We did it: attended the (7:30 p.m.-9 p.m.) Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the (2 p.m.-3:30 p.m.) Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, and the (8 p.m.-10:15 p.m.) Easter Vigil, all with a five-year-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old.
It is tricky, going to long late-evening Masses with toddlers. It works best if your toddler still reliably takes a nap every day. Then, the secret is to keep them awake all day, prodding them when necessary, until the family gets in the car to head to the church, at which point they are allowed to fall asleep, soundly enough (we hope) to remain in that state through Mass. Miraculously, Milo complied with my strategy last night, and not even the choir belting out Christus resurrexit could startle him awake.
Oscar, the five-year-old, did not too well on Holy Thursday (he put his head in my lap and whimpered that he was hot) and much better on Good Friday (the drama of the procession before the Veneration of the Cross interested him, what with the flail and the crown of thorns and the spear and the hammer and nasty-looking nails. Plus I had allowed him to wear his "summer" church clothes) and, I thought, very good at the Easter Vigil (although I wished afterwards I had brought a putty knife to scrape up all the wax he had dripped from his candle on the kneeler, pew, floor, and my shoes).
<confession>Perhaps part of his good behavior came from the fact that we promised him ice cream if he were quiet.</confession>
Other than bribery, there are several things that help a medium-sized child get through the Triduum services. The first, alluded to in the previous paragraph, is to make sure that the children are comfortably dressed.
Another is to sit on the center aisle, which is easier than it sounds even when the church is jam-packed — people who like to sit "on the aisle" in order to make an inconspicuous escape tend to sit on the ends. During the Triduum, there is so much procession, the center aisle is where the action is, and there’s plenty to see. (On Good Friday, we wound up sitting in extra chairs in front of the front pew in the back section — in the aisle that bisects the church perpendicular to the center aisle — and we turned out to have a really good view of the procession.)
A third is to be a little extra generous with granting favors like a trip to get a drink of water, provided the timing is right (etiquette tip: if you have to elbow several candle-bearers out of the way, it is not an appropriate moment to excuse yourself from the sanctuary).
And as always, expect and encourage children to participate as fully as they can: sitting, standing, and kneeling at the appropriate times; holding their own candles; joining in the prayers, songs, and responses that they have learned.
After Mass we took the children to a nearby ice-cream parlor for a late-night Easter treat. We did the same thing last year, so I suppose it’s officially a Family Tradition now. Milo woke up and cheerfully, if a little confusedly, ate a cup of chocolate ice cream. I had banana rum. Oscar had coffee ice cream (boy takes after me), and Mark had a malt. We agreed that it was much better than chocolate bunnies, which was fortunate as I had not gotten around to putting together any Easter baskets.
Have a blessed Easter Season!
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