Sunday before Lent

[catholicanne]

I’m a new Faith Formation Coordinator and I have been asked to plan a “carnival” for the Sunday before Lent. I realize that this is in the spirit of Mardi Gras but I’m a little concerned that the children will simply see this as another party and not understand that we’d be having a bit of fun because Lent will be starting and Lent is a time of reflection and sacrifice. How can I allow the children to have some fun while at the same time prepping them for the seriousness of Lent? I have children ages 4-10.

BTW, the children will not be discussing Lent in their normal classrooms. DRE doesn’t want to scare the kids or make them “feel bad” so I can’t do any activities that would refer to His suffering.

Thanks.

 

[Joannm]

We often had Mardi Gras celebrations in our parish. It is a good way of making a point of the contrast between feasting and fasting. You could have a procession retiring the Alleluia. Some parishes ave a fire outside and burn last years palm. Another parish I know of brought the kids into the bare church after the Mardi Gras party. The DRE tells the story that one kid saw the darkened bare church and said “I guess the party is over”. Out of the mouth of babes.
OTOH I don’t understand why you can not talk about Lent. All of Lent does not focus on Jesus’ suffering but on preparing our hearts for the celebration and to focus on renouncing sin and following Christ. Kids can understand that and do well with that.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I’m a new Faith Formation Coordinator and I have been asked to plan a “carnival” for the Sunday before Lent. I realize that this is in the spirit of Mardi Gras but I’m a little concerned that the children will simply see this as another party and not understand that we’d be having a bit of fun because Lent will be starting and Lent is a time of reflection and sacrifice. How can I allow the children to have some fun while at the same time prepping them for the seriousness of Lent? I have children ages 4-10.

BTW, the children will not be discussing Lent in their normal classrooms. DRE doesn’t want to scare the kids or make them “feel bad” so I can’t do any activities that would refer to His suffering.

Thanks.

Wow, you can’t “scare” the kids by talking about Jesus? How can you ever prepare them for the sacraments if you can’t talk about how Jesus died for our sins??

I mean I can see not going into the pure crucifixion for the very little children, but the older ones certainly need to understand what the cross of Christ means to our faith.