Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

What are you giving up for Easter? Or, are you taking on something new instead during Eastertide?

What? Hadn’t thought about that? No plans for keeping Easter? Join the club.

I grew up in a faith tradition that didn’t spend a lot of time on Lent as a time of penitence and preparation, so I’ve been learning about the Episcopal traditions of keeping Lent. But I wonder: with all that time and energy leading up to Easter, do we run out of steam when it comes to honoring the 50 days after the resurrection of our Lord? 

I suspect our Easter-keeping fades faster than Easter lilies. We don our Easter Sunday best, bellow glorious strains of “He is Risen,” give an extra umph to our Alleluias, eat deviled eggs and chocolate bunnies, and then move on to the next holiday: baseball’s Opening Day.

I challenge us to keep Easter with the same devotion as we keep Lent but with a different focus. Easter is not about self-denial and introspection. It is celebration, the actual incarnation of sacred mystery, the ultimate triumph of life over death. 

Surely it deserves more than one day.

If you’re willing, I’d like to invite you on a journey. It won’t require giving up red meat or curbing a potty mouth. Instead it revels in Eastertide, in 50 Days of Fabulous. Bloggers from across the country will offer new reflections every day of the Easter season, all with a focus on joy and faith and belief, some sassy, some heartfelt, some might even be cheesy.

But the goal is the same: to keep the spirit of Easter alive and fabulous.