Five Ways to Celebrate Holy Week and Easter
With Holy Week near, I want to share five ways you can celebrate Holy Week and Easter in your Catholic home (and if you aren’t Catholic, you can do this too!). The home is, as the Church teaches, the “domestic church”. Holy Week, the Triduum, and Easter are the holiest days of the year for Catholics. Let’s live like it! Let’s take small steps to make this week feel and look different in our lives, because we are made for holiness.
Decorate with the holy days of the week
Many of you know that I try to keep things simple but I do love to add intentional touches to my home for the seasons and liturgical year. (and I’ll be honest, some of my decor from Christmas still hangs above one window in the kitchen, but it is such a cute little garland with wool balls and stars, that I couldn’t part with the joyful look it adds). Intentional touches can be so simple and impactful, as well as affordable if not free!
- for Palm Sunday, use a red cloth napkin or fabric piece (you can purchase inexpensive “fat quarters” at the fabric or craft store) on a prayer table.
- for Monday-Thursday, switch the fabric back to purple until Holy Thursday evening. Use white for Holy Thursday evening, since we celebrate the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper
- for Good Friday, remove statues, prayer table cloths, and flowers if you have any out
- optional for Good Friday, lay a small grapevine wreath on the prayer table with a candle. The wreath looks a little bit like a crown of thorns.
- on Holy Saturday, trim budding tree branches and place them in a vase, then place the vase on your prayer or kitchen table. Purchase flowers for Easter but keep them in a different room until Easter morning.
Begin praying the Divine Mercy Novena on Good Friday
The Divine Mercy Novena has changed my heart and life. Several years ago, praying this novena led to a significant change for the better in my life, and I am forever grateful. It’s a story to be shared maybe some other time, but the reality is God’s mercy is abundant!
One of my favorite parts of this novena is that each day begins with a different group of people to pray for, like priests, those who do not believe, those who have chosen to separate themselves from the Church, and the souls in purgatory. It’s part of our mission as the “church militant” or “the pilgrim church” on earth to pray for others, and praying for these intentions in union with so many others is indescribably powerful.
Create an Alleluia banner with your children (or on your own, if you don’t have children)
I’ve made a few different banners over the years. One was with a store-bought kraft paper banner, and during the quarantine of 2020 I sewed a beautiful fabric bunting. Not every year allows me the time to create something from scratch like that! This year, I created a print-and-color banner you can download now and color all week. Then trim the banners, hole-punch the corners, and string on some twine, ribbon, or yarn. Hang it in your kitchen, dining room, or even above your front door!
Click here for access to a DIY set of coloring pages to make your banner.
Plan to celebrate all Easter Octave long, and all the way to Pentecost!
Can’t bake all the treats your family loves between now and Easter? Bake them after Easter Sunday! Didn’t get to see some family or friends? Try for a different weekend gathering and keep the rejoicing going strong.
If new Easter clothes are a tradition for your family, wear them again after Easter Sunday.
Mail an Easter card to someone who needs cheering up.
Read “Risen, 50 ways to celebrate Easter” for more ideas!
Listen to sacred music
Gregorian chant has a way of touching the soul that other music can’t compete with. I’m loving turning on a list from my favorite music app, and listening while prepping dinner, tucking my littles in to bed, or even when the afternoon has turned sour. My boys also appreciate listening; one of them often asks for it in the night after he’s had a bad dream. During Holy Week, listening to sacred music is a great way to keep our focus on the Lord.
