Easter Holiday Index

Twins hunting eggs at the White House.

       Easter, the festival commemorating the resurrection of Christ, observed in many branches of the Christian Church. By the first Christians it was regarded as continuing the feast of the Passover, at which the paschal lamb, a symbol of Christ, was sacrificed. Hence its name in Greek and in the Romance languages is taken from the Hebrew Pesach, meaning Passover.

       The English name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre, a pagan goddess of light or spring, whose festival was celebrated in April. There was a long dispute in the Christian Church as to the proper time for holding Easter, the Christians of the East celebrating it on the same day as that on which the Jewish Passover fell, that is the fourteenth of Nisan, while the majority of the Church celebrated it on the Sunday next after this day. The controversy was decided by the Council of Nice in 325, which fixed Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21. If the full moon happens on a Sunday, Easter is the Sunday after.

• Easter or Lenten Holiday Coloring from Crayon Palace
• Coloring for Easter & Lent at Color The Bible
• Search Our Easter Doll Crafts Index at The Doll Coloring Book Blog
• More about Easter here for poems and here for articles
  

The Celebration of Easter: Much of this content may be used for creating newsletters for parents and teachers. Some of it is good for child recitations. I will be adding puzzles and paper crafts to these posts that are Easter/Spring themed as well. Enjoy!

1. The First Easter from St. Luke 
2. Easter Even - poem by Christina G. Rossetti 
3. Easter Songs in Verse and For Coloring
   
4. Easter Day in Rome - poem by Oscar Wilde 
5. Easter message with chics...
   
6. The Story of Easter Eggs - poem by Christoph Von Schmid 
7. "Easter Greetings" for all God's creatures... 
8. "Easter Lilies" and Window Boxes Too... - poem by Susan Coolidge
9. "Mary" and a Primrose paper cut- poem by Margaret E. Sangster  
10. Why I Love Jesus
    
11. Easter Singers in the Vorarlburg from - "Chamber's Book of Days"
12. Easter Joys, Spring Redresses Nature
    
13. Mary's Easter  - poem by Marie Mason 
14. To An Easter Lily 
15. Medieval Easter Plays - by Henry Barret Hinckley  
16. The Little Boy
    
17. The Day of Victory - poem by Rachel Capen Schauffler 
18. The Stories I Like 
19. The Stone of the Sepulcher - poem by Susan Coolidge 
20. Easter Bells
    
21. At Easter Time  - poem by Laura E. Richards 
22. Easter Message
    
23. Easter Dawn - poem by Frances Ridley Havergal  
24. The First Easter
    
25. Easter Organ Music - poem by Harvey B. Gaul 
26. My Easter Bunny
    
27. Song of Easter - poem by Celia Thaxter 
28. Poem "I Wonder" and Butterfly Paper Craft
    
29. Nature's Easter Music - poem by Lucy Larcom 
30. Easter Secret 
31. How Moravians Observe Easter - poem by Charles H, Rominger  
32. Easter's Brightness
    
33. Poem "Awakening" and A Tulip Border Craft - poem by Rose Terry Cook 
34. "Tis Easter Day".
    
35. On Easter Morn - poem by Edith M. Thomas 
36. "Jesus Knew" and Palm Leaf Paper Cut Border
    
37. Russian Easters - Abridged from The Saturday Review 
38. Easter Day
    
39. An Easter Carol - poem by Christina G. Rossetti  
40. Easter Message
    
41. Easter Even - poem by Margaret French Patton
42. Easter Lily 
43. The Barren Easter - poem by Clinton Scollard
44. A Madrigal - poem by Clinton Scollard 
45. The Bells of Kremlin  - by Augustus J. G. C. Hare 
46. Of The Lord's Day and Easter - by William Cave 
47. Poem "Compensation" and Daffodil Border Craft
48. Singing and tweeting all "Easter Week"  - poem by Charles Kingsley
49. The Apparition of Christ to His Mother - poem by Mrs. Jameson
50. Easter - poem by Genevieve M. J. Irons
51. Easter Day - poem by Josephine Rice Creelman 
52. A Glimpse of Easter in the Azores - by Henry Sandham 
53. Egg Rolling at The White House
54. Easter Morning - by Edmund Spenser
55. Easter Wings - poem by George Herbert
56. An Easter Greeting To Every Child Who Loves  Alice" - by Lewis Carroll
57. Easter Lilies - poem by Mary Lowe Dickinson 
58. After Easter - poem by Mary Lowe Dickinson 
59. A letter from Grandpa about Easter eggs and ducks  
60. Easter Sacraments - poem by Henry Park Schauffler
61. The Resurrection, Or Easter Day - poem by George Herbert
62. Easter  - poem by George Herbert
63. The Easter Joy - poem by Margaret E. Sangster
64. Seek Those Things Which Are Above - poem by William Newell
65. Woman's Easter - poem by Lucy Larcom
66. Day Dawn - A Quiet Talk On Easter by S. D. Gordon
67. The Crescent And The Cross - poem by Thomas Baily Aldrich
68. The Easter Message - by Charles E. Hesselgrave
69. An Easter Song - poem by Susan Coolidge
70. Egg Hunt Silhouettes and Vintage Coloring

May Day Index

Queen Guinevere's Maying, by John Collier
Read more about May Day at Wikipedia

       The first of May, or May Day, has been associated with out-of-door festivities from the days of ancient Rome. The Romans were accustomed to hold yearly processions in honor of Flora, a mythological goddess of flowers, between April 28 and May 3, and it is supposed that the beautiful village festivals of medieval England had their origin in this custom. The English maypole set up on the village green the night before May Day, was bedecked in the morning with flowers, which were brought from the woods by happy young people. Especially joyous was the beauty who was chosen queen of the May, and who honored her subjects by dancing with them around the maypole. Tennyson's May Queen gives a charming picture of this form of merry making. Dancing about the maypole is sometimes introduced very effectively into modern entertainments and school programs.

Floral Artifacts For The Celebration of Spring or May 1rst:

1. The May Queen 
2. Song to The Violet 
3. Craft your very own butterfly kite! 
4. On May Morning
5. The Coming of Spring
6. May-Baskets 

Spring Butterflies & Toads from The Easter Egg Crafts Blog:

1. Tulip Table Settings for Easter and Spring  
2. Craft a Simple Butterfly Mask 
3. Craft a Very Hungry Caterpillar  
4. Frogs, Toads and Pollywogs for Spring
5. Repeating Line Butterfly Design
6. The Living Butterfly
7. A Tisket, A Tasket, A Green and Yellow Basket 
8. Needlepoint a Basket of Violets  
9. Create a Butterfly Yarn Picture
10. "Handy" little butterflies
11. Drawing Butterflies Through Five Progressive Steps 
12. Craft Doily Butterflies 

May Day Coloring Sheets:

1. Dancing around a Maypole and The May Pole Dance
2. Happy May Day! from printables4kids
3. Maypole Dancing On May Day Coloring Pages from tocolor.pics

May Day Crafts from Around The Web:

• May Day craft collection from DLTK's
• DIY Beautiful Curly Paper Flowers
• May Day Woven Basket
• Wrap a yarn covered bottle for paper flowers 
• 3D or three dimensional paper vases with flowers
• Paper roll Spring flowers craft

 A Maypole Dance performed at 

The School in Rose Valley by students

The May Queen

The May Queen 

by Lord Alfred  Tennyson

YOU must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;   
To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad new-year,--  
Of all the glad new-year, mother, the maddest, merriest day;   
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.   

I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake,   
If you do not call me loud when the day begins to break;           
But I must gather knots of flowers and buds, and garlands gay;   
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.       

The night-winds come and go, mother, upon the meadow-grass,   
And the happy stars above them seem to brighten as they pass;   
There will not be a drop of rain the whole of the livelong day;           
And I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.   

So you must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;   
To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad new-year;   
To-morrow 'll be of all the year the maddest, merriest day,   
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.

Practice drawing with the use of a grid...

Grid superimposed on top of a sketch of horse and cat.

ENLARGING AND REDUCING PICTURES.

       A simple picture may be enlarged by means of clots and dotted lines to guide the eye, as shown on the next page, where we have a number of compound curves applied to vase forms, which are to be reproduced the same size below and enlarged on the opposite page. If, however, the picture is not a single figure, but contains a large amount of detail, it is best to enlarge it by means of squares, as shown just left. To do this, take the original, and divide it into a number of squares, as shown in the small figure. If the picture is desired twice as long as the original make a square twice its dimensions, or, if it is to be reduced and it is desired to have it only half the length of the copy, then the square should be made only one-half the dimensions of the original. For instance, Fig. above, left is a small picture, which measures two and one-half inches long by two inches wide. We want a picture five inches long, consequently, we draw a square twice the dimensions of the small picture, or five inches long by four inches wide. This large square is now divided into five squares in length by four squares in width, or just the same number as have been made on the copy, but, of course, those are proportionately smaller.
       The eye and hand now have a guide, and by noting the relative position of the outlines in the original to the corners and edges of the squares, and by carefully following this guide an enlarged picture, correctly proportioned, may be made.
       In placing the details of the picture care should be taken to place correctly in the enlarged picture according to their position in the copy. If the eye of the horse is in the corner of a square in the small picture, a correspondingly large one should be similarly placed in the enlarged picture. The cat's tail extends to the upper line of the third row of squares in the original, and should do the same in the reproduction. In drawing the horse's ears, note the proportion of the small square that is covered by them, and by following the same proportions in the large square, they may be accurately enlarged.
       To reduce a picture, make a square the size desired; divide it into squares, and the copy into the same number of squares. This will furnish a guide by which any large picture may be accurately reduced to the size desired, the same as in enlarging. Practice on the pictures given, on loose paper, and do not attempt to reproduce on the pages left in this book until creditable work can be done. Cline

Above you can see the sample grid drawings that I've made from pictures cut and laminated from magazines.
Students may use these to practice enlarging and reducing images on grids during free drawing time in the art classroom.

A Glimpse of Easter In The Azores

       Even the gray Lenten season wraps carnival's domino over its sackcloth and ashes for these people whose grace turns all to favor and prettiness; only the inevitable statues of the tortured Christ remind one of the season, and soon wounds and bruises are hidden by violets, heliotrope, and pansies (aniores perfeitos, they call them). To fast when one may feast is, in Azorean creed, lack of gratitude to a very good God, so Holy Thursday is a beautiful feast called Almond day, when one eats almond-sweets till he positively sickens at the shrill cry of almond-venders, which goes up from dawn till midnight.

       Good Friday is supposed to be the day of mourning, and in the churches the closing scenes of the Calvary tragedy are enacted. The three crosses rise on a rocky mound before the veiled high altar, whereon life-sized dummy figures are crucified by aid of pulleys and ropes and mechanical devices. The entombment takes place at a side altar, converted into a garden for the purpose, where life-sized figures in armor represent Roman sentinels. The Saturday continues Friday's gloom and darkness with the aid of much dreary chanting, till just at the hour of noon, when the droning clergy, marching round the church, pause before the chapel of the tomb in an instant's silence, there comes a cry of wonder at the discovery of the empty grave, and simultaneously with the cry the veils fall from the altars, and pictures, and the black curtains from the windows, letting a flood of light pour down on the crowded, excited people. The long-silent organ augmented by choir and orchestra, breaks out in triumph, the half-masted flags of the city run to the mast-head, and all the bells clash out their paean of joy. Henry Sandham

Easter Procession

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Easter Day

Green grassy cross for Easter morning.

Easter Day

by Josephine Rice Creelman

Morning
Oh, Easter anthems gladly sing.
Let all the bells from towers ring.
And sun dispel with brightening rays.
The darkness of the Passion days !
Fair lilies with their crystal light
And eager, joyous greetings bright
Proclaim the Lord has risen again,
And put asunder death and pain !

Evening
Now sweet the sound of Vesper-bells,
The hour of evening prayer foretells,
And comes a benediction calm,
That robs the soul of all alarm,
The sky has faded in the west.
The world sinks to its peaceful rest.
The Vesper Star a taper-light.
Shines through the dark of Easter night!

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Easter

Easter

by Genevieve M. J. Irons

Deep in yon garden-shade
The life of all is laid
In death's calm sleep;
Armed soldiers waiting near,
Amazed and full of fear,
Their vigil keep.
Angels, and stars, and the fair moon above.
Look down in silent awe and reverent love.

Through the dark cypress-trees
The gentle midnight breeze
Sighs a low wail;
Breath from the dewy ground
O'er the green earth around
Spreads a soft veil;
Each glade and valley, mountain, dale, and hill,
Echoes the solemn whisper, "Peace, be still."

Hushed Nature sinks to rest,
And on her Maker's breast
She falls asleep ;
Released from human woes.
The Almighty finds repose
In slumber deep ;
But saints are watching through the silent night.
In eager patience waiting for the light.

The mother undefiled
Is pondering on her Child,
Now crucified;
And through her tearless dreams
The cross in radiance beams,
Whereon he died.
Bright visions dawn. Behold ! the darkness flies,
Resplendent from the grave she sees him rise.

John the Beloved stands by,
Gazing with wondering eye
At Mary's smile ;
And angels at the sight,
Pause in their heavenward flight.
To muse awhile.
Yet the sun hides itself in dim eclipse,
While he awaits his full apocalypse.

Peter, who thrice denied
The Master at his side.
The Lord of all.
With penitential tears
And deep heart-searching fears.
Bewails his fall.
There, as he weeps in bitter grief apart,
His Savior's look speaks comfort to his heart.

The lowly Magdalene
(Of penitents the queen)
Waits for the morn.
When in that cave so still
Her task she may fulfill
Of love forlorn;
And first to her Christ risen shall appear,
Though in a form unknown he draweth near.

While he who longed to die
With Christ on Calvary,
Whose love devout
His Master proved and tried
By heartfelt prayer denied,
Must wait in doubt ;
Eight days of solemn gloom in darkness past,
On trustful Thomas he will shine at last.

But lo, the Sabbath ends !
Nocturn with matins blends.
The morning breaks ;
The shadows flee away
Before the rising day,
And Christ awakes !
Angels proclaim the anthem far and near,
" Ye seek your risen Lord; he is not here."

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