With children through the church year – Diocese of Osnabrück

Baking, crafting, painting, reading, marveling – anyone who sets off through the church year with children can discover a lot, impart their own values ​​and experience exciting things. Community representative Christine Bischoff and social worker Julia Linkemeyer from the Wellingholzhausen and Gesmold parish community give tips for parents.

Unlike the calendar year, the new church year begins on the first Advent. With the so-called Christmas circle. A church year consists of two further circles: the Easter festival circle and a total of around 33 weeks, which are referred to as “time in annual circles”. The Christmas circle is particularly suitable for consciously organizing it with children: baking cookies, doing crafts, reading, making yourself comfortable. “There is a certain anticipation and excitement during Advent. There’s this crackling in the air. Children can relate to the topic of birth. “I like reading the Christmas story with children and discussing what’s behind it: Jesus was born, God is there, he was given to us into the world and will accompany us,” says community representative Christine Bischoff.

Children can be creative

Her colleague Julia Linkemeyer sees it similarly: “I also like the winter time with children, which feels like it starts with St. Martin. The children can let off steam creatively by making lanterns. It gets dark, the light comes, we carry it around. And the message is understandable and fundamental for children: share, help others, be there for each other. In the nativity play that I prepare with the primary school children, the children are also very involved, want to take part and are thinking about dressing up.”

Christmas appears everywhere, in the media, in brochures, in stores, there are sweets and lots of merchandise. “Why are we actually celebrating this? Who was Jesus? Why is there a crib there? In our work with children, we notice that they are interested in why we celebrate this festival.”

Get into conversation with each other

In addition to Christmas, the Easter festival is also exciting for children – but it often presents challenges for adults. The themes of death and resurrection are not that easy to convey. Children ask questions in a completely naive way and this is a good opportunity to talk to them about feelings. Good Friday, the topic of death, these are things that children also deal with, for example when someone from their family or acquaintances or even a pet dies. “You don’t always have to give them a perfect answer; you can also ask questions yourself: When have you ever been sad? What do you imagine by that?” explains Julia Linkemeyer.

Faith is a process

When working with children, parents can take a lot of pressure off themselves because it’s not about children having to understand everything. You can approach different topics differently depending on the phase of your life. “Faith matters are a process. It is good that children have heard that there are certain festivals and that they develop an awareness of them. If you tackle a topic together in the family, these are things that remain, even if fewer and fewer people go to church, I think it’s nice when you tackle Christian topics together as a family. These are children who notice that there is something else behind it and are curious. Because Christian festivals are hardly discussed at school anymore,” says Christine Bischoff, who is responsible, among other things, for first communion preparation and school catechesis in the Wellingholzhausen and Gesmold parish community.

When children consciously deal with a certain topic for a longer period of time, it has a special side effect, says Julia Linkemeyer, who, for example, covered different topics with her children during the Corona period, on which her children were able to research, do crafts and exchange ideas. Her tip: “Children like to immerse themselves in a certain topic and spend longer with it. This takes the pressure off parents to offer something new every day when children get bored. And this means that values ​​can also be transported.”

Book tips for at home

Christine Bischoff recommends: “My prayer hidden object book” by Irmgard Erath, Butzon & Bercker publishing house and: “Through the year through life” by Peter Neysters, Karl Heinz Schmitt, Kösel-Verlag

“My children currently prefer to watch “My Prayer Hidden Object Book”. My book tip for families: “Through the year through life” – everyday (family) topics are combined with the Christian annual circle and holidays.”

Julia Linkemeyer recommends: What’s what Junior Volume 39: “Let’s celebrate! Discover festivals and customs” by Anke Dörrzapf, Tessloff Verlag

“The book mixes general customs that we have (around the world), sometimes with holidays: New Year’s Eve, spring – Easter, summer – fair. Our children think that’s really nice.”