Day 20: A Holiday You Love

Easter 2017.  Etsy style.

I am grateful for the holiday of Easter.  I sometimes write a post during and about Lent, but haven't written much about the celebration time that follows, so here goes!  First, the secular part.  I'm grateful for the fun traditions that go with Easter, especially when you have younger kids - egg dyeing, Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, allll the candy.  I'm grateful for the time together with family, and how ham and potato casserole and an extravagant dessert taste like Easter.  I'm even grateful for these increasingly rare occasions where we really take the trouble to get the kids dressed up, hair brushed, pictures taken - because I know that these are the kind of pictures that make frames, and photo albums, and that I still enjoy looking back on from my own childhood.  

Second, Holy Week - I am grateful for how, in liturgical churches, they take you through the days leading up to the Easter celebration.  Maundy Thursday with the washing of feet.  Good Friday, remembering the sacrifice and crushing sadness.  The quiet, confused, desperate waiting and wondering of Saturday.  Remembering all of this helps us fully appreciate what it is we're celebrating when we get to Sunday.  

Third, Easter day itself.  I am so grateful for Christ's resurrection from the dead.  I'm grateful for how it happened during spring, when new life abounds.  I'm grateful for the joyful songs we get to sing each year in church to celebrate.  I'm grateful for the great, life giving hope it brings to the whole world, and  I'm grateful for a conquering of death, sadness, and sorrow.