Dogwoods, mite boxes, Cadbury Eggs, and ukeleles

Try explaining Easter to a little kid. I tried once when Kate was 4-years-old and knew I'd failed miserably when her big blue eyes got even bigger and she said "Oooh! A ghost story!" Sigh. Christmas is sooo much easier to talk about. Even a little child can understand the birth of a new baby, eh? But this raising-from-the-dead thing is a tough one to sell to, well, lots of people, but certainly to a youngster.

So we build Easter traditions and trust - we hope - that if the kid hears the story enough times s/he'll grow into it (OK, maybe four was a little young for the resurrection part). GrandBoy's Easter traditions will be set in motion by his parents and family, his church family, and perhaps some friends. He's a wee boy on his first Easter, and those traditions will start tomorrow for him.

But when his mama was growing up, her Easter traditions involved:

• new clothes, usually with a hat of some kind
• mite boxes (for an Easter offering) full of so many coins that they had to be taped up to hold them together
• dogwoods (and whatever other spring flowers we had in the yard on Easter morn) to flower the cross at church
• a crazy priest with a ukelele leading the congregation in a round of "God Is A Surprise" (Your mama will teach it to you, Liam.)
• the wild and woolly race to find the Cadbury Eggs at the annual chaotic family Easter egg hunt (Cousin Mikey was ruthless where those Cadbury Eggs were concerned, as I recall.) 
• Honey Baked Ham. Mmm-mmm. (And one year we watched the film Babe after lunch. I know. Sick family.)

Until GrandBoy is old enough to understand the deeper meaning of Easter, lots of lovely traditions will lay a foundation for him. Not very theological, I'll admit (especially the new clothes/Cadbury Egg part), but it'll have to do for now.

Happy Easter to all! God is a surprise!