How to make Easter Streamers

by Jenny Hyson, children’s adviser

Make rainbow streamers that tell a story for Palm Sunday and Easter Day

Each child will need: 7 ribbons or crepe paper streamers about 35 cms long; A short length of dowel and double sided sticky tape.

Tell the story of Easter by introducing one colour of the streamer at a time. Each of the rainbow coloured streamers tells a different part of the story.

1. Violet : Violet or purple is the colour for the season of Lent. Many churches in Lent use purple cloths on the altar and the priest may wear special purple clothes. Purple is the colour that the church uses to show that it is a time to get ready to celebrate something special. So we are in the season of getting ready for something special to happen. This time is called Lent and it is the time when we get ready to celebrate Easter. What other time of the church’s year uses this colour?

2. Orange : This is the colour orange. I wonder what the colour orange reminds you of?

(The children may have recently celebrated a Christingle when the colour orange was the symbol of the world.) Remind the children how God loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus into the world as a tiny baby.

3. Yellow : This colour reminds us of the gift of gold that one of the wise men brought to the baby Jesus. It reminds us that Jesus was born to be a new and special king.

4. Blue : But Jesus didn’t stay a baby, like us he grew up and when he was an adult he did some amazing things. Talk together about some of the amazing stories you remember about Jesus. Blue reminds us that some of Jesus’ special friends were fishermen and many of the stories of Jesus took place by the sea of Galilee.

5. Green : Many people followed Jesus wherever he went to hear his stories and to learn more about God. The colour green reminds us of that special day when they led him into Jerusalem, laying palm leaves in his path and shouting that he was their king.We call this special day Palm Sunday.

6. Red : But not everyone was Jesus’ friend and there were some who plotted to have Jesus killed. The colour red reminds us of how Jesus died nailed to a wooden cross.

7. Indigo : Even though people were doing horrible things to him Jesus still loved the people and before he died he prayed to God and said, ‘Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.’ Imagine Jesus loving us so much that he thought about us at that time.When Jesus died the sky went dark and a huge curtain hanging in the temple in Jerusalem tore from top to bottom. The colour indigo reminds us of the darkness and the colours of the curtain. Many of those who saw Jesus die knew at this point that Jesus really was the son of God. But we know that this wasn’t the end of the story, for three days later Jesus rose from the dead.

Now that you have heard the story make your ribbons into a streamer that you can wave on Palm Sunday and Easter day.

When you mix all the colours of the rainbow together they make the colour white.

White is the colour that the church uses for the celebration of Easter, so watch to see if your church changes its colours from purple to white.