A Holy Week Easter Egg Hunt!

Most egg hunts happen now before Easter, as opposed to during the Easter season.  I suspect that this is because most kids are back in school the day after Easter Sunday now, so usually the hunts are the day before Easter or the day before Palm Sunday.  We had never really had a problem with this, our church's hunt (the Saturday before Palm Sunday) was just simply a lead up to Holy Week for us.  It is a wonderful community event at our parish, and I want my children to experience that community.  I would always let the kids choose a piece of candy to enjoy, and then they would put it all away, to be brought out and enjoyed on Easter. 

This was all well and good until last year, when I started hearing, "It's Easter!  We're hunting for eggs and on vacation!"  Well, the 'on vacation' part I couldn't do much about, but I certainly could fix the egg hunt issue!  This is a take on other egg ideas all over the internet.  Type 'Resurrection Eggs' or 'Stations of the Cross Eggs' into a search engine, and you'll get some ideas.  The basic premise is to take symbols from the events of Holy Week, put the symbols into plastic eggs, hide them around your house, hunt for them, and as you open them, read the Holy Week stories from the Bible.  Here's how we did it last year, step by step.

Above are the symbols I used.  Here is the list, top to bottom, starting with the column on the left.

1. The rolled up pipe cleaner is soft, like the fur of the donkey Jesus rode into Jerusalem.
2. A palm branch for the branches that were waved.
3. A dove and cotton ball (lamb's fur)  for the money lenders and trade going on at the temple.
4. Three dimes for the thirty pieces of silver, the amount of money for which Judas betrayed Jesus.
5. Soap and a Towel for Jesus washing the apostles' feet.
6. A Cracker and (top 2nd column) Chalice toy representing the institution of the Eucharist.
7. A picture of a flower representing the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed.
8. The letter 'Z' representing the sleeping apostles.
9. A chocolate kiss for Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss.
10. A toy sword for Peter cutting off the servant's ear.
11. Lanyard or rope for Jesus being bound.
12. The number three (top 3rd column) for the number of times Peter denied Jesus.
13. A red feather for the crowing of the rooster.
14. Yarn tied to look like a whip for the scourging.
15. Gravel representing Jesus carrying His cross on the road.
16. A toy soldier
17. Purple cloth (top 4th column) for Jesus being stripped of His garments.
18. Nails for Jesus nailed to the cross.
19. Sign saying 'INRI' for the sign above Jesus' head.
20. Dice for the soldiers gambling for Jesus' garment. 
21. Blue cloth for Jesus speaking to His mother.
22. A black oval representing the eclipse of the sun.
23. A ripped cloth (top 5th column) representing the torn curtain of the temple.
24. A rock for the rock placed in front of the tomb.
25. An empty egg representing the resurrection.
26. Sand representing the three times Jesus fell.

I placed all these items in eggs and hid them around the house.  I made sure I had 30 items, since I have 3 kids and that way they could each find 10 eggs, but you could do fewer than I did.  We hunted for the eggs, found them, opened them, and talked about what they could mean.  Then I read the Holy Week events to them, and as we read, the children would pick up the items as we read about them.  I ended with the resurrection, as I think it's better for little ones to know that the story doesn't end with Good Friday.

    

We had so much fun doing this, and it really drove home the point that this week is about Christ, not the candy.

A blessed Holy Week!
Carolyn