Festival Time!

FESTIVAL TIME!

CONNECT - for mid-week/Home League groups

Fellowship Session - Special Days

August and Summer: Hold your own festival.

Summary

Organise stalls
Hold competitions
Celebrate the goodness of God with friends, family and the wider community

Preparation for your festival could be part of your group activities for several preceding weeks
Establish a Festival Organising Committee to help you with:
- A theme
- Decorating
- Competitions
- Stalls
- Fundraising
- Quiz – with prize/s
- Playlist
Invite relevant local groups along to set up a stall
Ask members to invite family and friends to come along

Additional resources

Festivals quiz

August and the summertime bring numerous festivals to locations across the nations! Dublin, Edinburgh, Cardiff, London and Belfast all host festivals at this time of year, as do numerous smaller places. Festivals provide an opportunity for people to come together and celebrate.

Festivals were a big part of family and community life during both Old and New Testament times. They reminded the Jewish nation of their heritage and their shared history, and taught lessons about their faith. As a Jew, Jesus was raised in a family that observed the important Jewish festivals such as Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles and he recognised the importance of them.

HOLD A FESTIVAL

Create your own festival! Encourage your members to plan and hold a festival to celebrate the summer with friends, family and the wider community. Get your group members and family and friends involved in the fun!

Festival Organising Committee

Share the load of organising by forming a Festival Organising Committee. This will help encourage members to get involved, no matter how large or small the part. Decide on the theme and style of your festival, eg books, music, film, plants, food and drink – or perhaps a festival to celebrate the ‘Goodness of God’!

Decorating ideas

Set up your room or an outside space you have use of as your very own festival with bunting, gazebos, balloons and posters.

Fun competitions

Hold some competitions, advertised in advance to encourage people to bring along something they have created, like cake baking, poetry writing, art or craft. You can also stage fun competitive games – throw-the-welly, guess-the-number or who-can-do-the-best (or silliest) impression/dance/walk. The ideas are endless, and the internet is full of inspiration!

Stalls

Organise stalls for people to visit. These could be for information or food and drinks stalls … Invite relevant local groups to set up a stall too.

Helping-Hand Appeal

Add a fundraising element, collecting donations for this year’s Helping-Hand Appeal. Include an information stall about the appeal and your group’s fundraising target. Visit the Helping-Hand Appeal for resources.

Festival quiz

Provide printouts of the festivals quiz for people. Or ask members to develop their own quiz. It could also be about festivals – international or local festivals. You could include Christian events such as Greenbelt and the Big Church Festival. Visit vickyflipflop.com for some ideas to get you started.

Or perhaps organise a treasure-hunt or a search for clues version based on your festival’s theme.

Invite people to take part in your quiz, with a prize/s for the winner/s.

Festival playlist

Invite members to nominate songs for your festival playlist. They can be both worship and secular songs. Create your Festival Playlist on Spotify or other music streaming service to provide background music at your festival.

Throughout the Bible we read about Israel’s festivals. They were important – they were communal and commemorative occasions, as well as being theologically significant.

The festivals drew the nation together for celebration and worship as the people of Israel recalled their common origin and experiences. The festivals were commemorative because they kept alive the story of what God had done in the exodus and during the wilderness experience. They were theological in that the observance of the festivals presented the participants with lessons on the reality of sin and forgiveness, on the need for thanksgiving to God, and on the importance of trusting God rather than hoarding possessions.

It is not surprising that each of the major feasts is in some way alluded to in the New Testament and that Jesus, as a Jew, observed them. Jesus’ teachings, however, challenge us against religious observances when they become meaningless habit, more important than our relationship with God. Our celebrations need to be focused on who God is and what he has done for us.

Psalm 117 reminds us of the goodness of God and the reason we can have fun and celebrate together:

‘Praise the Lord, all you nations;

extol him, all you peoples.

For great is his love toward us,

and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.

Praise the Lord.’