Easter Sunday has come and gone, but did you know the Church celebrates an entire season of Easter? We had 40 days of Lent to reflect on the brokenness of the world, leading up to the resurrection of Easter. Now we have 50 days to celebrate that Jesus is alive and how this changes everything! The 50 days lead us up to the Day of Pentecost, when Jesus sent the promised Holy Spirit to empower his followers for his mission.
Here are 20 ideas for how you, your family, and your missional community can cultivate a season of celebration over the resurrection and power of the Spirit:
1. Use a special candle at family meals to recall the light of Christ.
2. Continue to read together from the resurrection story: Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20-21.
3. Plan fun family activities—one for every week of Easter.
4. Create artwork that invokes new life, resurrection, springtime, etc.
5. Keep fresh flowers around.
6. Talk about baptism. Retell stories of family members’ baptisms.
7. Learn how other cultures celebrate Easter. Try out some of their customs and foods.
8. Read about the disciples road trip to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35); take a family walk and talk about what that must have been like for them.
9. Discuss what it means to be Christ’s “witnesses” (Luke 24:48).
10. Plan a fishing trip and read about the disciples’ amazing catch of fish (John 21:1-14). Our camping trip this May might be a great opportunity for this!
11. Plan a swim party and read about Peter’s swim to Jesus (John 21:7).
12. The Sunday after Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday. Talk with your family or MC about how you can show incredible mercy to someone that week.
13. If you have kids, talk about how the disciples hid (John 20:19) until the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost. Follow up by playing hide and seek.
14. Plant something in your yard.
15. May 30th is Ascension Sunday. Read Luke 24:50-53 or Acts 1:6-11 as an MC or family and try to imagine being present at Jesus’ ascension. Discuss what that would have been like.
16. Just before his ascension, Jesus blessed the disciples. Pray Numbers 6:24-26 together as a way of communicating his blessing to one another.
17. Read Acts 2, the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost. Try reading it in multiple languages! (see Bible translations at www.biblegateway.com/languages)
18. Discuss the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) as a family or MC and how you can all partner with the Spirit to cultivate that fruit in your lives.
19. Find ways to make Sunday meals special during the Easter season. Invite neighbors to the table to eat and celebrate with you.
20. After Lazarus was raised, his family threw a party to celebrate. Throw a party at your home to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection!
*Many of these ideas were taken and adapted from https://wau.org/resources/article/re6_family_50_days_easter/