It takes years to add layers to your family traditions and liturgical celebrations without losing your mind, and now, with 7 years of Catholicism under my belt, our family has reached a sweet spot of tradition, ease, and predictable rhythms. Holy Week is the creme de la creme, liturgically speaking, and our plans for it reflect that. Instead of squeezing the liturgy into our busy lives, our lives revolve around the liturgy for one week. The entire week is a preparation for the beauty of Easter morning.
If you are new to this whole liturgical living thing, I offer my plans here for you as inspiration. We try to make our Holy Week meaningful yet simple. What I have on this list is the most I feel I can accomplish without losing the spirituality of the week. However there is always another year and another layer!
Holy Week Printable Planner
I’ve also created a printable Holy Week planner for you too! May it be a blessing to you as you plan this blessed week! In it you’ll find pages to help you plan:
- Easter Outfits
- Easter Baskets
- Holy Week Activities
- Holy Week Cooking and Menu Plans
- Holy Week Homemaking
- Shopping and Grocery lists
- And more!
I even included some Lenten planning pages, but send me your ideas for other planning pages you’d like to see and I’ll include them next year! Find it here.
Please let me know what your special traditions are surrounding Holy Week in the comments! I just love my readers’ ideas!
Holy Week in Our Catholic Home
The Month Leading up to Holy Week
- Assemble Easter outfits and purchase things that are missing
- Plan and purchase Easter basket and Easter hunt goodies
- Talk to family about our Easter plans and plan the meal if we will be hosting.
- Watch grocery ads weekly and purchase things on sale that will be used in our Easter meal.
- Each week work thoroughly through the 5 zones of my house (decluttering, organizing, and deep cleaning)
Palm Sunday
- Make a Paschal candle (you can see how we did it without a kit here)
- Discuss over the supper table a family Easter season devotion (like the Regina Coeli)
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
- Finalize my grocery shopping list and go shopping
- Do some school (we’ll be dropping our subjects that are based on a week’s time frame, mainly spelling and Latin)
- Take extra time to focus on cleaning, decluttering, and projects to prepare our home for the coming week
- Serve Judasers on Wednesday (bread shaped like a noose)
Holy Thursday
In the Kitchen:
Seder (or Passover) Meal
We enjoyed have a knock-off seder meal last year. The lamb stew didn’t go over well though, so this year I’ll be opting for a beef roast instead. Following is our family’s seder menu:
- Lamb (we’ll do a beef roast since I can’t stomach paying over $2 a pound for meat!)
- Bitter Herbs (we do a salad)
- Unleavened bread (we do crackers or Matza bread)
- Charoseth (we do applesauce)
- Wine (we do sparkling water and cranberry juice)
Kitchen Preparations:
- Make chocolate lambs for Easter baskets
- Make a butter lamb for Easter dinner
- Make Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday
In the Home
- Do a final once-over on the house
- Check Easter clothes (wash and iron if needed)
- Call off school for the remainder of the week
- Fill plastic Easter eggs with goodies
Spiritual
- Attend Mass
- Spend some extra time in prayer
- Wash each other’s feet (This is always on our list, but we’ve only done it once. Usually with Husband working a full day, serving supper, and getting to Mass together, we just don’t have time for this. It is a good back-up if, for some odd reason, we can’t get to Mass.)
Good Friday
In the Kitchen:
- Prep a vegetarian soup dish in the crockpot
- Bake some homemade bread to have with our soup
- Boil eggs later in the day for tomorrow’s dying
- Serve Hot Cross Buns for breakfast
Spiritual:
- Attend Good Friday service
- Observe the hours of silence when our Lord hung on the cross (12 – 3 pm) as much as possible with 4 young children
- Pray the Rosary with the Sorrowful Mysteries
Holy Saturday
In the Kitchen:
- Dye Easter eggs
- Prepare as much as possible for Easter brunch on Sunday
In the home:
- Once more once-over on the house (Hey, we have 4 young children – stuff gets mussed up quickly!)
- After the kids go to bed, set out the Easter basket goodies, replace the beans in the sacrifice jar with jelly beans, put our Easter season calendar on the refrigerator, and redecorate the feast table
Spiritual:
- We may attend Easter vigil or then again, we may not. It all depends on what the kids are up for that day. If we don’t, we will of course attend on Sunday morning.
Easter Morning
In the Kitchen:
- Not too much, I like to get as much done as possible the day before!
In the Home:
- Enjoy Easter baskets!
- Hunt Easter eggs!
Spiritual:
- Attend Mass if we were unable to attend the Easter Vigil
- Begin our Easter devotion (praying the Regina Coeli
Other Holy Week Reading:
Holy Thursday from Catholic Cuisine
Lenten Roundup from Family Feast and Feria
The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day
Feast Day Cookbook: The Traditional Catholic Feast Day Dishes of Many Lands
Our Holy Week in Pictures (2017)
