St. Paul’s suspends classes in observance of Good Friday.  While not all of our families, faculty, or staff are Episcopalian, the school closes to observe one of the most solemn three-day periods in our tradition.

Through the period of Lent and especially as we approach the Holy Week, many Christians are thinking about and reflecting on the sacrifice of Jesus. However, when we are thinking about it with small children, it’s hard to know what to say so they can appreciate it and yet not be disturbed or scared! Over fifty years ago, Sofia Cavalletti (a Hebrew and Scripture scholar) and Gianna Gobbi (her Montessori collaborator), came up with a brilliant idea that allows the children to think about the Lenten story. The City of Jerusalem Map is one of the works in our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Atrium.

This is an amazing work that allows us to walk alongside Jesus through his last days, his death and his resurrection. Children come to understand that Jerusalem was a real city, and become familiar with its features. They also begin to appreciate that Jesus spent some of the most important moments of his life in Jerusalem. As I’ve worked with this material over the years and with children of different ages, I’ve come to appreciate it so much. In a very gentle way, without becoming overly emotional, this material takes children to the heart of our faith. It gently explains the last Supper and Jesus’ death, and it celebrates the joy and hope that is His resurrection. The focus is not on Christ’s suffering and death, but rather on His passing through suffering and death to the joy of His resurrection.

Christ is risen!

We can show children the cross and the tomb, but we always remove the cross and replace it with a candle. The candle is lit as we sing:

“The light of Christ has come into the world, the light of Christ has come into the world”

Good Friday is the day when the Church marks the death of Jesus, which is a dark day, but is within this darkness that the light of Easter shines. Easter, in contrast to Good Friday, is the brightest and most festive of festivals in the Church for it is the day of Christ’s resurrection. Easter is a day of new life and beginnings.

Some Easter “Fun Facts”

• Why is it called “Easter”? The English word ‘Easter’ comes from the Old English name for a Germanic goddess, whose feast was in April.  The name of the celebration remained even as the religious meaning changed.  Most Christians in the non-English speaking world refer to Easter as ‘Pascha’ coming from the word for Passover in both Greek and Latin.
  
• Why is Easter a different date each year? Easter is always the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or before March 21^st.  Although all Churches use the same method, Eastern Churches determine March 21^st based on the Julian, rather than Gregorian, calendar so the dates for Easter can be as many as five weeks apart.
  
• Where does the Easter Bunny come from? In German Lutheran folklore, the “Easter Hare” would come to judge good and bad children, giving toys and decorated eggs as rewards. When Germans immigrated to the United States, they brought this tradition with them, shaping the Easter celebration as we know it today.