Holy Week Scavenger Hunt
This is a resource designed to assist you in building multi-generational online/remote worship or supplement your existing online/remote worship during Holy Week. With families sequestered at home, our worship experiences will include family members of a variety of ages. Multisensory and active access points can make worship more accessible for the whole family of God. By engaging children (and adult kinesthetic learners), we allow the adults in their homes to participate more fully rather than having to chase after or be in another room with young ones. We also welcome children into the faith family, helping them to learn worship practices, develop comfort with religious rituals, and feel at home in the elements that we put at the center of our life together.
The chart below lists several objects associated with the events of Holy Week that participants are likely to be able to find in their homes. If participants cannot find the item listed, a cut out drawing or other substitute will do. Listed with each object is the event with which it is associated, an action that participants can take using the object, and an optional exclamation while doing so. This resource can be applied at one particular service, spread or built up across the worship experiences of Holy Week, or used again and again at each worship service, developing an interactive ritual that participants can learn as the week goes on.
You will need to decide at what point participants should go and find the object. You can send out the entire list or the object(s) needed for each service before hand or select a point in the liturgy when children can do the scavenger hunt while adults do something else (e.g. silent prayer or anything else that requires quiet or stillness). You will also need to create points throughout the liturgy or sermon when it is appropriate to do the action and optional exclamation. It can be once, but may work better if there are multiple points to listen for, like an additional scavenger hunt for key words prompting the use of the objects.
Easter Blessings,
Laurel Koepf Taylor
Eden Theological Seminary
| Object |
Event |
Action |
| Leaf | Palm Sunday | Wave it around (Hosanna!) |
| Coin | Cleansing the Temple | Flip the coin (People are more important than money!) |
| Sponge/Washcloth | Foot Washing | Pretend to wash someone’s feet (We serve each other!) |
| Bread | Passover Meal | Break and share (We are one community!) |
| Flower | Gethsemane | Pretend to fall asleep next to it (Stay and watch!) |
| Hammer (preferably plastic) | Trial | Hit something that won’t break (I do know him!) |
| Nail | Crucifixion | Touch the dull end to your palm (Were you there?!) |
| Folded Sheet | Resurrection | Shake it open to see if there’s anyone inside (Christ is alive!) |