Product Description

The perfect get-ready-for-Easter book: a day-at-a-glance calendar filled with fun, fascinating facts, and colorful stickers.

Beginning with the day before Lent begins---Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras---and ending on Easter Sunday, this book turns each day of the season into a celebration. Every colorful page is packed with crafts, recipes, activities, and information about the holidays.

Plus there are colorful self-adhesive stickers that combine to create and Easter picture as they mark the days of the season.

Families will love welcoming each new day as the "count down to Easter" together!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #967558 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

Review
“A great family activity book.” -- CHURCH & SYNAGOGUE LIBRARIES, July 2000

About the Author
Debbie Trafton O'Neal is the author of the best-selling Family Countdown to Christmas, Before and after Easter, and I Can Pray with Jesus: The Lord's Prayer for Children. She lives with her family in Federal Way, Washington.

Viki Woodworth (Illustrator), an illustrator and writer, has worked on many books for children, including Family Countdown to Christmas, Can You Grow a Popsicle?, and Have You Seen an Elephant's Nest? She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and two daughters.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"The season of Lent includes the forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. The official observance of Lent does not include Sundays because Christians are meant to celebrate every Sunday as a 'little Easter.'

In early days of the church, Lent was a time of fasting, strict self-discipline, and examination of how one was living. In fact, by the Middle Ages, there were so many rules and regulations about observing Lent that some people actually dreaded the season. Today those rules and regulations about observing Lent that some people actually dreaded the season. Today those rules and traditions have relaxed considerably. For many people, however, Lent is still a time to reflect on their relationship with God, to spend more time in Bible reading and prayer, and to find ways of serving others.

In many parts of the world, the days before Lent begins are a time of revelry and merrymaking. This festive time is called Carnival, which comes from Latin words that mean "a farewell to meat" (during Lent, early Christians gave up meat and other rich foods). The final day of Carnival is Shrove Tuesday, a day when celebrations come to an end and Christians confess their sins ("shrive" themselves) in preparation for Lent.

A week before Easter, the arrival of Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. These final days of Lent are the most sacred time in the Christian church year. For many churches and families, Holy Week is a time of intense reflection and prayers as people remember the sacrifice that Jesus made.

Then, on Easter morning, the mood suddenly shifts to one of great joy as Christians around the world celebrate Christ's victory over death and the new life he promises to those who follow him.

Easter is the oldest celebrated season in the Christian church year---even older than Christmas. It is celebrated from Easter Sunday until Pentecost, fifty days later. Pentecost is the day when God's Holy spirit filled Jesus' followers and inspired them to tell the world about their followers and inspired them to tell the world about their faith. Christians observe Pentecost as the end of the Easter season and the official 'birthday' of the Christian church.

I hope your family will find this book a treasured addition to your lives during the season of Lent and Easter Sunday! Inside you will find old legends and stories retold, project and activity ideas, prayers starters, fascinating facts about Lent and Easter, recipes to try, and food for thought. These pages are both a book and a calendar---a calendar that intentionally moves you, one day at a time, through the season of Lent (Sundays not included!) and helps you prepare for and celebrate the true meaning of Easter."---from the Introduction

Customer Reviews

Celebrate every day of Lent
Beginning with Mardi Gras and ending with Easter, this book has 41 days of trivia, crafts, recipes, activities and colorful stickers (not reusable). While this is a Christian book, it is not a devotional. It is colorfully illustrated with stickers to use to countdown the days. Many activities relate to the Easter trivia (e.g., hot cross buns), others are almost science experiments (growing grass in an egg shell or basket). This is a good source of ideas to make everyday of Lent a celebration.