After 40 days of Lent and an intense Holy Week, Easter Sunday can unearth a great ALLELUIA from deep inside us. Will your community of faith feel that Alleluia is coming forth? Consider how you can enhance the celebration of resurrection.

Easter is a big deal for Christians. Easter weekend can be full of activities and celebrations. Pick and choose according to your faith community and your available time and budget.  Ask a volunteer task force to help decide and organize the weekend.

Holy Saturday

• An Easter egg hunt is a traditional favorite.
• Hold special events such as hosting a petting zoo or an Easter hat parade.
• Organize a whole-family (or intergenerational) event to decorate the church for Easter Sunday. (See welcoming entrance below.)
• Service project events can be a great gathering time, such as making pet toys or gathering pet food for an animal shelter, making blankets or hygiene bags for homeless shelters, creating cards for hospitalized and homebound people, collecting food for food shelves, holding a book swap or parents’ night out, etc.
• Host a craft-making extravaganza. Invite families and individuals to come and make Easter crafts in preparation for the next day’s Easter celebration. You can find numerous ideas on Easter craft websites.
• Create learning opportunities for all ages. Rehearse “bucket drumming” for an Easter song for anyone interested. Put on a lay-led special retreat (see Spirit & Truth Publishing’s Celebrations curriculum).

Easter Vigil

• The Easter Vigil is a transitional service from Lent to Easter, a bridge between the mourning of Good Friday and the joy of Easter Sunday. The word “vigil” means “wakefulness.”  Many denominations and websites have suggestions for orders of worship, including a bonfire, lighting of the Easter candle, liturgy, sacraments, and hymns.
• Not many suggestions highlight the inclusion of children. However, this service has many elements that invite all ages into the experience. You can start with a bonfire or fire pit outside the church doors (maybe with s’mores?) and then process into the sanctuary with battery-operated candles. Most services include a plethora of sensory experiences: fire (candles—real or battery-operated, torches, etc.), bells, water, and the bread and wine (grape juice) of communion. After the service, you can have a party. Jesus has risen from the dead. Alleluia!

Easter Sunday

This can be an absolutely bursting Sunday celebration! Consider whole-congregation involvement before, during, and after your Easter worship service.

Before the worship service:

• Make a welcoming entrance for this Easter celebration. Fill your entryways with the signs and sounds of this Easter festival.
• Welcome everyone with streamers, balloons, flowers, ribbons or banners, and children’s posters.
• The open “Alleluia trunk.” (See “Ideas for Ash Wednesday and Lent” blog post)
• Food: cake, pie, cupcakes, potluck of pastries, fruit, hard-boiled eggs, donuts, etc.
• Live music: “bucket drumming,” guitar, string quartet (my favorite is high school students playing their instruments)
• Inflatable tube dancer, bubble machine, photo booth

During the worship service

• Bells: Have bells on ribbons for all to pick up. Whenever people hear or sing the word Alleluia, they ring their bells. Instructions should be in the bulletin and by verbal announcement.
• Sign language: Teach the sign for Alleluia, and instruct the whole community to wave this sign in the air each time they hear the word.
• Drawing: Place a blank piece of paper in the bulletin or in the seats with instructions to draw what Easter looks like. Collect the drawings during the offering or after the service, and hang them up for all to see during the next weeks.
• Collect service project items.

After the worship service

• Continue all the welcoming entrance sights and sounds.
• Food: Continue to offer the before-the-service food, breakfast bar, potluck, popcorn machine, cotton candy machine, hire a local food truck, or have a picnic.
• Activities: crafting table, egg decorating, games, or inflatables (bouncy house, slide, maze, etc.). 
• Fill canning jars called “Love Jars” with candy or cookies, tie with a ribbon, and include a card giving Easter greetings. Challenge worshippers to deliver them to their neighbors.

When you have decided on your Easter weekend opportunities, communicate, advertise, and invite the entire community. Let everyone know what will be happening on this festival weekend.

Remember to pray. Remember to breathe.

Grace & Peace

Kirsten Patterson

About the Writer

Kirsten is an educational professional with 28 years of experience in communities of faith, skilled in motivating, teaching, and team building. She has demonstrated expertise in building an arc of faith formation and educational opportunities from age 2 through adult. This has included fellowship, outreach, and intergenerational and age-specific classes. With Spirit & Truth Publishing, Kirsten is happily employed as a writer and collaborator.

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