It’s almost Lent! We’re really big at our house on observing Lent, and then celebrating Easter. Burying the Alleluia is a great way to kick this off! Before I started this site, I never realized that Catholics don’t say Alleluia or Gloria during Lent. It’s so awesome to be more in tune with cool stuff like that! Now, when I’m at Mass following along in my Mass booklet, I can follow along with what’s going on and be more aware of our waiting.
Several years ago, we began the tradition of burying the Alleluia with our kids, and we just printed out an Alleluia. It’s cheap, fast, and easy. The basic idea is that you make an Alleluia of some kind, hide it away during Lent, and re-surface it on Easter. We leave ours out for the entire Easter season. 🙂
At this point, since we do this year after year, I wanted a nice set that we could use forever. I decided to finally spring for the supplies to do this with wooden letters from the craft store.
Supplies Needed for Wooden Alleluia Craft:
- Wooden letters to spell “Alleluia”. Prices vary a lot depending on what size letters you get. Check out your local Hobby Lobby, AC More, or Michaels.
- Wooden box. If you go to Hobby Lobby or Michaels, be sure to search for a print a 40% off one item coupon first and use it for your box.
- Spray paint. We used purple and gold.
- Wooden cross. Optional- these are pretty cheap.
Lay your items out on newspaper to be spray painted. Always lay more newspaper than you think because you WILL overspray the paint if you don’t. (I’m the worst to do this- lol).
Spray the letters and cross gold, then spray the box purple. Allow to dry.
Gold spray painted “alleluia” and cross, blue spray painted box on a newspaper.
I love spray paint because it’s SO FAST! Sometimes I start thinking that I don’t want to deal with the hassle of spray painting something, but it’s just so much less work than brush painting stuff. Totally worth it.
That’s it. The idea is that on Mardi Gras, you parade around with the letters, preferably singing an “Alleluia” song of some variety.
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Then, you pack all the letters away in the box, bag, cloth… whatever… and keep them hidden until Easter.
Then proudly display them for the entire Easter season!
We painted the box purple because that’s the color of Lent. You probably got that, but just thought I’d make sure. 😉
When you’re at the store buying your letters and box, make sure they all fit, mkay?
If you’re looking for a cheap and easy way to do this, see the printable set we used to use. I am really excited to have this nice set now, but the printed set worked just as well. We’re going to a pancake party tomorrow, and we’re bringing this along to use with the kids. I’m very excited! 🙂
Such a fun idea – though I have “Allelulia” stuck in my head now on repeat since I started reading this article 🙂 Totally agree on the spray paint vs. brush painting – it’s so much faster and gets the job done just as well. I went for brush painting on the Maji Gift Box (link below) and while I’m happy with the result, I would have done it with spray paint if given the chance again. It took two coats and way longer than a quick spray would have! Thanks for sharing another fun idea.
http://enterundermyroof.blogspot.com/2013/01/maji-gift-box-epiphany-2013.html
This is a great idea. Let’s put some creativity to work! This would be an amazing activity for the kids this Easter Sunday. Thanks for sharing this! 🙂
Very nice Lacy! I was short on funds so in steadying of buying the supplies, I used scrapbook letter stickers and card stock. Not fancy but it did the job. God bless!
This is so nice. I’ll keep it in mind for next year. I think my son would really enjoy working on it.
Please be sure to post how you display this. I am curious since the other was held together with ribbon. Thank you for sharing all your wonderful ideas.
The wooden letters just stand up, so they can stand across the mantle without a string. Although you could certainly put them on a string if you wanted.
We use (at parish Faith Formation) a slip of paper with the word on it, which the kids color. Then each child gets a plastic Easter Egg to put their Alleluia in. They take them home to bury,. Parents can bring out the egg for their Easter basket on Easter morning! Some years we buried all the kids’ eggs in a pot of dirt in our room at church, then unburied them at Easter. (except because we don’t meet on Easter Sunday, it loses a little bit when you unbury them at class the week after Easter). But this has been fun.Thanks for the new idea!
My older kids used to make giant posters from a box of that old computer paper that was perforated. Once year we actually buried it in the yard because the weather allowed it! Mostly, it gets “buried” under the sofa!
I did this with my 2nd graders last night. I used colorful, glittery letters to spell out Alleluia. I have a small group this year so each child was able to put one letter in the box. The last child put on the lid. Thank you for this great idea. My DRE thought it was a fantastic activity.
Sounds awesome and I always love glitter! 🙂