By Thea Jarvis

Wasn’t it only yesterday that enthusiastic congregations were queuing up for ashes, eager for Lenten discipline? Alas, Lent began over five weeks ago and Holy Week is fast upon us.

Passion or Palm Sunday, when we hear the scriptural account of Jesus’ death and receive blessed palms as a reminder of his Hosanna-filled entry into Jerusalem, may signal a last chance to apply Lenten balm to our winter-weary spirits.

Why not celebrate Holy Week with a few simple customs families can follow at home?

Alternatives, a nonprofit company in Ellenwood, Ga., offers resources for responsible living and alternative celebrations. Its catalogue, To Celebrate: Reshaping Holidays and Rites of Passage, lists a number of easy ways to observe Holy Week. One tradition involves the use of simple household objects to stimulate prayer and remembrance during the days immediately proceeding Easter.

On Palm Sunday, place a palm, fern frond or green paper leaf in the center of your kitchen table. If the table is too small or crowded, any visible, easily accessible space will do. The area itself can represent the table where Jesus joined his disciples for the Last Supper. Read from John 12:13 to learn how he rode a donkey through the festival streets of Jerusalem.

Monday of Holy Week, add a small bowl of water with a folded napkin or towel as a reminder of how Jesus, in a spirit of humility and service, washed and dried the feet of his friends. Read the story of his gesture in John 13:5.

On Tuesday, place a picture or molded clay figure of praying hands on the table. Read Luke 22:41, which recounts Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. A picture or ceramic figure of a rooster can be added on “Spy” Wednesday, calling to mind Luke 22:34, when Jesus foretold Peter’s denials.

A crown of thorns can be made by twisting rough twigs, a rose stem or weed stalks together. Set out on Holy Thursday, it is a reminder that a symbol of power and royalty was fashioned to mock Jesus. Mark 15:17 tells how soldiers dressed Jesus in purple and placed the crown on his head.

On Good Friday, a small cross of sticks bound together by twine and a reading from Luke 23:36-33 relating Jesus’ climb to Calvary adds to the day’s solemnity. A quiet family time reflecting on the gathered symbols on Holy Saturday serves as fitting closure to the week.

For Easter Sunday, place a lily or a blooming plant in the center of the other symbols, comparing Christ’s burial and rising with the life of the plant. Read from John 11:25, in which Jesus says, “I am the resurrection.”

One custom favored by Christians and non-believers alike is the lowly egg. As a sign of new life, it is visual representation of resurrection. As a hardboiled or chocolate-marshmallow treat, it is an Easter basket delight.

Adding Christian symbols to the egg-dyeing process combines secular and spiritual aspects of Easter. Drawing a cross, a lily, an Alleluia!, a paschal candle, a lamb on a colorful pink or yellow egg is a happy reminder of the season, according to Mary Reed Newland, author of The Year and Our Children.

“With our Christian tradition so rich in symbols that do have meaning, it would seem that the children are cheated if we do not use them,” Mrs. Newland writes.

A home-based Holy Week can insure that even the youngest family members learn about their Christian heritage and reading stories about individuals who people the Scripture passages of Holy Week can be instructive for adults as well as children.

Ethel Pochocki Marbach, whose relaxed, readable accounts of saintly lives entertain and enlighten, presents a panoply of Lenten and Holy Week characters in her book, Saints of the Seasons for Children.

Dubbing them “Saints for the Journey,” Mrs. Marbach includes such notables as Veronica, who wiped the face of Jesus on his way to Calvary, Simon of Cyrene, who helped carry his cross, Dismas, the thief who died with Jesus, and Peter, who denied his Master three times in the same day.

Stories of post-resurrection saints are told as well. Thomas, the renowned doubter, Stephen, the first martyr and Paul, persecutor of the early Christians, all appear in Mrs. Marbach’s book.

Like these saints, “We too are on a journey,” says the author. “We carry our own bags of weaknesses: weak hearts or ankles or brains, sharp tongues that cut as deep as razor blades. We may stumble and trip over our untied shoelaces or get dizzy and see stars.”

But, she counsels, the journey of Jesus “provides the roadmap for all the weary travelers … we follow him through the seasons of Lent and Easter … trudging up the steep sides of Calvary behind him, hurrying ahead to spy the bright light of Easter morn and running to carry the Good News about the journey’s end to the rest of the world.”