Our recipe to Easter fun

“I usually go with my family for prayers on Easter. However, our tradition is we get started the day before Palm Sunday. We buy the palms and ensure that every family member has theirs near their clothes for church,” says Lelia Kyomuhangi, Manager Albar Catering Services.

They go for mass, the next day and thereafter prepare for the Way of the Cross on Good Friday. Kyomuhangi adds, “We go for the Easter Vigil mass and on Sunday, we go for Easter mass. After that, it is just celebrating the resurrection as we cook variety of traditional food.”

Turn taking
As for Ruth Kihumuro, a Human Resources Consultant recollects how while growing up, their Easter tradition was prepare from Good Friday. “With my aunts and their families plus grandparents, we would arrange a family weekend.

Every family would take turns. On Good Friday, we would attend Easter carols at the local church. One family would prepare dinner and host us for the night.

On Saturday, another family would host us to a different treat punctuated with lots of food. On Sunday, another family would do the same till Easter Monday. This was very fun and exciting because we would get together and get to enjoy the Easter holiday.

Either outing or visiting
For some families, Easter season is family time and a day when we are sure of four days off office work from Good Friday to Easter Monday. Patience Ssetumba, a banker says, “We plan out what we are going to do and usually, we go to eat out.

On Easter, we go to church with the children and there after we have a traditional Easter meal as a family or we take the children to the grandparents and we celebrate from there.”

Entertainment
Paul Miiro also known as Uncle Paul, an in-charge of Sunday school at Makerere Full Gospel Church says, most Christians in Uganda celebrate Easter as a time for interacting with family and, people who do not normally go to church attend mass on Easter. Thereafter, it is celebrating with the family in their homes.

“As a church, we usually have a play that depicts how Jesus was crucified as a way of reminding ourselves of what happened and also to reflect on our lives,” says Miiro. This is the trend they follow from Holy Thursday to Easter.

“We also hold fellowship where we have special meals on Easter. Some of the readings we focus on include John 15:13, it reflects that Jesus’s love was not only in his words, but in also his sacrificial death and Acts 7:11,” he explains, adding: “We involve children by showing them an Easter movie that helps them understand more about Easter and its significance in their lives.

fun ways to enjoy Easter

Plant something: Prepare some flower pots with soil and give each child a seed to plant on Easter morning. The seed represents the rebirth seen in nature at this time of year.
Have an egg rolling competition – hard-boil a batch of eggs and decorate them. You might like to try dyeing them or simply get each family member to mark their own egg. Set off with your eggs (preferably in a little Easter basket!) and find somewhere outdoors with a slight hill to race your eggs down. If you don’t bash the eggs too much, you can eat them afterwards .