Keeping a Holy Lent :: Holy Week Banner

While searching for a way to help make Holy Week more celebrated in our home, I came across Heart Felt Truths lovely Holy Week Banner on Etsy. In being a little ill prepared this year in the planning of Holy Week for my family, it was too late to order this set on Saturday afternoon in time for Palm Sunday!

Although I was a bit discouraged, I soon found that Heart Felt Truths offers all of their templates for making your own banner for FREE over on their blog. (Thank God for wonderful creative people who are willing to share the fruits of their labor!)

So after raiding the felt stash in my craft closet,  I set to work creating a Holy Week banner for our family. I started by using the original Easter banner I crafted a few years ago as the base.

This Easter banner was made using a 12 x 12 felt square which I hot glued around a cardboard rod from a cloths hanger to serve as the dowel. A few inches of leftover ribbon were glued into the rod to serve as a hanger. (Can you tell I like to scavenger my crafting materials from items already in my home?)

To this base I added two more additional felt squares, one tan and one black. The tan will serve as the base of the symbols for Palm Sunday through Good Friday, and the black will be left blank and used for Holy Saturday to illustrate the darkness that comes before the Risen Lord on Easter Sunday. The felt symbols will stay in place against the background, and the felt will just simply be flipped over the rod to transition as the days progress throughout the week.

To the bottom of the newly added tan felt square, a free handed tomb was cut into the dark felt which will serve as the Hill of Calvary. An empty cross was set atop Calvary, and will be surrounded by the symbols added each day as they pertain to the proceeding days of Holy Week.

Since Heart Felt Truths banner is slightly larger than mine, (theirs measures 11.5 x 32), I had to scale down and tweak their patterns for the symbols to suit what I already had on hand. Despite these differences, in the end, the symbols I created for the different aspects of our Lord’s Passion will serve as visual reminders of our Lord’s suffering and love to my children throughout the days of Holy Week.

…:::Palm Sunday

Symbols: Palm Branch and Donkey

Verse: Matthew 21:1-11

…:::Holy Monday

Symbol: Alabaster Jar

Verse: Matthew 26:6-13

…:::Holy Tuesday

Symbols: Bread and Wine

Verse: Matthew 26: 17-29

…:::Spy Wednesday

Symbols: Sword and Kiss

Verse: Matthew 26: 47-56

…:::Maundy Thursday

Symbols: Washing of Hands

Verse: Matthew 26: 59-68, 27: 11-26

…:::Good Friday

Symbols: Cross, Nails, Tomb and Body

Verse: Matthew 27: 35-60

…:::Holy Saturday

Symbol: Tomb

…:::Easter Sunday

Symbols: Dove, Cross and Risen Lord

Verse: Matthew 28:1-10

Since Dad is away this week, the children and I will use our New Catholic Picture Bible to read each passage before adding the felt pieces during our morning devotions. The banner, along with our Resurrection Eggs and Stations of the Cross Montessori Box, will be a wonderful addition to our domestic church this year and hopefully will become a treasured tradition to share with Dad next Lent!

…::::::::::::…

How are you honoring these last few days of Lent? Are you reaching your goals with 40 Bags in 40 Days? Will your children find any Catholic symbols in their Easter Baskets this year? Tell us all about it!