He is Risen - Thoughts on Easter

Its Easter Monday for me writing this. Holy week, Maunday Thursday and the Last Supper, the stripping of the altar and church, Good Friday and the cross, that long service, The Easter Saturday workshop with the kids, and the building of the Easter garden and setting up the church are all part of Easter.
On Easter morning, getting up at 4am to get down the church and be ready to start the service - The Easter Liturgy at 5am possibly (apart from the time) the best service of the year. This year we had to do a bit more work in the church, which I suppose bought us a bit nearer to the meaning.
I like the part of the service, when we all light the candles and walk into the church bringing the light from outside into the church, lighting candles as we go down.
After the service then we have the cooked Easter breakfast,with as many as can stay, then getting the church ready for the main Easter service at 10:00am - practising a few more anthems.
The Rest of the day is spent recovering. By early afternoon most of my household was asleep, on surfacing for an evening meal with Grand parents, before an Early Night.
Easter is hard word. Nothing like Christmas. A more gentle service and with a much deeper meaning. We celebrate the one man who died and came back to life to say we have nothing to fear. Death is no the end. It is only just the beginning.