Ways to Spend the Holy Week

CEBU, Philippines - It’s the Holy Week – traditionally a time taken for slowing down, for checking one’s life direction.  Some people choose to do their soul-searching at home, others go someplace else peaceful. There are also people who escape to a beach resort or to a big city to have fun.

Not everybody may have the means to go somewhere, especially in the case of entire families. Many, many families may just have to stay put at home. And the four days or more at home without blasting music could be quite an ordeal for the young ones – well, for all, including the parents, who may still be young themselves.

Fortunately, there are ways to preclude possible boredom amid the absence of the usual fun activities at home. The website www.omflit.com shares ideas for spending the Holy Week without having to get bored and yet upholds the solemnity of the time.

Family Game Night

It’s rare to have all family members present for several straight days, so they may take advantage of the Holy Week to have fun with the whole family. Or they can have a wi-fi or PSP tournament, an old-fashioned board game night, a fun and chaotic trivia competition or just a simple but meaningful formal sit-down dinner. Whatever stay-at-home activity is taken, the important thing is to spend quality time together, especially if they seldom have time during working days and even weekends.

Home Makeover Project

That room makeover that family members have planned and so much wanted to do but never really got around to it may now be done. Well, there’s probably a few hours in the four days to at least get it going. It doesn’t have to be major overhaul, just the first steps towards actually starting on this project. Better yet, the whole family can be involved, so it can be a good bonding activity too.

Home Chef

This is another one of those things that you neglect to do because of the busyness of school or work. One may now line-up those recipes that she’s always wanted to try out. And there’s no limit to people who will volunteer to be guinea pigs for trying out the dishes one is experimenting with.

A Time Offline

It’s hard for some people these days to imagine not being online for a long period of time. But every once in a while, everyone needs to experience the real world by stepping away from their computers, netbooks, androids, iphones, etc. There are so many things waiting to be done when one is away from electronic devices.

Discovering the Inner Artist

In the chaos of the everyday, one easily loses touch with the artist inside. Now is a good time to check and see what talents may lie buried somewhere inside oneself. It may good to bring out the coloring books and crayons, the watercolors and pastels, the scrapbooking materials, the sketching pad and pencils. Who knows, the artistic passion might be rekindled and become a regular habit again.

Writing

While writing might not be an ideal vacation activity for some, chances are that the love for the written word is in everyone. It’s in the nature of people to express themselves, writing down their thoughts, write stories, ambitious to-do lists. A good start would be to write a well-thought-out letter to someone and actually send it. That would be a good exercise of one’s writing skills and the recipient of the letter would be pleasantly surprised.

Reading

If not writing, the Holy Week is a great opportunity to catch up on one’s reading.  Spending a day or two curled up with an old favorite spot at home and finally getting around to reading the book that’s been on the to-read plan too long is a good idea.

Reflection

This is the most important activity to devote time for. The Holy Week is the perfect time for quietly meditating and reflecting on the things that are important in one’s life. Good questions to ask oneself in silence: “Where am I at this point in my life?” “Where do I want to go from here?” “How do I get there from here?” The number of members a family has need not be a problem in doing meditation – everyone just has to do it individually at the same time.

Or, a time may be spent simply in silence – to listen to God’s voice, to feel His presence. After all, it is what the Holy Week is about.