Easter Garden

Easter is one of the most significant holidays and it has been a joy lately to teach my children that it is about more than bunnies, eggs, and chocolate. To help them experience the true reason we celebrate Easter, we made an Easter Garden. I was inspired by this Easter Garden tutorial on A Holy Experience.

Our Initial Supplies: 

Large Plant Pot, Plants, Compost, Small Plant Pot, Stones, Candles, Small Candle Holder

Supplies for Later in the Week:

Wax

Small Piece of Cloth

Butterfly

I took my little girl and boy to the garden centre and let them choose plants for our garden. We also bought a large plant pot and compost. We found all the other supplies in and around our house.

It was such fun to arrange and plant the plants together. I let the kids decide where they wanted everything. We put the small pot on its side and partially filled it with compost. Ann (A Holy Experience) suggested writing the words Grace, Resurrection, or Joy on a stone near the 'tomb' and my kids chose Joy. I'm pretty sure it's because being 3 and 4 years old, they understand what Joy is but are still trying to grasp the concepts of Grace and Resurrection.

We made a path of stones leading to the tomb and our freedom from death. I love this imagery. We filled a small candle holder with water and sunk it into the dirt to be our small pond. We then placed candles around the garden which we will light one each night leading up to Easter. Making this Easter Garden with my children was such a joy and a really special way to inspire conversation about Christ's great sacrifice and resurrection.

In the days to come, we'll do the other things suggested in the tutorial: 1) Planting seeds on Palm Sunday to represent the hope that is coming soon. 2) On Good Friday, make a wax caterpillar and cover it with cloth and place it on the tomb. 3) On Sunday, there will be a butterfly in place of the caterpillar to represent new life.

After making this, I've also realized that I love having live plants in the house. It relaxes me to glance over and see lovely green growth, such a contrast from the grey misery outside the windows. 

If you have a moment, please take a look at the tutorial on A Holy Experience. Ann uses her words in such a magical way and the symbolism of the Easter Garden may become clearer from reading her original tutorial.

☼

I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.