Two Changes About Easter the First Presidency is Asking Us to Make

I recently found myself in a meeting being instructed at the feet of an apostle. He outlined that the First Presidency wants members to do two things so that our focus and worship during Easter will equal, if not surpass, that of Christmas. He then urged those of us in the meeting to echo the message and priority of the First Presidency in how we approach this holiest of seasons. The two things the First Presidency wants us to do are:

1. Change our view of Easter from a single ‘Holy Day’ into an entire season.
2. Establish Christ-centric traditions for the Easter Season.

Both of these changes are changes to help Latter-day Saints put Easter in its proper place within our culture. As the holiest time of the year, given more time and attention even than Christmas. This apostle spoke of his family and how growing up Easter was a single day, often with a focus on Easter Egg hunts or other similar activities. We then watched the recent 1st Presidency Message from Dallin H. Oaks (If you have not watched it, Click HERE) where we are charged with establishing Easter Traditions. He then urged us to make Easter equal to, if not greater than Christmas, and to focus on Christ.

With that goal in mind, I want to give some ideas on how to do these two things the First Presidency is asking us to do!

Transforming Easter into a season, not just a single Holy Day

If we want Easter to equal, if not surpass Christmas, the first thing we need to do is change our mindset from “Easter Sunday” to “Easter Season.” From ChurchOfJesusChrsit.org/Easter it says, “Easter is more than one Sunday each year. Easter is a time of renewal and a season to remember the love of Jesus Christ.” One cannot simply say “Easter is a season” and make it so. So how do we do it? If we look at Christmas we can get some ideas!

Easter Music

With Christmas, we listen to Christmas music all month long. I LOVE Christmas for this reason. It is the one time of year I can sing outside and people don’t think I am weird. The rest of the year I just get looks! Do NOT underestimate the power of music in setting the tone. With Easter we can start listening to many of the amazing hymns, children’s songs, and other music regarding Christ, grace, the atonement, and Easter. Some of my favorites are:

• Amazing Grace (I personally love playing Amazing Grace on the Bagpipes, but if I am listening to it, I enjoy Chris Tomlin’s ‘My Chains Are Gone’ version See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-4NFvI5U9w )
• Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
• Jesus Once of Humble Birth
• Gethsemane
• O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown (I LOVE the version by Gentri https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJwbRq9xY78)
• He Sent His Son (Children’s Songbook #34)
• I lived in Heaven (Children’s Songbook #4)
• Tell Me the Stories of Jesus (Children’s Songbook #57, but also the 4th and 5th verses that are not included in the songbook:
  
  Into the city I’d follow the children’s band,
  Waving a branch of the palm tree high in my hand;
  One of His heralds, yes, I would sing
  Loudest hosannas, “Jesus is King!”
  
  Show me that scene in the garden, of bitter pain;
  Show me the cross where my Savior for me was slain;
  Sad ones or bright ones, so that they be
  Stories of Jesus—tell them to me.
• “O, Divine Redeemer” (The Tabernacle Choir has a great version of this, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQPC-SX-Rvw)
• I Know That My Redeemer Lives
• I believe in Christ
• Did Jesus Really Live Again? (Children’s Songbook #64)

These are just a few of the many Easter songs that can help you turn Easter from a day into a whole season of worshiping Christ. The Church announced they will be sharing Easter Music on their YouTube, Strive to Be, and Gospel Stream channels during the Easter Season.

Easter Decorations

Christmas is not made by the decorations, but there is something about seeing Christmas lights, trees, and Nativity crèches that puts you in the Christmas mood. The same can be true with Easter! Just like with Christmas, you can add to your decorations a little here and a little there. I strongly urge you to NOT go into debt to get Easter Decorations! There are many homemade, or budget-friendly decorations that can be used to turn your home into an Easter-themed holy place. Ideas include:

• Physical Pictures of Christ. (These can range from cutting out pictures from the Liahona to buying something framed and fancy).
• Have your kids color pictures of Christ and hang them up! (Click here for the Church’s MASSIVE collection of Coloring pictures of Jesus)
• A Christus Statue. (I know, this one can be pretty expensive, so perhaps get a very small one. Or, if you want a bigger one, it is something you save for and buy for Christmas and have next year. But think of it like a Christmas Tree, many people are ok with spending a lot for a tree, this can even be a year-round addition to your home!)
• Banners. During Christmas, it is common to see a Banner saying “CHRISTMAS” For Easter you can easily replicate this with banners declaring: “Hosanna” or “He is Risen!” or even “The Tomb is Empty!”

Incorporating Passover

Another fantastic thing to do as part of your Easter Season is to elevate your remembrance of Passover as it truly was a foreshadowing of Christ and Easter. Anything and everything from perhaps having a Seder meal, to breaking out Charlton Heston’s The 10 Commandments. Or in my case, because I have little kids, we plan on watching the Prince of Egypt and talking with the kids about the Passover, and how it relates to the last week of Christ’s life. (This is a fantastic activity to do during Holy Week on Passover Thursday!)

Establishing Christ-Centric Easter Season Traditions

Another key to transforming Easter from a singular day, into a season is finding Christ-centric traditions to do throughout the weeks leading up to Easter. Here are some ideas for Christ-centric Easter Season Traditions!

Holy Week

Holy week is the term used to describe the last week of Christ’s mortal life, and the week leading up to Easter. Each of the day of the week Christ did something, and we can do something too! The Church has created a webpage describing the events of each day, giving biblical verses, and giving examples of what we can do to grow our relationship with Jesus Christ during this week. See: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/easter/holy-week

Beyond the ideas the Church gives, here are a few other ideas for traditions you can start to commemorate Holy Week:

• Watch “None Were With Him” Easter Message by President Holland for Palm Sunday.
  (The full talk is fantastic, click HERE for that, or HERE for the shortened 4-minute version)
• Go to the Temple for an Endowment Session on Good Friday.
• Watch “The 10 Commandments” or “The Prince of Egypt” on Passover Thursday.
• Take a walk around the temple on Monday for FHE and talk about Jesus Cleansing the temple. (You can draw parallels between what Jesus did and how the clean temple grounds are. Then explain how much more important it is for us to be clean).
• Study the First Vision on Palm Sunday, as many scholars believe it actually happened on Palm Sunday 1820. (For more on this, see “What Palm Sunday has to do with the First Vision.”)

Study the FIVE gospels.

One of my favorite studies to do leading up to Easter is to study all 5 gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and 3rd Nephi. This study is pretty intensive and takes a lot of time, so perhaps a short version can be done too, maybe just the final week of Christ’s life in the four gospels, followed up by the account of Christ visiting in 3rd Nephi.

Watch The Chosen

I am a big fan of The Chosen. A great Christ-centered Easter Season Tradition can be to watch the Chosen. Whether you binge-watch all of it, or perhaps an episode each night leading up to Easter or even leading up to Holy Week. Just remember, despite how amazing the Chosen is, it should not replace reading the actual scriptures during Easter. You can watch it on BYU TV at https://www.byutv.org/the-chosen

General Conference

Of of the biggest evidence we have for our belief in the resurrected Christ, is the living prophets we have on earth today! April General Conference specifically is the great marriage of our belief in living prophets and focusing on Christ during Easter! Why April? Well, because of Easter’s proximity, and often overlapping with April General Conference there are almost always half a dozen talks that speak of Easter.

There are many ways you can integrate watching or listening to General Conference as a Christ-centered tradition and part of your Easter Season! Some ideas include: If General Conference is before Easter, you can watch it as a family! If it is after Easter, then perhaps on the few Sundays leading up to Easter you can watch an Easter-themed talk. Or perhaps each day leading up to Easter Sunday you listen to one talk in your personal study. Seriously, just search “Easter” and you will find pages and pages of conference talks! Here are just 10 of my favorites:

• None Were with Him By President Jeffrey R. Holland (GC: Apr. 2009) (REALLY good for Palm Sunday)
• Behold the Man! By Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf (GC: Apr. 2018)
• Sunday Will Come By Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (GC: Oct. 2006) (REALLY good for Good Friday)
• He Is Risen By President Howard W. Hunter (GC: Apr. 1998)
• The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told By Elder Gary E. Stevenson (GC: Apr. 2023)
• The Empty Tomb Bore Testimony By President Gordon B. Hinckley (GC: Apr. 1988)
• “He Is Not Here, but Is Risen” By President Gordon B. Hinckley (GC: Apr. 1999)
• Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains By President Russell M. Nelson (GC: Apr. 2021)
• Where Justice, Love, and Mercy Meet By President Jeffrey R. Holland (GC: Apr. 2015)
• Christ the Lord Is Risen Today By Elder Gerrit W. Gong (GC: Apr. 2018)

An Easter Egg Devotional

Growing up, the only Easter Tradition I can truly remember was our Easter Egg Devotional. It is a super easy and child-friendly activity to do as well! Here are the instructions from my mom with notes on how I have adapted it!

Take 12 Easter Eggs, and label them 1 through 12. (I just used a Sharpie).

In each egg put the following scripture verse and item:

1. Matthew 26:14-15. A silver coin. (I used a dime).
2. Matthew 26:39. A clear or paper nut-sized cup. (Honestly, I just kept a sacrament cup).
3. Matthew 27:1-2. A piece of rope
4. Matthew 27:24-26. A piece of soap.
5. Matthew 27:28-30. A piece of red fabric and rose thorns.
6. Matthew 27:31-32. A nail.
7. Matthew 27:35-36. Dice.
8. Matthew 27:50-51, 54. Soil-because of the earthquake (I put it in a ziplock bag).
9. Matthew 27:58-60. A piece of white linen or cloth.
10. Matthew 27:60, 65-66. A stone/rock.
11. Mark 16:1. Spices. (I went to a hippy store and got Frankincense resin, you can also order some online, or put something else to symbolize the spices)
12. Matthew 28:6. No item

Once the eggs are filled, place all the eggs in a basket or egg carton. On Easter Sunday, or on each day leading up to Easter Sunday, pass the basket/carton around to all those present and open each egg, carefully and in order, then review the life and resurrection of Christ. Each egg has a different scripture to look up and read, as well as an item that depicts Christ’s Story. The last one is empty because the tomb was empty!

Therefore what?

I hope these ideas have started the process for you to receive personal revelation on ways you can turn Easter into a Season and establish Christ-centric traditions in your family. As always, remember a tradition needs to be sustainable, so it is ok to start small. Also, please share any other ideas you have in the comments, or this article with your friends!

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