If you’ve never heard of Resurrection Eggs, you’re not alone.  As Dan & I forge new territory looking for traditions to pass on to our children as well as visual and hands on activities to keep the Faith in holidays such as Christmas and Easter, we stumbled upon Resurrection Eggs.  They’re simply plastic Easter Eggs that contain  different religious Easter symbols inside to help kids learn the Easter story. This idea originated from the children’s book Benjamin’s Box:  The Story of the Resurrection Eggs.

You can buy these eggs if you are short on time, but our kids had a lot of fun helping with this project, and I’m seriously craft challenged, so if I found it easy, believe me, it’s EASY! And, as a Catholic, I wanted to ensure they weren’t just Christian inspired, but Catholic inspired.  All you need to do is buy 12 plastic eggs, number them and have your kids scour the house for the objects.  We then put the objects in the eggs according to chronological order and taped a small piece of paper on the inside of the egg with the corresponding Bible Verse.  Here is what we did:

1) piece of bread  (Mark 14:22) — The Last Supper
2) 3 silver coins (Matthew 26: 14-15) – Judas’ Betrayal of Jesus
3) feather or toy rooster (Matthew 26: 33-35 – Peters Denial
4) Crown of Thorns (Mark 15:17)
5) Die or Dice (John 19:23-24) – Cast of Lots
6) Cross/Crucifix (John 19:17-18)
7) 3 Nails (Matthew 27:31) – Jesus was Nailed to the Cross
Sponge (John 19:29) – “I thirst”
9) Cloth/Linen (Matthew 27;57-60) Jesus was Wrapped when taken of the Cross
10) Whole Cloves (Mark 16:1) Spices for Anointing
11) Rock/Stone (Matthew 27:62-65) Placed in front of the tomb
12) Empty (Mark 16:5-6) Jesus Has Risen

I explain to my children how terribly sad this story is, but it’s ok, because we know how it ends, we know Jesus Rises on the 3rd day and we rejoice.  I tell them that love is sacrifice, that there is no greater love than what Jesus has for them.   We have fun with the Easter Bunny, but it is extremely important to Dan & I that our children grasp the enormity of Jesus’ sacrifice for many!  God Bless and we wish you all a very Blessed Holy Week!