Easter without Lent

The head of a "passover"(?) lamb was dinner last Easter.

It was a strange Easter for our family this year. Lent is not a part of our partner churches Easter preparations, so the celebration falls on our shoulders. Because of a variety of things we were off many routines and doing lots of different things in the past few months. This meant we didn’t have a proper celebration of Lent, which I didn’t realize at the time, but was actually very strange for me. Growing up in a Lutheran household, we always had Lenten devotions and Wednesday Lenten suppers at church among other things. Since we’ve been married it seems we’ve always made an effort to do Lenten activities at least pretty regularly at dinner. If I think back to the last time I didn’t do anything to observe Lent, I think even when I was in college and didn’t have direct family activities there were still at least purple colors displayed in church and sermons that talked about Lent and preparation for the events of the cross and resurrection.

Riding on a donkey last Palm Sunday

What I discovered this year is that without any of those familiar patterns and helpful reminders of what leads up to the glorious day of Easter, well then Easter it self just seems like a pretty normal Sunday. In some ways, Easter is supposed to be like every Sunday- every Sunday should be a similar reminder of the resurrection joy we have. But on the other hand, in the effort to have a special celebration that emphasizes the passion and resurrection and it’s power in our lives, there is definitely something missing from Easter if you don’t spend time preparing, pondering, following through the trials, questions, examinations that the season of Lent provides. In fact our church even moved their typical Easter celebrations to Monday! In conclusion, after a year of not observing it, I can definitely say I’m more a fan of what can sometimes seem like a long and subdued season!  It makes me thank God for all the markers and reminders we have of the grace we're given.

-- El Padre