Easter is the day our lives are changed forever. Nothing will ever be the same. Unfortunately Easter is often as mundane as Tuesday’s Twinkies. We put clothes on we hate, hunt eggs we will never eat, and yawn through the Easter service. But it wasn’t always this way. Easter is Christianity’s oldest celebration. From the Resurrection up to Pentecost we celebrated.

Here’s the rub — partying in our culture and our time is uneventful. Our normal lives are loaded with indulgences. ​“Who cares if we have cake, we can have cake every day,” we say. 

That’s what Lent was for. 

Schlepping through Lent was intended to help us leave behind the cumber that entangled us, so that when the season of Eastertide gets here we are ready, willing, and able to jump into the swimming pool of celebration. 

Celebrations are wonderful bonding experiences. Tragedy draws us together, but celebration binds us. There is nothing like a good party to make a people one. Why are there so many Jewish celebrations? God’s people needed to bond together, their survival depended on their oneness before God. So they partied! Also for the Christians, after the Resurrection, persecution was everywhere, they needed solidity, they needed a Celebration. 

And what about us, families in the twenty-first century? Families are broken before our eyes. Our survival also depends on our oneness before God, we must bond together to make it — we need a party! 

Use the following suggestions to craft a weekly party. It doesn’t have to be an all day affair, but at least once a week during Eastertide, celebrate! 

Check out Dallas Willard’s Spirit of the Disciplines and Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, or for families Valerie Hess’s Habits of a Child’s Heart. All three give us insight into the intentional, essential, business of celebration. 

Creating Celebration

Read this meditation by A.W. Tozer called ​“Celebrating Our Oddness” aloud to the family. Then work through the suggestions below and shape your own weekly celebration that’s unique to your family. 

A real Christian is an odd number anyway. 
He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen. 
He talks familiarly everyday to someone he cannot see, 
Expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another, 
Empties himself in order that he might be full,
Admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, 
Goes down in order to get up. 
He is strongest when he is weakest, 
Richest when he is poorest, 
And happiest when he feels worst. 
He dies so he can live, 
Forsakes in order to have, 
Gives away so he can keep, 
Sees the invisible, 
Hears the inaudible, 
And knows that which passeth knowledge. 

Shape the Celebration

  • What is special about your family? What makes you ​“odd?”
  • How has God been good to your family? 
  • Is there a unique blessing God has given your family? 
  • Name your weekly Celebration based on the above questions. 
  • Choose one day a week. Maybe you already have a day that is special. It doesn’t matter what day, it’s just good to choose one that is consistent. 
  • Break out the party hats and the good dishes. 
  • Make it mandatory for every family member to attend. 
  • No serious talk, only fun. Try things like dancing, or board games, sing songs (karaoke machines are hilarious — rent one), and eat, eat, eat. 
  • Include a toast: Each week take turns on who gets to write the toast and lead it. Start with the youngest member. 

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Text First Published March 2011