The Amish do not observe Advent or Lent, but Easter is given special emphasis, minus all the trappings of the English world. Easter may or may not fall on a preaching Sunday. (every other week) Apparently some Amish families color eggs, but the Easter Bunny is not mentioned nor does he hide baskets full of goodies.
Amish also celebrate Easter Monday in some communities, a festive day of rest and a time to visit and relax with friends. The Easter season is commemorated with a communion service, which carries immense spiritual significance. Good Friday, the day Christ was crucified, is set aside as a solemn day of fasting and prayer.
What do you think of when you hear the word Easter? Bunnies and fluffy chicks? Wicker baskets laden with chocolate eggs and jellybeans? Going to church and hearing the choir sing the Hallelujah Chorus? A sense of renewal, excitement, and celebration?
I did not grow up in a Christian family, although sometimes I wish that I did. Many of my friends are Christians and Catholics and they were always telling me about their religion, most of which were things that I’d never known before. So, it was always nice to hear about their experiences, and how they were thinking about changing with the times and using an online giving service to help get more donations. The community of the church was everything to them and they wanted to do everything they could to make sure it stayed afloat. I love that. And it made me want to be part of something similar, even though I wasn’t a Christian myself. When I was younger, my mother, sister, and I used to blow eggs, paint them, and hang them from a small tree-branch brought into the house. Much later, my husband and I took our sons to church and then a massive Easter egg hunt followed by sumptuous family brunches. We’re looking forward to just such a feast next Sunday!
How about you? Do you have family traditions you continue? How do you spend your day? Do you fill Easter baskets? I’m looking for unusual ideas!
Leave a comment and enter to win a signed copy of Leaving Lancaster or Pennsylvania Patchwork! USA & Canada. Winner has one week to respond.
Congratulations to Lisa R., last week’s winner of a signed copy of Leaving Lancaster or Pennsylvania Patchwork!
To be Released on June 1, 2014
Easter is a beautiful and quiet day for my husband and me. I start the day at church to celebrate the Resurrection of my Lord. We have family, but they are all involved in other things so we don’t get together on this day. If I win, I would like PA Patchwork as I already have the other one. Thank you for your sweet messages on fb and for your inspiring blogs!
Thank you for your encouraging words, Martha, and thanks for entering the book giveaway! Good luck.
In our house in the UK we don’t eat meat on a Friday well I don’t anyway as I am a veggie on Easter Sunday we go to mass then come home have a nice lunch and I buy my husband a Easter egg so we usely egg Easter chocolate Easter in the e evening god bless maureen xx
I could give up meat more easily than chocolate, Maureen! Thanks for writing and entering the contest. Good luck!
Love reading amish books.We celebrate. My whole family gets together for a big meal and then hide eggs for all the little kids to find.
I married into a nice big family and we get together for a plentiful Easter meal too, Lynn. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. Your Easter egg hunt sounds fun. Thanks for entering the giveaway! Good luck!
Easter starts off with sonrise service at church. Followed by a big breakfast.
Then it is home. Where my husband has the kids search for their baskets.
We have supper with family and a egg hunt.
You have a delightful Easter planned, Cheryl! I fondly recall the days when our boys were young. Thanks for writing and good luck in the book giveaway!
Easter always started with sunrise service and then Big BFast with family and then looking @ our Easter Baskets. Now I am alone so Easter will start with Early service followed by BFast and then quiet day of reflection and maybe fun with friends.
We go to early service too, Lois. Even earlier than usual. A quiet day of reflection or time spent with friends sounds lovely. Thanks for entering the giveaway. Good luck!
Easter is a special holiday. I love the significance of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ without which we would have no hope of Heaven.
For those reasons it’s as special as Christmas, Betsy. Thanks for writing and entering the contest!
We have church in the morning. Then, my daughter & her family and my mother-in-law come for our Easter meal in the early to mid afternoon. We do Easter baskets for everyone — including me 🙂 I would be thrilled to have a copy of Pennsylvania Patchwork. Thank you.
I can’t think of a more pleasant day, Mary! Especially the Easter baskets for everyone. Thanks for entering the giveaway and good luck!
Hunt for eggs that the kids dyed the night before. Go to church with my family then have Easter dinner. If you have hardwood floors…
Cut a sponge in the shape of a rabbits foot. Make ” Tracks” down the hall that leads to their Easter baskets !!
Sounds like a fabulous day, Rita! The rabbit-shaped sponge is a new one to me. Clever idea. Thanks for writing!
Yes, we do celebrate Easter. We start the day off with going to church,and then we do a Easter egg hurt either the church or at family member home. As far as I have learn yes the Amish do celebrate Easter.
Thanks for writing, Gail! What a wonderful Easter you have to look forward to. Good luck in the book giveaway.
An amazing occasion, indeed, Sonja! Your Easter sounds as fun as could be. Thanks for entering the book giveaway! Good luck.
I Love our Easter traditions. And the grandkids love them, too. It will always be a wonderful day to help remember an amazing occasion!
I love Easter and that it takes place in the Spring when new things come to life after a long winter just like we can find a new life in Jesus! I still like to fix my son a Easter basket even though he is 25 and I love to make pickled beets and eggs for Easter. Thank you for a chance to win one of your books! ~ Blessings to you! ~
Well put, Lisa! I’ll bet your 25-yr-old son still appreciates his Easter basket and his sweet-heart of a mother. Pickled beets and eggs sounds delicious. Thanks for entering the contest. Good luck!
We do Celebrate the “full spectrum” of Easter…from Lent through Easter Sunday. I love attending mid week Lenten services & on Easter Morning the sunrise service followed by the Church youth hosted Breakfast. Usually gather family togther, and their Grandma has an Egg hunt.
This year we will also be saying farewell to our 3rd son who has joined the USAF and heads to Basic Training the next day. His wife & 1 yr old son will stay close by here while he has basic and further training….when she will be able to join him early fall.
A Full Spectrum Easter sounds fantastic, Nat! I can imagine emotions will be intense this year with your son leaving for Basic Training the next day. May God bless and protect him. Thanks for writing!
Yes I celebrate Easter, We go as a family to Sunrise service, have breakfast at church put on my the decons and trustees and then Sunday school, then church service which is usally done around 12:00pm then I go home and around 3:00 my family comes over and I fix a Ham and all the fixings, My oldest is 29 and she loves getting a basket full of candy, I fix 3 baskets up for the kids and then a basket for my grand child. Then we have a easter egg hunt for the grand child. If I would win I would love the book Leaving Lancaster, becasue I have the other one. I read both of them on my kindle and I could put them down. I can hardley wait for the 3rd one to come out. Thanks for all of you good books, I really enjoy reading them.
Thank you for writing, Marlette! Your Easter sounds like a busy and glorious day! What fun that you fix baskets for your children and grandchild. And thanks for your kind words about my writing! Good luck in the contest!
When the girls were little they would get just an chocolate bunny or egg always a new bible or necklace with a new spring outfit, up early to find eggs in the house then off to sunrise service, family dinner with grandparents , sisters, nieces,nephews. It was a wonderful time in my life. Now I get to share it with grandchildren and I don’t have to cook.
What a delightful scene you’ve painted, Lora. It sounds like a wonderful time with a lovely family, and now even better. Thanks for writing! Good luck in the book giveaway!
Easter is a special day and most are so busy with worldly things that they don’t even think this is the day Jesus arose and walked the earth after dying on Good friday, have you ever wondered why it is called “Good” -I like to think because he died for our sins ,His Grace saved our very souls. I love to go to sunrise services, there is just something about the early morning air and looking up at the skies as morning begins again. Happy Easter to one and all….
Happy Easter to you, Paula! My husband and I were just talking about going to a Good Friday service. I look forward to it, even if by myself. Since becoming a Christian midlife, I’ve never been alone again. Thanks for writing!
We will actually be celebrating Easter this year in Lancaster County, PA. Looking forward to a quiet, reflective Easter. I loved Leaving Lancaster and look forward to read another of your books.
What a marvelous location to spend Easter, Jean! A lovely place to be reflective and quiet. Thanks for entering the contest and good luck!
For Easter I have always fixed a meal my Mom always prepared for the family. So I try to create most of the same foods for us which includes baked ham, sweet potatoes and a gelatin salad ( for which I can’t find the receipe since we’ve moved so many times in the past several years (but I’ll hunt some more it was a GREAT salad!) Have a wonderful Easter and may you and yours have a great Easter. … mE
May you and yours have a wonderful Easter too, Earlene! Your mom’s feast sounds delicious … once you find that recipe. Oh, dear, moving is so difficult. A GREAT recipe is worth the hunt! Thanks for writing.
Easter has always included egg hunts, family dinners and baskets left by the Easter Bunny but it is also Resurrection Sunday so we go to Sunrise Service, Sunday school and church. We are very aware and very grateful that God gave his son Jesus to be our sacrificial lamb and it is through his death that we have eternal life!
Easter blessings to you and yours!!
Easter blessings to you and yours, Connie! Sunday sounds like a marvelous day. Thank you for summing up the Good News! And thanks for entering the book giveaway. Good luck!
As children we had fun hunting eggs laid by the Easter Bunny and always got sick eating too much chocolate. But …… we always knew the real meaning of Easter.
As children we had fun hunting eggs laid by the Easter Bunny and always got sick by eating too much chocolate. But …… we always knew the real meaning of Easter.
would love to win.