Palm Sunday and Easter

[JohnL]

Do y’all celebrate Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday?
We do. Our Palm Sunday has a church potluck after service. Most folks go through their pantries and bring dishes made from last Fall’s canned harvest. It gets the pantry ready for another garden season. The folks like us who don’t have vegetable gardens just use whatever we have in the pantry and make casseroles and sides.
Easter Saturday is egg boiling, egg dying and deviled egg making day. In our house if deviled eggs are forgotten then it’s a major disappointment so everyone helps with boiling and filling the eggs then put them in the fridge. That’s also when the children dye their boiled eggs for the hunt on Sunday.
Our Easter Sunday is celebrated with going to church at sunrise, eating dinner at home and egg hunts. New shoes and clothes are worn to church. Those church clothes last the children through the summer before they’ve outgrown them completely.
Our Easter dinner usually serves up ham, green beans and boiled taters made with the ham hock, pickled beets and sweet pickles, collards, deviled eggs and corn bread.
After dinner is the egg hunt and if there’s no young children then usually the old folks take a nap and the younger folks go outside.

How do y’all celebrate Easter?

[ohio jones]

So you celebrate them as cultural occasions rather than religious ones; interesting.

[Bootstrap]

Maundy Thursday is a really central service for us, with a common meal, communion, and footwashing. We read the scriptures and end in silence.

[JohnH]

Maundy Thursday is a really central service for us, with a common meal, communion, and footwashing. We read the scriptures and end in silence.

Interesting - why was it moved from the more traditional time of Holy Saturday? (I say this in a particular church group that doesn't keep any traditions around Easter at all.)

[Bootstrap]

Maundy Thursday is a really central service for us, with a common meal, communion, and footwashing. We read the scriptures and end in silence.

Interesting - why was it moved from the more traditional time of Holy Saturday? (I say this in a particular church group that doesn't keep any traditions around Easter at all.)

Moved?

Maundy Thursday is about the Last Supper and footwashing, which happened on Thursday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Thursday

[JohnL]

So you celebrate them as cultural occasions rather than religious ones; interesting.

It’s both-and. I think it’s really interesting you cherry-picked it and drew the wrong conclusion. Usually you do detail oriented comments. Notice I said we go to church both Sundays. Specifically our service on Palm Sunday and Easter use Bible readings related to those events like most churches do. I don’t think that needs any more clarification than that. Do you want to share how you celebrate these days or do you want to criticize some more?

[ohio jones]

I'll criticize some more, thanks for the suggestion.

Yes, you mention going to church, but that doesn't seem to be the focus of the observance. It should be, I think. It is for me.

You remember George, he would chime in with things like this:

There is one thing that really offends me and I believe offends our heavenly Father, and that is the use of ham on Easter. Jesus was the Passover Lamb, not an easter ham...

[barnhart]

So you celebrate them as cultural occasions rather than religious ones; interesting.

I think this is mostly how Christmas was celebrated in my tradition. Family time, holiday from work, special food, gifts, southern lamb (ham but don't tell George) etc ...

[barnhart]

Palm Sunday usually gets a passing mention in our church, the sermon may or may not be oriented that direction. We very piously celebrate Resurrection Sunday in place of Easter... (mostly kidding, you will hear someone slip up and say Easter on occasion). Often there is a short drama by the children but not always, it depends on how busy the three people who really like planning them are. Sometimes there is a special song and usually the sermon and songs are oriented that direction.

[mike]

Do y’all celebrate Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday?
We do. Our Palm Sunday has a church potluck after service. Most folks go through their pantries and bring dishes made from last Fall’s canned harvest. It gets the pantry ready for another garden season. The folks like us who don’t have vegetable gardens just use whatever we have in the pantry and make casseroles and sides.
Easter Saturday is egg boiling, egg dying and deviled egg making day. In our house if deviled eggs are forgotten then it’s a major disappointment so everyone helps with boiling and filling the eggs then put them in the fridge. That’s also when the children dye their boiled eggs for the hunt on Sunday.
Our Easter Sunday is celebrated with going to church at sunrise, eating dinner at home and egg hunts. New shoes and clothes are worn to church. Those church clothes last the children through the summer before they’ve outgrown them completely.
Our Easter dinner usually serves up ham, green beans and boiled taters made with the ham hock, pickled beets and sweet pickles, collards, deviled eggs and corn bread.
After dinner is the egg hunt and if there’s no young children then usually the old folks take a nap and the younger folks go outside.

How do y’all celebrate Easter?

Palm Sunday, nothing. Easter, maybe it gets mentioned a time or two in the sermon. That's about it. The traditions you describe are mostly pretty foreign to Anabaptists. The youth might have done a sunrise service once that I remember.