Lent 2026

1. Lady Lent

 

Grab the jpg above, or the pdf printable is below. The second page includes extra aprons for classes, if needed. 

2. Lenten Triodion calendar

3.  Illustrated Great Lent Calendar

4. Simple Lenten Passport

The passports are embedded here for you to download or print. Print the pages front and back, and take out the page of stamps before stapling into a book. (The last page is blank because its the back of the stamps.)

5. Big List of Lenten Printables

Jesse Tree!

 With one in college and the other two in public school, we're in a new phase of life. But I want to pull out the Jesse Tree again this year, especially for my youngest.  

I've misplaced my copy of Welcoming the Christ Child (although I imagine it will turn up when I pull out all the Christmas boxes!), so I'm starting with the readings compiled from the old Festal Celebrations group. We still have our old ornament sets, but we don't have the tree up yet - so I thought I'd let the girls draw the stories as we go. They seem to do well when I keep their hands busy. I made these quick templates with 40 boxes, so they can draw a tiny new story every day. Here's hoping we get through all 40!

Jesse Tree Stories and Ornaments

Nov 15 1: Creation of Universe (Sun)
Nov 16 2: Creation of Man (Two People)
Nov 17 3: The Fall (Fruit)
Nov 18 4: Noah (Rainbow)
Nov 19 5: Abraham (Constellation of Stars)
Nov 20 6: Isaac (altar)
Nov 21 7: Jacob’s Ladder (Ladder)
Nov 22 8: Israel’s 12 Sons (Coat of Many Colors)
Nov 23 9: Joseph’s Elevation (cows)
Nov 24 10: Israel’s blessing and prophecy on Judah (lion)
Nov 25 11: Moses-Infant (Basket)
Nov 26 12: Moses-Burning Bush (Burning Bush)
Nov 27 13: Plagues of Egypt (Frog)
Nov 28 14: Parting the Red Sea (Parted Sea)
Nov 29 15: Water from the Rock (Staff)
Nov 30 16: Ten Commandments (Stone Tablets
Dec 01 17: Ruth (Shock of Wheat)
Dec 02 18: Birth of Samuel, Song of Anna (Horn)
Dec 03 19: Samuel and Eli (Candle Lamp)
Dec 04 20: David Anointed King (Sheep)
Dec 05 21: David and Goliath (Slingshot)
Dec 06 22: David psalmist 109 - (Footstool
Dec 07 23: Solomon (Crown)
Dec 08 24: Elias (Burning Rock)
Dec 09 25: Jonah (Whale)
Dec 10 26: Tobias (Fish)
Dec 11 27: Isaiah, Call his name Emmanuel (Scroll with “Emmanuel”)
Dec 12 28: Great Rejoicing Foretold (Throne)
Dec 13 29: Visit of Kings Foretold (Kings with Frankincense & Myrrh)
Dec 14 30: Daniel (stone smashing statue
Dec 15 31: Three holy youths (angel in flames/or just flames)
Dec 16 32: God’s Dwelling (Ark of the Temple])
Dec 17 33: Habbakuk 3 (mountain with a large cave, i.e. the stable)
Dec 18 34: Baruch 3:35-44- Wisdom is the book of the commandments of God
Dec 19 35: Birth & Star Foretold (Star of David)
Dec 20 36: Zacharias and Elizabeth (Censer)
Dec 21 37: Annunciation (Angel)
Dec 22 38: Visitation (Mary)
Dec 23 39: Joseph the Betrothed (Joseph)
Dec 24 40: Journey to Bethlehem (Manger)

New Lady Lent Printable (Kyra Sarakosti)

I made a new Lady Lent printable for our elementary church school class. We have several families who have not observed Lent before, so I wanted to make sure her meaning was very clear. (I think she's super fun, but I know some people think she's just weird!) I made the example above to demonstrate for my class in case we don't have time to cut out the legs in class, and will perhaps demonstrate tearing off a leg. 

I made a few changes, including the poem, to make clear that Lady Lent personifies:

1) fasting  - in addition to having no mouth, we will decorate her skirt with foods the kids eat during Lent after an activity about fasting.

2) prayer - in addition to the crossed arms on her chest, I added the Jesus Prayer to the right side of the page to discuss in class. 

3) almsgiving -  I added the last stanza to the poem to include "good deeds." We will also glue an apron onto her skirt, creating a flap we can lift to write our secret almsgiving plans. I used to do an almsgiving planning activity with my kids, in which I asked them to think of at least one act of kindness they could do each week for different people. When they were finished, we talked about giving in secret, and folded the papers in half to keep their plans private. I thought we could simply incorporate that into our Lady Lent

Grab the jpg above, or the pdf printable is below. The second page includes extra aprons for classes, if needed. 

And here's my edited version of the poem:

Lady Lent, no mouth has she,
She little talks nor eats

Upon her chest, her crossed arms rest,
all day Christ she entreats.

And seven feet, no more, no less
she has to count the weeks.

Each Saturday we cut away

one of her seven feet.

She reminds us that we fast and pray
And try to do good deeds.

We do these throughout Lent

to get ready for the Feast.

[We'll still make a big one at home because my older kids don't want to be left out of our Lady Sarakosti tradition. We usually make ours out of construction paper, and we use most of a whole sheet for the skirt and body, plus the head and legs  - so that she ends up being about three sheets of paper tall.] 

102 Orthodox Saints

Ss. Priscilla and Aquila

When my kids were little I always kept a church bag with religious books, soft toys, and coloring pages with a few crayons. The kids were only allowed to read some of those books at church, which helped them looked forward to them. It was a nice way to keep them quiet and busy during Liturgy. My kids are all too old for coloring pages and toys now, but my 9 year old will still read a book during Orthros or at other times during the Liturgy. Recently, she's been reading the Action Bible, but I've had my eye out for some Orthodox books that might be more appropriate for her age. So I was thrilled to receive a review copy of 102 Orthodox Saints! 

St. Hermione

I study saints and history in my academic work, so this book has tons of elements that I love. It's laid out alphabetically, with a key on the side of the page which includes an icon, name, date and location, as well as vocation and feast day. Besides Nicholas Malara's beautiful illustrations, each entry also includes maps and photographs or illustrations of historical artifacts. I love seeing St. Hermione's medical instruments, St. Saba's monastery, or the Byzantine map of Constantinople from the time of Pulcheria. These details root the saints in the physical world, reminding us that these are more than fairy tales. These are real people, from every corner of the earth, whose show us a myriad of ways to live out the Christian life. Definitely a good pick for history lovers!

When I was putting together this blog post, I realized the pictures I snapped reflect my interest in the early Christian and early Byzantine periods - but the books includes modern saints, too. My kids always enjoy those. Its fun to see real photographs of modern saints and remember that God continues to be glorious in his saints!

St. Matrona

My 9 year old daughter enjoyed the pictures and liked reading the stories. She said she would enjoy using it during church and other times. My 17 year old daughter was also enamored with it! She loved the reference features, being able to look saints up by date or alphabetical order, and the color coding on the side that indicates what time period the saint came from. She was wondering which saints are in 101 Saints, and so I'm thinking we'll have to add that book for Christmas. (Or when it's back in print?!)

Ss. Perpetua and Felicity

There are definitely some wonderful saints in this volume. I love Ss. Perpetua and Felicity, and this illustrations of them as mothers is so beautiful! Holy Saints, pray to God for us!

St. Saba

Church bag

Yellow Onion Skin Dye for Red Eggs

 

With thanks to the Williams Family!

Yellow Onion Skins Method 

Originally from: http://williamsfamilyadventure.blogspot.com/2011/04/blood-red-easter-eggs.html 

Gather lots of yellow onion skins. [If you don't have enough, buy a sack of onions and take all the skins off! That should be enough.] 

On Holy Thursday, or a few days before Pascha stuff them into a pot and pour  2 Liters of water over them, plus 4 TBSP of vinegar.  [Don't overdo the vinegar! It will break down the egg shell and make them look bad. Learned the hard way!]

It is important for all the onion skins to be submerged, so squish down the onion skins with a weighted plate. Bring this to a boil and then simmer for about a half hour. 

Take the skins out. 

Place hard boiled eggs in the simmering dye for about 10 minutes. [Brown eggs make a deeper red. If you want to boil the eggs while you dye, you can do that too. It does seem like they take the dye better if it is simmering.] 

When boiling the eggs, don't pile them up or let the water boil too rapidly or you will risk cracking the eggs. I usually boil a single layer (12 or so) on a low simmer for 10 minutes, repeating until I have enough.

Someone told me to polish them with olive oil to make them pretty and shiny, and I like to do that. 

2024 HOLY WEEK PRINTABLES

 I'm printing all my Holy Week resources today, and thought I'd share this updated list. Good strenght this Holy Week!

Lazarakia Recipe

Holy Sunday/Monday/Tuesday

Bridegroom Services

 

Holy Wednesday

Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday
is egg dyeing day! I don't have any printables about the last supper Liturgy!

Dozen egg coloring page with Red Egg Poem 

Holy Friday Craft

We're making this little craft to tell my youngest what to expect this week.  The figure of Christ and the epitaphios are not glued on, so we can act out when they are moved. I just cut out the cross and bier from brown paper sacks and used tissue paper and glue and markers.

Here are some printables. I'll give the large epitaphios to my youngest to color during one of the Holy Friday services, but I printed it now so she could see it. Then we made a tiny one for the bier.

Holy Saturday

15 Old Testament Readings of Holy Saturday

Printable Pascha Cards for mailing to friends and family: 

If you want to print your own Easter Cards, I made a less ink version below for you. I like to print them on cardstock, cut them apart, and attach them to Pascha gifts. Click them image to see the full size version, grab and print.

Folky Black Pascha Print

I put together a new print on Spoonflower to make a new Pascha basket cover. I don't know why I keep making new ones, but I love this print so much I might also splurge on 2 yards for a table cloth.

It's on spoonflower with and without the words "Christ is risen," both options in four different colors.  Check them all out here!  If you want to make a basket cover, choose from the larger prints (named "Easter") on a fat quarter. It usually takes two weeks for them to print and ship to you, and you will need to hem the edges. I'm going to use the smaller print (named Spring) for napkins and tablecloths.

I'm having so much fun, I also put it on greeting cards and t-shirts on zazzle.  If you want to print your own Easter Cards, I made a less ink version below for you. I like to print them on cardstock, cut them apart, and attach them to Pascha gifts. Click them image to see the full size version, grab and print.