50 Ways to Celebrate the Easter Season
Did you know that Easter isn’t just a single day? The liturgical season of Easter lasts 50 days, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday (May 15th this year).
Easter season is a time of joy and new life. Christ has risen! The Church asks us not only to acknowledge the liturgical seasons, but also to enter into them — to allow them to move our hearts and guide our lives. In honor of the 50 days of Easter, here are 50 ways you can celebrate the Easter season this year.
- Go to daily Mass. Or, if you can’t make it, follow along with the daily readings.
- Go on a picnic with your family and/or friends and enjoy the spring time.
- Build a home altar (like this) and pray there every day. Bonus points if you put flowers on it.
- Speaking of flowers, keep some fresh ones in your house. Safeway and Costco generally have cheap, fresh flowers.
- If you can’t afford to buy fresh flowers, why not go on a hike and pick a wildflower bouquet? Enjoy nature while you are at it.
- Make a gregorian chant station on your Pandora and listen to it while meditating.
- Say Alleluia. A lot. You have to make up for those last 40 days, right?
- Indulge (moderately) in whatever you gave up for Lent. But every time you do, make sure you say a quick prayer of thanksgiving.
- Go out to breakfast. Or make pancakes at home.
- Do something creative. Draw, or paint pictures. Or, if you aren’t the creative type, get a coloring book. They are wonderfully relaxing.
- Make food, invite friends over, and have a feast. Or, if you don’t have enough food, ask your friends to bring a dish with them (potluck style).
- Get dressed up — no special occasion needed. It is Easter after all.
- Decorate your house. Bonus points if you use Easter Lilies and the proper liturgical colors (white).
- Do some spring cleaning. I know, I know. Cleaning isn’t fun. But you’ll feel so good afterwards!
- Spend an hour at Adoration. Or just go into your church and sit in silence.
- Take some alone time and read a good book. Or re-read an old favorite. Make sure you do this cuddled in a blanket, near an open window, and with a cup of hot tea (or drink of your preference).
- Pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet.
- Sit outside in the sunshine and listen to the birds.
- Smile. Even if you don’t feel like it. Just take a deep breath, close your eyes and smile. Remember that Jesus died and rose from the dead to save you!
- Have a dinner date with Jesus. Make dinner, light some candles in your room or somewhere else where you can be alone, and just sit and chat for a while. Or, if you have nothing to say, just sit in the silence and listen.
- Plant a garden. If you don’t have any gardening space, try raised planters, flower boxes, or pots.
- Build a miniature Marian grotto (in your new garden).
- Install a holy water font in your house, preferably next to a door, to remind yourself of your baptism.
- Pray the Rosary while meditating on the Glorious Mysteries.
- Go to a local feed store and play with the chicks.
- Hang the Divine Mercy Image* in your house.
- Make a pilgrimage. Even a little one!
- Eat brunch with family or friends.
- Go to a nursery or botanical garden and ‘stop to smell the roses.’
- Paint hardboiled eggs. Or hollow them out so you can eat them afterwards!
- Have an Easter egg hunt!
- Drink lots of water. Because baptism?
- Go to confession.
- Clean out your closet and donate your old clothes.
- Pet a puppy (or any sort of baby animal).
- Read the Acts of the Apostles.
- Pray the Divine Office.
- Volunteer at a soup kitchen.
- Memorize your favorite psalms.
- Sing some Easter hymns.
- Pray the Divine Mercy Novena. Technically, the Divine Mercy Novena is supposed to be started on Good Friday for a finish on Divine Mercy Sunday (the Sunday after Easter). But who cares about technicalities, right? Start it now!
- Go for a reflective drive to somewhere you’ve never been before.
- Try a brand new, exotic food.
- Climb a tree, get stuck, and spend some time prayer because hey, you’re stuck, why not?
- Do something slightly outside of your comfort zone and be more adventurous.
- Buy a homeless person a meal.
- Take up a new hobby.
- Jump in a lake…fully clothed!
- Make origami.
- Make an Easter basket and send it to someone who’s lonely.
Happy Easter!
