24 Mar Beyond the Religiosity and the Penitence: 10 Tips for a More Meaningful Lent
It’s not that hard for adults to find something to do during the Holy Week, be it joining religious processions or taking an out-of-town vacation. However, families need to consider if their kids, especially the very young ones, won’t die of boredom because they don’t understand what’s going on. So whatever you decide to do for the Holy Week, make sure you put your kids and the loop and make the effort for them to understand what’s going on so they can see a more meaningful Lent that will impact on them when they become adults. Naturally, don’t take your kids on religious traditions that may have a negative impact on them like witnessing a live crucifixion or live flagellations.
In actual reality, it isn’t hard to celebrate the Holy Week even if you do it in your own home or go somewhere else near home. Here are the top 10 suggestions we can offer for families with kids who want to celebrate for a more meaningful Lenten season.
Your family can pray together for recent world disasters
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Your family, especially your kids, can do some family prayer time and pray for some selected world events that have a strong impact on a global scale. In more recent events, the family can perhaps pray for world peace and for the victims of the recent terrorist bombings in Istanbul, Turkey, and Brussels, Belgium. Prayers can also be said for the ongoing El Niño weather phenomenon that is causing many droughts on a global scale. For more local events, the family can pray for meaningful and corruption-free national elections. To make the prayers more meaningful, parents can explain to the kids what the events are all about and why they need to pray for them.
Read Children’s Easter Books
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If you have young kids you can read selected children’s Easter books that depict what happened during the Holy Week in the life of Jesus Christ. You need to explain to your kids why these four days eventually changed the world for many centuries to come. Focus more on the spiritual and sacrificial aspects of the stories and compare them to present situations on the same scale in order to draw away from discussing whether Jesus was a true or fictional character.
Bake Easter cookies with your kids
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One of the best things to look forward to at home for Easter is the Easter cookies that can be filled or topped with anything. To get the kids more excited over the cookies, let them help out in baking the cookies by giving them simple instructions or making them kitchen apprentices or gofers. The children will be delighted when the cookies are inside the oven and will anxiously await what they proudly helped make. Great bonding time for everyone.
Make Resurrection Easter Eggs
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When you have a family Easter egg hunt during the Easter family reunion, aside from the normal Easter hardboiled painted eggs, mix in around a half dozen plastic eggs, each containing a short child-friendly story with a moral lesson. Then gather all the children to tell these stories and explain the moral lessons. The cousins will love these bonding times together.
Tree planting expedition
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If you want to teach really meaningful lessons to your children aside from spirituality, take them on a tree planting expedition to explain the importance of taking care of trees and the environment. You’ll need to call the local DENR ranger station or office for the nearest forest park or tree planting station in the city. However, do be careful not to teach your kids sweeping statements like “cutting trees is evil” or selling them the nonsense of climate change.
Visit museums
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Major cities, even Cagayan de Oro, has historical and art museums that portray religious painting and artifacts. Bring your family to these museums and explain to them the impact/moral lesson/life story of these paintings and artifacts and what effect they have on people’s lives today.
Do general cleaning
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If your family really does opt to stay at home this year, you can tell them the story of the Jewish Passover and how the Jews had to clean up their homes before the celebration. Then, get everyone involved in doing a general cleaning of the house in order to prepare for the resurrection of Christ. The general rule is to get rid of junk and things no longer needed in order to free up more space. Have the kids concentrate on their own rooms and reward them later if they do a good job at cleaning.
Attend a sunrise service
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Some religions and churches offer sunrise services (like the Catholic “Salubong” or “Tagbo”) to signify meeting Christ at sunrise when he is resurrected. You can explain to your children what the celebration is all about and the different songs that are sung by the choir to signify the rising of Christ from the dead. After this get the whole family to partake of an early morning breakfast at a restaurant or fast food joint for further bonding time. This beats the usual tradition of going to crowded beaches on Easter Sunday.
Sacrifice and give
Since it’s the Holy Week, get each family member to sacrifice some things in celebration of the Lenten season. Aside from the traditional practice of giving up meat, perhaps family members can give up using the internet or their gadgets for the next 2 or 3 days. The family can also sacrifice using their mobile phones and turning all but one phone off. The one phone left turned on is only for communication purposes. Junk foods may be sacrificed as well. In turn, the family may opt to find a charitable institution run by churches to donate meaningful things for Easter like food or even money.
Say “thank you” to those who have shaped your life
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It isn’t just for birthdays or Christmas, but you can also say “thank you” during the Lenten season to relatives, family members, mentors, coaches, teachers, priests, pastors, close friends, work colleagues, and others that have shaped you into the person you are. You can send a note of gratitude to them, text them, call them, message them on social media, or e-mail them. Tell them how much they meant to you and how they inspired you.
There are actually many ways to be observant and meaningful during Lent. You can be original and find your own way to do so. You don’t have to be limited to the above; what is important is that you and your family can find the bonding and meaningfulness of the Lenten season.
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