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Sharing Saturday 14-16 Happy Easter!


I am going to start today by wishing you a very Happy Easter to those celebrating! I know I am planning on having some quality family time this weekend and will not be posting until Monday! Speaking of Monday, have you entered my current giveaway yet? Monday is the last day to enter!




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Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! There were some amazing ideas as always. I hope you had a chance to check some of them out and if not, I hope you do. If you are looking for some last minute ideas for Easter or Earth Day (it is on Tuesday), there are plenty there besides the great features I am sharing. First we have a most clicked this week from Gift of Curiosity: Teaching Kids About Ant Anatomy.


http://www.giftofcuriosity.com/teaching-kids-about-ant-anatomy/

For features I have two groups: Easter and Earth Day! 


Easter Features

1) From Kids Activities Blog: Candy Play Dough (Something to do with those Peeps)
2) From Living Montessori Now: Easter Tree Sorting, Math, and Decorating Activity (Math & Decorating)
3) From One Little Project at a Time: Easy Two Bite Brownie Treats (A quick dessert for Sunday)
4) From Kids Activities Blog: Easter Egg Coloring Pages (Something quick for trips to visit family)
5) From ABC Creative Learning: Easter Egg Letter Match Game (A lesson using plastic eggs)
6) From Where Imagination Grows: Marbleized Easter Eggs (How pretty)
7) From Growing Book by Book: Storybook Inspired Easter Eggs (Love this idea)


Earth Day Features

1) From Little Bins for Little Hands: Fizzy Baking Soda Earth Day Science Experiment
2) From Every Star Is Different: The Earth: Pollution
3) From Africa to America: Earth Day Children's Books
4) From Peace...but Not Quiet: 11 Children's Books About Nature


Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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From Your Hostess:
This week we shared The Legend of the Sand Dollar with activities, Easter in many different countries including Sweden, Ethiopia, Northern Europe and around the world round-up with more countries, our Virtual Book Club for Kids post sharing In the Tall, Tall Grass, and some books and activities for understanding the true meaning of Easter.








Please enter the giveaway for Dearfoams! It ends Monday!!




Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the Sharing Saturday button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.
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4) I would love it if you would follow me on FacebookGoogle+, and Pinterest 

5) If you do not have a blog, but want to share an idea you can leave it in the comments or e-mail it to me with a picture (if possible).

 
 Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

Easter Around the World Round-Up

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Since Easter is almost here, I thought I would do a round-up of our Easter Around the World adding in a few more countries I hoped to share about as well. So sit back and travel the world with me. Since our first Around the World post was in South America, I thought we would start there.




  • Easter in Argentina
Holy Week in Argentina is an elaborate celebration. People dress in costume and reenact Jesus' last supper, his betrayal and judgment. They carry large wooden crosses and act out the Stations of the Cross, Jesus' crucifixion and his resurrection. It can be a very emotional time. 
Huevo mas grande del mundo. 8,5 m, en Bariloche (Argentina)
Chocolate Egg Source: By Diegogabriel (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

  • Easter in Colombia
 Holy Week is important in Colombia or should I say Semana Santa. The celebration begins as early as Thursday through Easter or Pascua. Good Friday is the most important event in Colombia other than Christmas. It is a joyous day that includes mass in church and processions. In Mompox people dress in turquoise robes and lead others to the Immaculate Conception Church. They throw stones as the doors to gain entry. Their robes are blessed during the mass and church activities and celebrations can continue the following morning as early as four. Many of the cities have processions similar to the ones in Spain. 


HERMANDAD DE JESUS N
Source: By Campoelias (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
  • Easter in Ecuador
In Ecuador, the Easter and Holy Week celebrations are pretty much the same as many places with reenactment processions on Good Friday, masses and processions on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. On Easter after mass families gather for a feast featuring a traditional Ecuadorian soup called fanesca. Fanesca combines the food from the lowlands and from the highlands. It includes onions, peanuts, fish, rice, squash, broad beans, lupine, corn, lentils, beans, peas and melloco. Melloco is a highland tuber. 

Fanesca
Fanesca Source: By Micah Yoder (Transfered from en.wikipedia.org)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons



During Holy Week in Haiti there are rara bands who take to the streets. Rara bands are like a club. The men and women in them wear colorful clothing and play instruments including handmade ones.The instruments include drums, bamboo, graters, horns and long metal cylinders like trombones. Their music is based on four notes, but they are able to produce many different sounds. See the Youtube Video above. The Rara bands travel the streets with dancers and everyone joins in. Rara bands also play during All Saints' Week in November.

Vaksen
Musician playing a Bamboo horn called Vaksen
Source: By LombinodrAlfonso Lomba (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
On Easter Sunday there is a fair in a park nearby. Children can go on rides and eat fresko (similar to Italian ice or snow cones) and many other goodies.There are raffle booths where children can try to win a toy, a game or a surprise gift. There is also a magician and a sek contest. Sek is a game about keeping a metal circle balanced with a special hanger while rolling the metal circle on the ground and chasing after it. On the way home, the children get ice cream at the ice cream parlor and go home exhausted.
  • Easter in Mexico
Venta de ramos
Palms for Sale Source: By Nindasofia24601 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
In Mexico we begin with Palm Sunday. In Mexico they weave the palm leaves into intricate crosses and other shapes and they are sold at the doors of churches. During Holy Week, people get together to act out events from the last days of Jesus' life. These reenactments are called passion plays. They can range from simple to intricate. Participants called Penitents inflict pain on themselves to feel some of Jesus' pain. As in many countries Good Friday is the most important and somber day of Holy Week. They have processions with statues of saints carried through the streets on shoulders of people. The women also carry flowers, incense and candles and everyone sings Easter hymns. On Holy Saturday figures of Judas are burned. Judas was the disciple who betrayed Jesus. He is often portrayed as a devil figure in Mexico, but sometimes the devil's head is replaced by a hated figure. During World War II, Adolf Hitler was often used. The figures were wrapped in firecrackers and then lighted to break up in a shower of sparks. Today they are just burned. 
La Orotava - MAI Judas
Card sculpture of Judas used for the "Burning of Judas" at Easter Sunday in Mexico
Source: By Wolfgang Sauber (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
  • Easter in Peru
In Peru the Easter celebrations start the Monday before Easter. In Cuzco, people carry a statue of Jesus in a long procession through the streets. The people there believe this statue saved Cuzco from being destroyed in a bad earthquake on March 31, 1650. They call the statue Our Lord of the Earthquakes.  Festivities continue throughout the week with dancing, feasting and drinking. There are many favorite snacks including besitos (little kisses a type of candy) and chicha ( a beer brewed using corn). In Ayacucho artists make images on the ground using flowers. Similar to Mexico, many Peruvian towns hang and burn images of Judas on Good Friday. Many Peruvian Catholics believe God will not see what you do between Good Friday and Easter Sunday since Jesus is dead, so it is a chance to break rules and misbehave.

SenorTembloresCuzcoMerced2010
Our Lord of Earthquakes Source: By LopeHope (Own work) 
[CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 
 
Eid Il Fasih is a joyful celebration in Lebanon. All Lebanese Christians fast the 40 days of Lent or Es Soum. During this time families do not eat meat. On Palm Sunday or Sha'aneeni, the Christian children dress in their very best clothes for the Ziah, a parade around the church just before noon. The children carry candles that are decorated with flowers and olive branches. The festival ends with a feast. Holy Week passes quietly with families going to church and eating simply.  On Holy Saturday, the churches are lit with candles and the day is called Sabt innour or Sabboth of Light. It is said that many years ago lights appeared by miracle in churches throughout Lebanon. On Easter Sunday, people dress in their best clothes, the children hunt for eggs and play a game called youdakis. They have a traditional meal and eat kousa or zucchini and grape leaves stuffed with rice and meat and Tabbouleh. On Easter Monday or Ithnayn il Rahib, families tend to take trips into the country and lit loud fireworks.
 
This is the end of our Around the World exploration of Easter celebrations for this year. I hope you enjoyed it. The resources I used for this post are the following books. 
 
 
 
Also if you want to see more Easter posts check out:

Activities for Understanding Easter





I hope you have been enjoying our exploration of Easter Around the World. Today I thought I would take a break from it and share some of the things we have been doing to remember and understand the true meaning of Easter and the events of Holy Week. First we will start with a few of the Easter books we have been reading that really share the meaning and give children a good idea of Easter and the story.

The first book is an old book that is out of print, but we found it at our library as well as our church's library. I also just ordered a used copy from Amazon. It is The Robin and the Thorn by Sara Lee Donze. The only pictures of it I found on-line do not include the jacket cover. However I did take one before we returned it to the library.
This is a wonderful tale of a brown bird who watches the events of Holy Week unfold. He sees the mysterious man on a donkey that the crowd cheers and waves palms as well as put cloaks on the ground for the donkey to walk on. He visits Jerusalem the night of Maundy Thursday to get crumbs from all the houses having their Seder Dinner and watches as Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and hears the disciples at first argue with him about doing it. Jesus sees him and feeds him some of the bread. He watches as the soldiers arrest Jesus in the garden and take him away. He watches as Jesus is tortured and he tries to help Jesus by removing a thorn that is piercing his forehead. The blood on the thorn turns the brown bird's chest red He watches as Jesus is crucified and dies. He awakens a few mornings later to find his chest is still red and watches as the women find the empty tomb. He sings a song of joy for he understands what it means. This is a legend of how the robin got his red chest. 



To go along with this book we made a crown of thorns bread. I got this idea from Catholic Icing: Crown of Thorns Bread. (She also has a wonderful Good Friday lunch idea posted.) The bread is easy to make. You can use any bread recipe or a pre-made one. We went the easy method for this and used a Pillsbury French bread dough. You also need a bag of pretzel sticks and an egg. To make it you beat the egg. Divide the dough into three long strips and braid them. Then form them in to a circle. Then "paint" the dough with the egg--this was Hazel's favorite part. Bake it according to recipe. When it comes out you add the thorns by pushing the pretzels in it. When Hazel ate a pretzel out of it she told me she was removing a thorn.


Last year we made a crown of thorns from clay and toothpicks.



 The next book, The Legend of the Sand Dollar: An Inspirational Story of Hope for Easter by Chris Auer, I shared on Sunday. We had not had time to do one of the activities to go with it yet, but now we have. We made sand dollar cookies. We unfortunately did not have almond slivers and tried slices. Slivers would have been much better.


The final book is from a series of books that I love. The book, God Gave Us Easter by Lisa Tawn Bergren, is a wonderful tale with the polar bears and Little Cub discovering the meaning of Easter and how God talks to her heart. Although we did not do a direct activity to go with this book, we have done some more for the meaning of Easter.

 We made Resurrection Rolls like we have in the past. I did a picture tutorial for you. We also grew our Resurrection Garden. We started it late, but luckily I had gotten fast growing grass seeds and with just about a week of growth time it looks pretty good.
Our final craft is not really about the meaning of Easter but is a fun one. I saw it over at Tippytoe Crafts: Peeps Nest. Hazel has been home sick this week and I thought this would be a fun craft for her to do quickly. (Her fever is finally dropping and she has more energy.) All you need for this craft is a cupcake liner, some Easter grass, jelly beans and a Peeps chick.
 Under the chick are her eggs of course.




For more ideas on sharing the Easter story and true meaning check out:

Easter Around the World Germany, Hungary, Norway and Poland

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Today we explore Easter in parts of Northern Europe. We will explore Germany, Hungary, Norway and Poland. The other day we explored Sweden and we have also explored France, Spain and Portugal.


Easter Fire
Easter Fire in  Göttingen Source: By ElHeineken (Own work)
[GFDL or CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

In Germany Good Friday is known as Quiet Friday. The church bells are not rung on Quiet Friday. People make wooden rattles to call people to church. On Saturday the children light huge bonfires. They burn wood and rubbish that they collect from house to house. On Easter, many villages hold an Easter walk or ride in memory of the walk Jesus took with His disciples after His resurrection. In one procession there is a rider dressed as Saint George on a white horse and in another men on horseback gallop past a post shaped like a cross and the winner is presented a cake shaped like a horse. On Easter Sunday, the children look for eggs in the garden. The eggs are made of chocolate, candy or decorated hens' eggs. Some believe the Easter hare hid the eggs for the children. The Easter hare brings the eggs in a small wheel barrow. 


Hase mit Ostereiern (1)
Easter Hare with Eggs Source: By Gerbil (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons


Húsvét
Sprinkling in Hungary Source: By Opusztaszer (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
In Hungary, Easter is a two day holiday. Its observance is part Christian and part folk. The main difference is the ritual of sprinkling.On Easter Monday boys and young men visit their female relatives and neighbors and friends. In the past boys would playfully drag the girls to the well and pour water on them using pails or take the girls to the river and drench them. Now the boys sprinkle cologne rather than water so the girls do not have to change after every sprinkling. The girls no longer wear the traditional folk clothes but wear their casual clothes. There is a competition among the girls to see who gets sprinkled the most. In the evening the celebrations come to an end with a traditional Easter feast of baked ham and boiled eggs.


Norwegian Eggs Source: By: Pål Berge
In Norway outdoor sunrise services are common on Easter morning. Children will often gather big bouquets of flowers to decorate the houses. It is spring and daffodils and tulips are often in bloom. The children also have painted egg contests and egg rolling contests. In egg rolling they either blow the egg or push it with their nose. Similar to children in Russia, Norwegian children play egg tapping. They tap their eggs together and see whose can survive the longest uncracked. It is also a tradition in Norway to leave a special brew outside the house on Maundy Thursday. This is to keep the witches away, which people in remote areas used to believe in similar to the Swedish traditions. One unique tradition in Norway is at Easter time Norwegians read detective novels and watch detective shows on television. This tradition has become known as Easter Crime.



Drowning Marzanna in Poland includes Burning Them First
Photo taken by Meteor2017 Source

In Poland on the fourth Sunday of Lent people dress in traditional costume and gather on the riverbanks. They bring stuffed dolls that are called Marzannas. Some will be made of straw and others rag dolls. The dolls are dressed in traditional clothes. They form circles and sing songs about winter ending and warm weather coming. They throw the dolls into the river to symbolize the death of winter. In some parts they burn the dolls first as pictured above. In some parts of Poland people feel it is unlucky to speak or look back and rush home. They also have the belief that a trip or fall on the way home may mean they will die within the year. Nowadays it is a more lighthearted event and often is celebrated as part of school.
Palm Sunday in Poland
Palm Sunday in Poland Source: I, Mathiasrex [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons
Holy Week begins and it is called Wielki Tydzien. For Palm Sunday, people carry pussy willows or decorated branches like the ones above to church. In some churches they are thrown on the floor for the priest to walk over. On Good Friday the churches display a model of the tomb where Christ was buried. People go from church to church to admire the artistry. On Saturday they bring a basket of food to the church to be blessed. The baskets hold pisanki or painted eggs, a lamb made of sugar or straw, bread, sausages and cakes.


Veľkonočný košík
A Blessing Basket Source: By J.Dncsn (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
On Easter Sunday the boys run through the streets setting off explosives. The noise resembles the noise of the stone rolling away from the tomb. Since Easter morning ends the Lenten fasting, people enjoy a breakfast of eggs, meats and cakes after church. On Easter Monday or Dyngus, the boys practicing sprinkling similar to Hungary. The girls however sometimes give the boys a dyngus or ransom for the promise not to be thrown in the water. The ransom is Easter eggs or candies. People who get wet in this way are suppose to have good luck and a good harvest and it also means the boy likes her.

 


For this post, I used information from the books above. For more Multicultural and Easter Posts check out:

Easter Around the World - Ethiopia

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Today we explore Easter in Ethiopia. Easter is called Fasika or Fasika-Tenssaie. Tenssaie is the word for Resurrection. In Ethiopia, fasting for Lent is 55 days to recognize the suffering of Moses as well as Jesus. Lent is called Hudade and nobody eats meat or any dairy products during this time. Three hour masses are attended every day during Lent.

Injera (during Easter Time, Lalibela, Ethiopia)
Typical Lenten Meal Source: By Maurice Chédel (Own work) [GFDL
or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Palm Sunday is called Hosanna. As in many Christian countries, the mood lightens for Palm Sunday. People carry tall palm leaves and crosses  to remember Jesus' journey into Jerusalem. Holy Week is called Passion Week or Semune himamat. In Ethiopia, they do not eat for the three days from Good Friday to Easter morning. They have a long night mass on Saturday night ending at dawn on Easter. The Easter feast often lasts for two days or more and can include mutton. People bring gifts to family and friends during Easter. Often people will play a game called gebet'a which is a bit similar to checkers or chess. It has a board that is carved from wood with cups cut into it. The players use pieces usually seeds, stones, or beans and move from cup to cup trying to capture the other player's pieces. Doing a search it looks like it is also called or similar to mancala. For more information on gebet'a visit Ethiopia the African Tibetan Show: Gebet'a World's Oldest Board Game.

Detail - Ethiopian Crosses at the Monastery of Na’akuto La’ab (3415428694)
Ethiopian Priest Holds Ethiopian Cross Source: By A. Davey from Where I Live Now: 
Pacific Northwest [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

One of the things I found so interesting about Ethiopia is not actually an Easter celebration, but relates to Easter. Ethiopians have a festival/holiday called Maskel. Maskel celebrates when Helena, empress of Rome found the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Helena was born in A.D. 248 and spent many years searching for the true cross. An old man gave her the advice of lighting a fire and following the direction of the smoke. This is how she found the true cross. Every year in Ethiopia huge piles of wood and twigs are built for Maskel. Every village has its own pile and each family adds their own bundle of twigs called a chebo. They are lit to be a bonfire which grows huge. The bonfire is called Maskel Demera. Some families prefer to keep their chebos at home and burn them on their own on Maskel. There is a ceremony before an elder of the community lights the bonfire. It is an honor to be picked as the respected elder to light it. People stand around the fire and sing to welcome spring. Some take ash from the fire and draw a cross on their foreheads. They believe the ash will heal illness. The festivities end with feasting and dancing.

 
For this post, I used information from the books above. For more Multicultural and Easter Posts check out: