COPTIC DAD AND MOM
Holy Week Resources
Holy Week in the Coptic Orthodox Church is April 28-May 4, 2024.
Don’t forget your Holy Week Journal!
Bored in church during the long Paschal Psalm chants, I'd daydream or fidget. But that felt so wrong! I yearned to connect with God in that special time. That's why I created the Holy Week Journal: so I would have a place to write prayers and reflections on words of the Psalms and stay present in the moment.
Make your Holy Week more fruitful…
"Church services during this week are particularly intense and emotional, especially as we reflect on our own repentance and journey to salvation. It’s important to prepare ourselves to fully engage with the experience..."
Read my blog: Get Ready for Holy Week
Take the Quiz
Test your knowledge of Holy Week by taking the “Holy Week Quiz.” Use the Kahoot to play with friends or students (nearly 3,000 people have played it!).
I’ve also made a Google Slides version you can copy below.
School Excuse Letters
Did you know that even if they go to public school, your kids can get excused absences for Covenant Thursday and Good Friday?
Send a note in to the office/to the the teacher letting them know your child won’t be there and to send make up work in advance, if possible.
Get a copy of my Google Doc you can adapt and send to your kids’ teachers!
PDF Guides to Holy Week
Prepare for Palm Sunday
Make a Palm Donkey
Work with Palms: If you have access to palms, work with palms at home. Abouna Philopateer created this great video tutorial of how to make a donkey out of palm leaves.
If you don’t have palms, try cutting strips of construction paper and following the same instructions!
Learn the Hymns
Learn the hymns: Practice with your kids the hymns of Palm Sunday like Evlogimenos and the Gospel Responses in English and/or Coptic.
Preparing for Holy Week with Kids
LISTEN to the episodes from our podcast Raising Up Copts about preparing for Holy Week:
51 - Gearing Up for Holy Week
38 - Holy Week Is Here
19 - Holy Week Debrief
18 - Holy Week with Kids
It’s important to sanctify Holy Week to God, to spend time with Him in prayer and fasting, and to set this example especially for the kids.
Encourage your kids to fast. Even if they didn’t fast any of Lent, they can tackle Holy Week. I wrote a post to help you get started: “Your Child Can Fast Holy Week If…"
Eliminate secular entertainment. For one week, give up on video games and television. Do things together as a family, not in the virtual realm. Read spiritual books, listen to sermons, or study the Bible together.
Read the gospels. If you are not able to attend or to stream all the services, Holy Week is a great time to crack open your Bibles and read the gospels. Put the whole story of Christ’s ministry in context for the kids and build up anticipation for Good Friday, Bright Saturday, and the Feast of the Resurrection.
Print a Kids Journal for Holy Week. A servant at St. Mary Magdalene in Gainesville put together a journal for kids to use through Holy Week and mark out the important events. Follow the included instructions to create one for your child or a bunch for your students. Download the zipped folder.
Looking for affordable printables? Try the JoyinPlay shop from our friend Basma. She has some lovely activity bundles!
Live Holy Week Together
Participate in Services
Attend in Person or Stream as Needed! Whenever possible, following your local guidelines, attend services in person. When it’s difficult to be there in person, tune in to your local church’s streaming or join the stream of Coptic Churches nearby.
Participate. Whether in person or streaming, use the Coptic Reader app (iOS or Android) to follow along with all the prayers during the week.
Sing Along! Don’t forget to review the words and meanings of the most common hymns of Holy Week. Download the booklet below with the most frequent hymns transliterated.
Holy Week Journal
If you ordered your copy of the Holy Week Journal, now’s the time to pull it out and use it! Record your prayers and meditations during the long Psalm chats.
Weren’t able to get yourself one this year in time? Download the Good Friday Journal to print for yourself, your students, or your children.
More Activities
Holy Week Memory Game
My daughter and I created a memory game for you to use to keep your kids quiet. You can either print the image cards twice (for the littlest kids), or you can print one set of image cards and one set of title cards for your reader.
Good Friday Word Search
My daughter and I created a word search for Good Friday with some of the keywords of the day.
Good Friday Hours Matching Game
This mini-board game asks your child to place the events on the right hour of Good Friday. It’s still in beta, so test it out with us and see how it can be improved.
Celebrating the Resurrection
Do crafts and activities together. On the Life Your Way Blog, there are clear instructions for assembling your own set of Resurrection Eggs, a great way to tell the story of Holy Week! There are even printable cards that serve the same purpose, in case you can’t get out to buy eggs in these strange times.
Make Easter Eggs. Make the beautiful rich red Easter eggs of the Eastern tradition using this recipe. If you want to get really creative, the Ukrainian wax-resist method is CLASSIC. I used to do this with my Polish friend in elementary school and really loved it. Check out this detailed post from the Metropolitan Museum of Art about Ukrainian Pysanky.
Host your own Egg Hunt! You can hide eggs filled with treats or clues in your own backyard or around your apartment for the kids. You can add a touch of competition by telling your child(ren) how many eggs you hid or making the clues add up to something. For example, put one piece of a puzzle in each egg. When all the eggs are found, they complete the puzzle!
Have suggestions for this guide? Want me to add something?
Let me know by contacting me via the blog: Contact Me.