Celebrating a Season of Easter: Beyond Just One Day of Joy

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter! Hallelujah!

One of the ways we have observed this Easter week at my house is the taking of Easter candy to school. I can justify this for religious reasons: in the church’s calendar, the whole week is a feast day. My children are just observing the liturgical calendar! Perhaps you’ve been observant at your house too…

Culturally, we have a tendency to do better at marking individual days than seasons — we usually think of Easter as a Sunday rather than a seven-week stretch. In her centuries of wisdom, however, the church intends for us seasons of joy, not days of celebration. Easter is fifty days long (over 4x the length of Christmas, which is twelve days)!

So I want to encourage you this day to look for moments of resurrection joy in your lives. Find moments this week to offer prayers of praise and thanksgiving for Christ’s triumph over death. And at church on Sunday, greet someone with “Happy Easter.” Let yourself live a season of Easter joy — even after the Easter candy is gone.

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew