story. The crucifixion leaves him on the cross, but Easter celebrates the risen Christ who is alive forever more and who sits at the right hand of God.

What a wonderful time of celebration, while I understand the Easter egg hunt is a pagan ritual and the Easter bunny is also a pagan belief, and that the Easter basket is also, I still let my grandkids participate in these things and explain the real reason for the celebration and that we have just taken those things which are fun to enjoy without their meanings behind them.

They understand and we have a great time!

well i larned something tonight i din't know the easter bunnie and egg hunt to be pagin in origin....and i am quite shocked. i dindn't know the conection as i assumed the whole egg tradision was to celibrate the rolling away of the stone. Still manie christion and pagan celibrasion co-incide with each other, christianitie replacing pagain celibrasions so the "people" don't miss out on the joy of whatever (at the time)...

BACKHANDGRIP i haven't thought of easter bonnets in such a while, i love hats....you mentioning of this brought some great meomories of my mum doing us bought woven hats but decorating them with little flowers etc.. they weer so delicate. mind you i din't have great hair untill i was 3 it was very fine my mum took me to hair dresser every 6 weeks to encourage it to grow lol....Now i have a great big mop of thik hair lol...once it was auburn and glowed in the son lol (minuse the gray thats shines now ah life eh! ya have to laugh)So i think she was also disguising my lack of hair when i was young but thats a diffrent storie loll bless her

HANILORE sounds like you have a great time, food and familie eh! the baskets sound great...your such a sweet woman. It also sounds like your a bit sad about the faith issue theirs a lot of advantiges to fitting into a religion and a lot to miss if you leave it...as you say but you got to be true to your hart and who knows weer your hart desires lead you in the end. Theirs a lot i miss about organised religion too.

I love easter, the cruxifiction makes me feel strange but i love the reserection the symbolisum and what it is litrily ment to stand for a time of hope and love ..

you know call me a grump if you like but i hate fighting my way past easter eggs in the shops, yea their symbolic but i wonder if people think or know the symbolisum at times.. Anyway lucien knows what chocolate is but he dosent know the eggs are chocolate yet lol...

celtic

My family observe Lent, Triduum and celebrate Easter as prescribed by the Catholic Church together with the usual chocolate egg as a treat for my grandchildren. My older grandson has started to serve at Mass and I am looking forward to his participation as an altar boy. He is only six and is the youngest in the group.

This year, the Jewish Passover coincides with the observance of Holy Week. The First Seder is closely followed by the celebration of Holy Thursday, the remembrance of the Last Supper. With the coincidence of the religious ceremonies of these two faiths, the reflection on the strong bond between the Jewish and Christian religions becomes all the more poignant for me because Jewish tradition played an essential role in the first Mass. It was on that particular Jewish Passover 2007 years ago that Jesus instituted the Sacerdotal priesthood and celebrated the first Eucharist Feast. It is on those two profound events, when Jesus celebrated the Passover with the Apostles, that I, as a Christian, will also ask particularly of Holy Thursday: "Why is this night different from any other nights?"

Lola, I'm so happy you mentioned the correlation between the Jewish celebration of Seder and the celebration of Easter. I've participated in a Seder meal and I was very moved. I have a deep respect and reverance for the Jewish faith and would support the state of Israel at most any cost as a Christian.

ps. Celtic, a little bit more info about the Easter Bunny and colored eggs:

In second century Europe, the predominate spring festival was a raucous Saxon fertility celebration in honor of the Saxon Goddess Eastre (Ostara), whose sacred animal was a hare. (BUNNY)

The colored eggs associated with the bunny are of another, even more ancient origin. The eggs associated with this and other Vernal festivals have been symbols of rebirth and fertility for so long the precise roots of the tradition are unknown, and may date to the beginning of human civilization. Ancient Romans and Greeks used eggs as symbols of fertility, rebirth, and abundance- eggs were solar symbols, and figured in the festivals of numerous resurrected gods.

Pagan fertility festivals at the time of the Spring equinox were common- it was believed that at this time, when day and night were of equal length, male and female energies were also in balance. The hare is often associated with moon goddesses; the egg and the hare together represent the god and the goddess, respectively.

Yep, all things are ours, but not all things are good for us so we take those things we want to and leave the rest.

isent it strange that the egg etc as you mention NEWLAF is of the symbolisum of rebirth and new life. When thats exactly what the resereaction means to me....after death theirs life, rebirthing into another world closer to god...thats some of the message i take from the reserection of christ.

How long has it been lola (anyone) 96-97 was that the last time their was such a big coincidances between jewish and easter po telling me thats the last yar as on that year she also managed the jewish feast (due to the closness) Isent it great we get to participate in another religion and find common ground.

Alterboy at 6 awwwwww sweet you must be so proud of him..(is that the one that just made his communion, has to be eh!)Hope he dose well and the nerves don't get to him

first Eucharist Feast, still being followed today (for those that do take comminion or as part of their religion to)...others don't and it funnie what part of the tradision or events of those times get pick up on and maintained.

for you LOLA why is Why is this night different from any other nights?" whats your take on things??? is it of morning the loss of christ from the earth into heaven/or the joy of the example of everlasting life) or (not that you keep me up all night with my head chattering about Mary and her prediciment/sorrow, i did that to myself eh! lol) lol....i shouldn't chat about such things so late at night, or do you know what maybee I should, when else do i get time to think, without the child wanting something or his TV or music or toys lol...

Is their anyone jewish willing to write about this time from within their religion and from their perspectiv.

PS lola the nights are fair drawing in, and i have an aura aw round me. (the big yins referances just in case ya think i have flipped aye)

loved celtic

The institution of the Holy Eucharist is what makes Holy Thursday different from any other nights, Celtic. The Consecration of the Eucharist at Mass by a priest "in persona Christi" is the most tangible, unbroken link to Jesus and bears His direct expression and gestures at that particular Passover meal 2,007 years ago.