Over the past few years I have been frustrated with Easter celebrations as a mom who seeks to impress the importance of Christ’s death and resurrection on our children. The focus is so heavy on Easter egg hunts and Easter bunnies even in church, and it just seems to stop there. Unless you are able to attend a larger church performance on the Passion of Christ, there isn’t much more teaching or depth on this very special Holy Week. Consequently, it set me on a mission to teach our children in a fun yet powerful way. I knew I wanted to attend a seder but it’s hard to find someone that leads one near us and they are at young children’s bedtimes. On top of that, they are usually very long and hard on children to sit still if they are not used to it, especially when they are so tired! It prompted me then to begin to put together a seder that would be highly interactive and fully engaging for all in attendance. This year, more of our family and our pastor and his family attended and it made for an extra special seder! For our seder, we included a few more traditions afterward but also gave it a lot of symbolism which I’ll detail as well toward the end.

Here are my notes on it (keep in mind, this is VERY abbreviated and mostly focuses on the outline of the seder. I plan to add blessings and verses each year to deepen the understanding and layers of symbolism. But this is a great foundation to start from!) The head of the home (the husband or father) leads the seder.

Setup

Tables that allow for you to sit on the floor and recline are preferred. You will need a goblet of grape juice for each person and a seder plate for the family. This year, since I didn’t have enough goblets for everyone, I gave a goblet to the head of the households with little cups for the rest of the family that the father could fill at the appropriate times. You will also need the seder plate which includes: lettuce or parsley, salt water, bitter herbs, shank bone, charoset, and matzah. The charoset is a mixture of diced apples, chopped walnuts, cinnamon, honey and wine, pomegranate juice or grape juice. I have preferred the pomegranate juice. You can google “charoset recipe” to find a recipe that you like best but it’s basically just tossing those ingredients together to get a good mix. Place 3 matzah inside a bag. These are the items you will need for the 10 plagues: red food coloring, frog game, Kleenex, round stickers (preferably red), pom poms, locust game, blindfolds, and a red scarf for a door post.

Script

The lady of the house lights the candles and says a blessing. “Baruch atah adonai, eloheyn melech ha-olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav, vitsivanu lehadlik nehr shel yom tov. Blessed are Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who sanctifies us by Thy commandments and commands us to kindle the festival lights.”

Cup of Sanctification

Read: Exodus 6:6, John 13:1-5

Take the pitcher and pour a few drops of water on hands to symbolize washing. This is a good time for the leader of the household to wash the feet of the family if you want to add this and read the Scripture of what Christ did at the Last Supper as He washed the feet of His disciples.

Dip parsley or lettuce in salt water. Parsley/lettuce is green and reminds us that spring is here and new life will grow. The salt water reminds us of tears. We remember that the Jewish people suffered before they became free.

Take out the middle matzah, leave one half in it’s place and hide (Hebrew word for “bury” is used) the other half in the house to be found later. There are three matzah in one bag; in a messianic seder, this symbolizes that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one. The middle matzah represents Jesus. It represents the bread of affliction which our Hebrew kindred ate in the land of Egypt. It is also symbolic in that it is unleavened, it is striped and it is pierced. Even so the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was unleavened, that is sinless. He was striped with a whip and was pierced by the nails in his hands and His feet and by the spear in his side. He was “hidden” (buried) for a time but would be revealed again.

Drink cup

Cup of Deliverance/Judgement/Plagues

Read Exodus 12:1-14 and Deuteronomy 21:22-23

In Messianic tradition, Egypt represents the sin God has redeemed His people from. God’s people were slaves in Egypt. But the Lord our God brought them out of Egypt with His mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and with wonders. He judged the gods of Egypt and showed Himself to be the only true God. We will spill a drop of our grape juice with each of the plagues they suffered. In Jewish tradition, a full cup of wine is a symbol of joy. But our joy is diminished as we recall the suffering the Egyptians endured as God visited them with the 10 plagues. So we diminish our cups by one drop of wine for each of the ten plagues which they suffered. As Proverbs 24:17, “When your enemy falls, do not rejoice.” We also spill out some of the drops associated with punishment so that God in His mercy brings less judgment to us.

10 plagues (after each plague and spill of juice, we repeat all the ones before. I.E. What was the first plague? Blood! What was the second plague? Frogs and so on and so forth with each new plague.)

1. Blood (add red natural dye to water)
2.  Frogs (jumping frog toys or frog tongue game)
3.  Lice (scratch your head)
4.  Flies (pretend to smack flies with fly buzzing sounds)
5.  Bad sickness (kleenex and sneezing, coughing chorus)
6.  Boils (red stickers)
7.  Hail (throwing pom poms around)
8.  Locusts (locust game)
9.  Darkness (blindfolds)
10. Death (red scarf over doorpost)

The roasted bone symbolizes the Passover Lamb that was slain so that the Israelites were passed over and their lives were saved. Jesus came to be the perfect lamb that would be slain. His blood would save us.

The matzah was eaten at the first Passover because there was not enough time for the dough to rise as they were driven out of Egypt at the last plague.

The bitter herbs tells of the bitter hard life the Egyptians made for the Israelites because they forgot about Joseph. The charoseth represents the mortar used to make bricks to build the cities and palaces.

The egg reminds us that just as a chicken lays an egg daily, so the Jews brought an animal sacrifice to the Temple daily to atone for their sins. We no longer have to bring these sacrifices. It reminds us of spring, the time of Passover and new life that grows in spring. We dip the egg in the salt water to symbolize our mourning over the destruction over the Temple.

Free people get to slouch and recline!

The children will then go hunt for the broken matzah. The child who finds it, will be rewarded with a prize 50 days after. This symbolizes that those who find the Son, will be rewarded with the Holy Spirit (Pentecost took place 50 days after Jesus rose). Partake of the matzah.

Drink cup

Side notes: As the disciples reclined at the table, John was the youngest and rested on Jesus. But Jesus rested his head on Judas. We also understand that Judas left the table after partaking of this cup when Jesus told Him to go and do what he was about to do. So he was unable to partake of the cup of blessing and redemption.

Cup of Blessing and Redemption

Read Exodus 6:6 and Galatians 3:13

Thanking God for bringing us out of slavery and saving us from the bondage of sin. (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25). This is the cup that we use at communion.

Drink cup

Cup of Praise

Read Exodus 6:7 and Matthew 26:29

Fill this cup all the way.

Read Psalm 116, 117, and 118

Sing a hymn

At this, many believe Jesus did not drink of this cup because of Mark 14:25 and Exodus 6:7, He left it there as a symbolic act to say “I will be back to take you and drink this cup with you at the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Drink cup

This is the conclusion of the seder. However, we continued with some other traditions below.

Just as Jesus went after the Passover meal to the Garden of Gethsemane, we went across our street to our Catholic church neighbors that had the Stations of the Cross and we walked through it. If you do not have one, you can set up your own Stations of the Cross by printing out pictures of different events from the time of Jesus’ events and placing them on stakes along a path to walk through.

We then returned to talk about how when we thank Jesus for His great sacrifice, repent of our sins, and accept Him and believe in Him as Lord and Savior of our life, He changes us completely and He makes us into a new creation. We then give new outfits (usually I make something for them to wear but you can always buy instead of make!) and they change into their new outfits.

After their new outfits, we come to the kitchen and make resurrection rolls and discuss the symbolism of Jesus’ body being anointed for burial days before He died and the spices that were given at His birth to speak of His purpose to come and die. Then He was buried in a tomb and sealed inside for a time before He was resurrected and His tomb was found empty! He is alive!

While the rolls were cooking, we went on an egg hunt because Jesus said “If you seek Me you will find Me if you seek Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13. In the eggs were some special eggs with different pieces that told the story of Holy Week. How I arrange our egg hunt is through color coding and numbering. Each child has their own special color egg to find, plus, one golden egg with the number 10 on it. Then the special eggs with the story pieces inside are numbered using a code you’ll see below. The numbered eggs are set aside while they open their other eggs and then we come together once more to sit around and tell the story of Holy Week. We start with number 1 and let each child tell what the item means when they open and find what’s inside. We fill the rest of the eggs with things that are non-candy like: goldfish, blueberries, strawberries, freeze dried fruit, animal crackers, light up rings, whistles, mini fruit bars, fruit leathers, organic fruit snacks, raisins, pretzels, and maybe another small toy. I also used these eggs and this one for the golden eggs since they were larger and easier to stuff and find!

Numbered eggs:

• Child 1 (orange): 1, 4, 9
• Child 2 (pink): 2, 4, 9
• Child 3 (yellow): 3, 4, 9
• Child 4 (blue): 4, 5, 9, 10
• Child 5 (white): 4, 9, 6
• Child 6 (green): 4, 9, 7
• Child 7 (purple): 4, 9, 8

Finally, we sat down to eat the resurrection rolls and concluded our Easter celebrations!

I hope this has helped you prepare to infuse symbolism and focus back into Easter for you and your family! Last year when we first tried it, we did not get to do it Easter week but did it 3 weeks later. So even if you think it’s too late, it’s not! Take the time to express the importance and great significance of this week. Allow the children to ask questions (cause you know there will be some hard ones!). This is a special and impactful time in their life that can’t be traded for Easter bunnies and eggs.