The days
before Easter are each a part of a whole. Good Friday is
followed by Holy Saturday, a busy day of preparation that
expresses confidence that Easter Sunday will bring rebirth,
happiness, sunrise. Many resources offer suggestions for
celebrating Easter, few consider the days before, the days
of Holy Week, part of the process. I wanted the somber Good
Friday mood to enrich our family celebrations, enhancing the
meaning of Easter Sunday.
"Sorrow
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
At our
house at noon on Good Friday the children and I stripped the
house. Pictures were taken down, anything of beauty put
away. A black table cloth was put on the table. A barren,
desolate feeling pervaded the house for a few hours. The
weather often turned moody with clouds in the western sky.
When the Earth's somber mood was most pronounced, I would
say something like:
"The
Earth remembers. Each year on Good Friday she remembers the
time when Christ experienced the suffering that human beings
experience."
In the
evening, the supper table had at each place a white plate
and on the plate a stalk of cel
ery
and some almonds. The table was otherwise bare,
stark -- an artistic expression of the Good Friday mood.
However, once the symbolic celery and almonds were eaten (or
not eaten), a regular meal was served, macaroni and cheese,
maybe -- nothing special.
Sometime
during the day, before or during the three somber hours from
12 o'clock to 3 o'clock, I would read the Ludwig Bechstein
story, "The Wandering Staff", a story which focuses on the
sufferings of the world. The little boy in the story, whose
mother keeps an inn, steals the walking staff of an old man
who comes to the inn each year just before Easter. The boy
hides the staff in the grandfather clock case, but each Good
Friday it comes out and forces the boy to walk the world,
seeing all the sorrow and suffering. Year after year the
boy suffers, until at last when he is so weak and ill that
he can hardly walk one mile in one day, the old man returns
and takes the staff back.
I left the
story unexplained, honoring the mood more than the content.
I knew that if I read it (or told it) with feeling, in the
night it would speak its truth inwardly.
Rituals
and festivals have a language that is truer than any
explanation we can give to our children.
What we do
and how we do it have their own language. If words seemed
necessary - and sometimes they really were -- I used words
that spoke to feelings and insights. I discovered that
children about five years old and up appreciate words that
express feelings and ideals. It gives the soul words to
express its thoughts. If the children were younger I might
answer direct questions with a few words that give a picture
more than a thought or something like "I wonder about that,
too."
Saturday of Easter Week became the day of waiting and
preparing for the joy that is sure to come.
The
children and I were busy all day with cleaning, deco
rating,
baking, dying eggs, preparing the materials for the dreamy,
sunrise water color painting we would do the next day. Many
of our Saturday activities were family traditions, but
always there was something new - a new way of decorating
eggs, a new decoration, a special food we had not tried
before.
The Easter
box held the things we brought out each year. For example,
the small, gaily painted wooden spring scenes, simple folk
art -- a little bird on a wheelbarrow, flowers, a small
birdhouse. We also had symbols of transformation in various
styles -- butterflies made with gauze or painted wood or
tissue paper. One Easter I got a babysitter for a couple of
days in the week before and made a wall-sized sunrise scene
out of pastel tissue paper, a surprise that magically
appeared on the dining room wall during the night (with my
help, of course) and was there in its glory on Easter
morning. Another year we discovered the book The Easter
Egg Artists by Adrienne Adams and pored over the
illustrations for ideas for Easter eggs.
Children need meaning, of course, as well as activities.
Thoughtful
preparation creates the mood in you, a mood that tends to
permeate the space around you, passing from one person to
another. Finding a way to spe
nd
some meditative time alone in the days before can enrich
their lives, and your own. Reading, contemplating, talking
with another adult brings thoughts that activate heart
forces, forces than can then subtly enhance family rituals.
So little time is actually required, but it always took an
effort on my part to find that time. There is so much else
to do.
Children may not act thoughtful or reverent or even seem
interested in what is going on, but the inner things still
make an impression.
It may be
late in their life (or never) when what lies in the depths
wells up, but still, it is there. Whatever approach they
take to Spirit, to the inwardness of things, what you offer
may have a later value.
The week
that leads up to Easter has a quality all its own. Year by
year you can discover in yourself the depth of feeling and
the anticipation that lead from Good Friday to Easter.
The story
"The Wandering Staff" is from The Fairy Tales of Ludwig
Bechstein (recommended by Steiner), copyright 1966.
This is an old book that I discovered at a second hand
sale. You are not likely to find it. I will make some
copies of the story for anyone who wants me to send them
one. eleisher@aol.com
The Easter
Egg Artists
is by Adrienne Adams and can be found at most libraries in
the seasonal section.
Waldorf
sources have many verses, stories, songs for celebrating
both Spring and Easter. Occasionally you will find
something about the days before also.
