Charlotte’s Blog
Make red eggs for Pascha using onion-skin dye
Orthodox Christians make beautiful deep red eggs for Pascha. It’s an ancient tradition, perhaps going back to the time of the apostles. The eggs, along with meat and cheese and wine, are brought to church in baskets. The baskets are blessed at the end of the Paschal...
Pascha for families with disabilities
Most children love the idea of a celebration that takes place in the middle of the night! But their parents, who are already tired by the time the Pascha service begins at midnight, may wonder how to attend with peace and joy, instead of frustration and tears....
Pascha baskets and Pascha basket covers
Today, most of us think that bringing of Pascha baskets loaded with meat and cheese and other rich foods to church is a Slavic custom. But it wasn’t always so. It was once the universal practice of the Church. In the early days of the Church, on the Great Feasts,...
St. Nicholas, Thursday prayers, and pirates
The life of the Orthodox Church is carried through cycles of worship and prayer. If you follow these cycles, you’ll encounter St. Nicholas over and over. He has three feast days on the annual cycle of fixed feasts. And he’s also commemorated every Thursday, during the...
Growing up later: Autistic people in their twenteens
The unnavigated twenteens of the autistic emerging adult Guest post by Alana Worth It’s an early January day and I am the arch-type harried stay-at-home mom. I had one young person who needed to see her doctor today, so I drove her there. After that appointment, we...
Bacon-wrapped dates
When you read Catherine's Pascha, you'll see Catherine loading her plate with hot dogs and chocolate cake. And in the background, someone is asking whether Andrea brought her bacon-wrapped dates this year. Andrea is a real person, and this is her recipe for...
6 ways to celebrate St. Stephen’s Day
Tomorrow is St. Stephen’s Day! At least, it’s tomorrow for us Orthodox folks. Other folks are keeping it today, and that’s okay. In the early Church, it was considered fitting that, on the second day of Christmas, we would celebrate the memory of the first martyr. And...
9 steps to an autism-accessible home library
When you love books, you want your children to love books, too. But Summer Kinard's kids are particularly rough on books. Instead of hiding books away from them, she figured out how to make a home library that works for them. Here, she explains the nine things she did...
The Adventure of Father Evangelos: A snowy story for Christmas
If you can find a copy of The Adventure of Father Evangelos, it may be just the book to put under the tree for a little one. It’s a bright, happy, colorful book, full of snow-covered evergreen trees and helpful animals. And the adventure all happens on one Christmas...
A Miracle at Bates Memorial: A story of sensory kids at church
If you have a sensory kid, a child who with sensory processing differences, your child may struggle with behavioral expectations at church. You may have worried that your child would have a complete and total meltdown at church. Your child may have actually had a...
Three boys in a pickling tub
In Medieval Europe, the most common image of St. Nicholas shows him standing over three small children in a wooden tub. The image illustrates an odd story that was told and believed for centuries. The story began as the story of the three innocent men whom St....
The tale of St. John Cassian and St. Nicholas
There are at least two versions of this folk tale about St. John Cassian and St. Nicholas. If you don’t know St. John Cassian you should. He was a theologian and deacon who worked with St. John Chrysostom. He brought monasticism from Egypt to the Western church. His...
THE MAGIC OF BOOKS
Share the joy of the Pascha through the magic of a book: Catherine's Pascha.
