Why Lilies for Easter?

Yes, it's still Lent, but Holy Week begins in just over a week, and then it's Easter. Easter is THE season for Christians. It begins at sundown on Holy Saturday, and continues for 50 days. Celebration of the resurrection of Christ calls for the brightest and best we have to offer – in music, in hospitality, in all the ways we have to share the joy of new, everlasting resurrection life. Flowers have long been part the celebration.

The white Easter lily has served for centuries as a symbol of Easter. The springing forth of brilliant white beauty from a seemingly dead mass (the bulb) and the symbolic purity of its color have come to represent resurrection. Before Easter lilies bloom fully, the flowers look like trumpets, ready to proclaim the good news. Sometimes Easter lilies have been called the “white-robed apostles of hope.”  Tradition/legend has it that lilies were found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ’s agony; that beautiful white lilies sprung up where drops of Christ’s sweat or tears fell to the ground in his final hours of sorrow and deep distress. Today, congregations continue this tradition at Easter by banking their altars and surrounding their crosses with masses of Easter lilies, to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hope of eternal life.

Many congregations also use a variety of other springtime flowers, which convey the same message of new life. Here at CtK, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other types of lilies and foliage are employed in celebration of the day and season of Easter. If it brings you joy to do so, please consider contributing to the Easter flower fund, in thanksgiving, honor, or memory of someone meaningful to you. You can find a "Spring Flowers" form on the table in the narthex (entryway). Fill it out, attach $10/flower, and place it in the offering plate during worship, or return it to the church office, by March 29th.

Thanks!