Today is known as Holy Thursday–the start of the Paschal Triduum (from the evening of today through the evening of Easter Sunday) which marks the end of Lent. As you know, we’ve been doing our best to live liturgically this year, and to me, part of that has meant not jumping the gun on Easter blog content…I know that I personally can’t focus on Lent as well if I’m blogging about Easter dresses and spring centerpieces in the thick of it. But, now that we’ve reached the end of Lent, I’d love to share a few simple ways to celebrate Easter, following the same eat/decorate/pray approach I mentioned a few weeks ago. Simple and doable is the name of the game here! That said, there are a few occasions throughout the year that call for bigger celebrations, and Easter, the MOST important day of the year to Christians, is obviously one of them!

Eat: I think most families have Easter meal traditions, so I’m not going to offer much here, and instead, I’d love to ask–what does your family eat for Easter? My family traditionally does ham (except during our seven years in Qatar where pork was illegal), but since Dave and I have been on our own every Easter since we moved to North Carolina, it has never made much sense to make a whole ham for two people. We usually head to the Polish grocery store before Easter every year to pick up kielbasa and pierogis and then I’ll make homemade rolls and some type of vegetable. Dave’s parents are here visiting us this year, so I’m actually not sure what we’ll do yet (um, and probably need to figure it out ASAP)…I’d love to learn from your traditions!

Decorate: I don’t have any specific Easter decor, but since I’m naturally drawn to spring colors, I don’t think it’ll be too hard to pull a few things together that will look refreshing and joyful. My biggest focus, though, is going to be fresh flowers! I haven’t bought any during Lent in an effort to keep our home decor more simple and solemn, but with the joy of Jesus’ resurrection is going to come a little bit of a shopping spree at the Whole Foods floral section :) I’m also hoping to make a trip to the garden center to pick up flowers for our front steps. It has been empty since we took our Christmas wreath down, so having a fern and a few plants set up there is going to be so delightful! (Here’s what we did last year.)

Pray: First and foremost, we’re headed to Mass, and are excited to welcome people who don’t usually attend! (If you’re headed to an Easter Mass this year for the first time, and are nervous, please don’t be! Email me if you need any encouragement or advice :)) We’ll hopefully pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, which begin with a meditation on Jesus’ resurrection. I also LOVE revisiting this message from St. John Paul II each Easter–especially paragraph #3!

Wishing you a blessed Triduum and a joyful Easter!

Additional reading:
The Empty Grave (Word on Fire)
Making Holy Week New (Blessed Is She)
How to Pray Through Holy Week (Fr. Mike Schmitz via Aleteia)
Should Catholics Attend Easter Egg Hunts on Holy Saturday? (Catholic All Year)