Lent, Holy Week and Easter

With all the hype that surrounds us at Christmas, it’s easy to forget that, for the early Christians, Easter was far and away the most important Christian festival. Many people today who don’t go to Church regard Easter as the more ‘religious festival’, in that it’s not been engulfed by quite such a tidal-wave of materialism as Christmas. There are still plenty of false impressions at large, however: one child recently informed me that Lent “was a time when we are all supposed to be miserable.” On further investigation, I discovered it was because his whole family had given up chocolate for Lent!  It appears that this act of self-denial had little Christian motivation. We always do it for Lent was the reason given, which no doubt accounts for the boy viewing it as the most miserable time of the year. Easter eggs and Easter bunnies can also threaten to cloud — if not totally obscure — the true message. Fasting certainly has a spiritual value when undertaken for the right reason; but just giving up something will mean little to most children other than dieting for better health.