For a long time, a lot of Latter-day Saint Easter observance felt a little thin. We believed in the Resurrection. We sang the hymns. We showed up to church in spring colors. Then we went home to ham, potatoes, and enough sugar to concern a reasonable adult.
That is changing, and it is a good change.
More Latter-day Saint families are paying attention to Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and the slow walk toward Easter morning. If you have felt that shift, you are seeing something real. Data shared this year from the General Conference corpus shows a clear rise in references to Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Holy Week over the last two decades, with a sharper increase in recent years.
Church leaders are talking more openly about the full Easter story, and members are listening.
Why more Mormon families are celebrating Holy Week
Easter was never meant to feel like a one-day stop between errands and dessert. The Resurrection carries more weight when you remember what came before it.
Palm Sunday gives us the entry into Jerusalem, when crowds cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 21:9). Maundy Thursday gives us the Last Supper, the washing of feet, and the kind of quiet service that still unsettles proud people. Good Friday puts the Cross in front of us. Holy Saturday gives us the silence. Easter Sunday breaks the whole week open with the words every Christian wants to hear: “He is not here: for he is risen” (Matthew 28:6).
“He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.” (Matthew 28:6)
That is a better rhythm. It gives Easter room to breathe.
It also gives families a way to slow down. We do this easily at Christmas. We build anticipation for weeks. Easter often gets treated like one nice Sunday and a basket full of side quests. Holy Week restores some order to that.
Is Holy Week just for Catholics, or can Mormon families join in?
Some Latter-day Saints still get a little jumpy around anything that sounds too liturgical, too formal, or too borrowed from older Christian practice. Fair enough. Latter-day Saint culture has not usually been built around the church calendar the way Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, or some Protestant traditions have been.
But Holy Week is not borrowed material in the bad sense. It is the Gospel story. It is the final week of the Savior’s mortal ministry. It is Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, Gethsemane, Calvary, the tomb, and the Resurrection.
If Mormon families are talking more about Palm Sunday and Good Friday, they are not becoming less Latter-day Saint. They are paying closer attention to the scriptural shape of Easter.
That shared attention also links Latter-day Saints to the wider Christian world in a healthy way. We do not lose anything by noticing that other believers have spent centuries refusing to let Easter shrink into a single service and some plastic grass.
There is a family resemblance here. That is worth seeing.
This is also one reason articles like our piece on church culture and belonging matter. Christians often confuse local custom with actual discipleship. Holy Week can help correct that by pulling our attention back to Christ and away from narrower habits.
How to make Holy Week meaningful for busy Christian families
This is where good intentions can go off the rails. Families hear about Holy Week, then assume they need seven days of color-coded devotionals, themed snacks, and handmade symbols assembled at midnight by an exhausted parent.
Do not do that to yourself.
Start small. Pick a few moments that your family can actually hold together without resentment. The goal is attention, not performance.
- Palm Sunday: Read Matthew 21:1-11 and talk about why people welcomed Jesus as king.
- Monday through Wednesday: Read one parable or temple teaching from Matthew 21-25 each day.
- Thursday: Read John 13 or Luke 22 and talk about the sacrament, service, and loyalty.
- Good Friday: Read Luke 23 or John 19, keep dinner simple, and leave some room for quiet.
- Holy Saturday: Talk about waiting, grief, and what the disciples may have felt.
- Easter Sunday: Read Matthew 28, Luke 24, or John 20 before the rest of the day gets noisy.
If your family wants more, great. Make paper palm branches. Sing a hymn. Watch a reverent film about the Savior. Visit another Christian service if that would help your children see the wider body of Christ.
If that sounds like too much this year, then do less and mean it more.
Why the Resurrection means more when you walk through Good Friday
Children do not need Easter turned into a vague spring celebration with Jesus added back in at the end. They need the whole story. They need to know that the joy of Easter morning came after betrayal, sorrow, suffering, and the strange ache of waiting.
That is one reason Holy Week helps. It teaches the Atonement with sequence and weight. Palm Sunday shows Christ as king, but not the kind of king people expected. Thursday shows service and covenant. Friday shows the cost. Saturday shows silence. Sunday shows victory.
When families move through that story together, the Resurrection stops feeling like a floating religious idea and starts feeling like an answer.
Latter-day Saints need that. All Christians do.
We live in a moment when many church holidays get flattened into sentiment and shopping. Holy Week pushes back. It asks families to sit still, read the text, and remember what actually happened.
That is part of why the recent rise in General Conference references matters. It suggests that leaders are steering members toward a fuller Easter observance, one that treats the week surrounding the Resurrection as part of the feast and not just background material.
Even our hard public arguments around faith and family, like the recent debate over counseling, conscience, and Christian care, tend to circle back to the same question: will Christians keep Christ at the center, or will we drift into easier substitutes? Holy Week is one way of putting the center back where it belongs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Holy Week, and why are more LDS families observing it?
Holy Week is the final week before Easter, marking the Savior’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, His suffering and death, the time in the tomb, and the Resurrection. More Latter-day Saint families are paying attention to it because Church leaders have spoken about it more often in recent years, and families want Easter to feel deeper than a single Sunday.
Do you have to observe all seven days of Holy Week?
No. A family can mark the whole week, or it can focus on two or three meaningful moments. A simple Palm Sunday reading, a quiet Good Friday, and a Christ-centered Easter morning can do a lot.
Is Holy Week a Catholic tradition, or can Mormon families participate too?
Holy Week has long been emphasized in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and many Protestant settings, but the events themselves belong to the Gospel accounts. Mormon families are not borrowing foreign doctrine when they observe Holy Week. They are giving more attention to the final week of the Savior’s life.
How can families with young children make Holy Week meaningful without overwhelming everyone?
Keep it simple and repeatable. Read a short passage, ask one good question, sing one hymn, and stop before it turns into a forced production. Children usually remember sincerity better than elaborate plans.
Easter gets richer when families stop treating it like a single date on the calendar and start walking the road that leads to the empty tomb.