Holy Week treats and crafts

Like I said in my last post, this year I found so many good ideas online for Holy Week food and crafts that we had a blast trying new recipes and using food to help explain the meaning of each day.

On Holy Thursday we had a meal similar to what Jesus and his apostles might have had on the night of the Last Supper...ok maybe food that just represented what they had :)  We had meatloaf (to remind us of lamb), bread (to remind us of unleavened bread), spinach salad (to remind us of bitter herbs), applesauce (to remind us of the Charoses, the bricks and mortar the Jews laid in Egypt), red wine & grape juice, and lamb cupcakes (to remind us that Jesus is the Pascal lamb).  You can read more about the explanation of Holy Thursday foods here: http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/04/holy-thursday-in-home.html.

We also learned that it is an old tradition to make soft pretzels during Lent...so old, that there are records of the Lenten pretzel that date all the way back to a 5th century manuscript in the Vatican library!  Pretzels were traditionally only eaten during lent. Early Christians didn't eat dairy products during lent, so pretzels were made because they consisted of three very simple ingredients: flour, salt, and water.  They are made in the shape of 2 arms crossed in prayer.  Who knew pretzels were such a Christian snack!  You can find the recipe that we used at:  http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/04/pretzels.html

So what did we do...we made pretzels!  And I have to say, they were quite delicious!

See Rose's explanation here

In addition to our parish's Holy Week services, I also found a cartoon version of Christ's passion that the girls watched on Good Friday to meditate on the happenings of these important days in our Church history.  Paul and I watched the adult-version (Mel Gibson Passion movie) after the kids went to bed.

On Holy Saturday, our Easter preparations began.  We started off the morning decorating eggs.  We made very girly eggs this year...sorry Paul...but I think they turned out pretty neat.  My favorite were the majestic eggs...they made a beautiful center-piece!

We also made some fun Easter-themed treats such as:

Easter bunny donut pops (idea via Olivia via Pinterest)

Homemade dark chocolate Reese eggs (via Pinterest)

Peep kabobs (idea via Pinterest)

As far as decorations go, the girls did manage to do enough sacrifices during lent to take out all the thorns in our salt-dough crown of thorns, so the night before Easter, I filled each hole with flowers, which made it into a beautiful display for our dining room table.

I also dug up the Alleluia banner that we buried at the beginning of Lent and hung it up that evening so it could be on display for the girls Easter morning.

Lastly, we made our own Paschal candle and had it blessed by our pastor so that we can light it every night between Easter and the Ascension...if we remember to do it!  It was a fun way to explain the meaning of the Church's Easter candle to the girls.

I hope I am not boring you with all our little Easter details.  It helps me to write it all down to remember what we did from year to year.  And then I can show the girls how and when some of our traditions started.

Hugs!