Children & Youth RE (CYRE) had a great October with fun events that emphasized our values of pluralism and interdependence by celebrating two different holidays — Sukkot and Día de Muertos!
It was an honor to be invited by our friends at Santa Monica Synagogue to help construct and decorate the sukkah, a temporary structure that beautified our courtyard during the Jewish festival of Sukkot. In our RE lesson we learned about the stories and traditions around Sukkot, and made decorations of autumn leaves and harvest fruits and veggies to adorn the sukkah. After the lesson we joined our Santa Monica Synagogue friends to build the sukkah, and got to see and hear the special blessing, which Rabbi Shira explained for those of us who are new to the tradition. What a wonderful gift to be able to do hands-on learning with our Jewish neighbors!
Another special day was our all-ages service to celebrate Día de Muertos. Our friend Vilma Ortiz told us a beautiful story about the holiday and taught us about the tradition of building an ofrenda to remember our loved ones who have died. Young and old decorated the bare branches of a tree with paper butterflies dedicated to the people we have lost. Rev. Jeremiah led us in a skeleton meditation, and we danced to the beautiful music sung by the choir! It was a day of both sadness and joy, with tears for those we are grieving and laughter for the celebration of life. We topped it all off after the service by applying temporary calavera tattoos and making our own flower crowns – plus cake and drinks to celebrate my recent marriage to my wonderful husband James! Thank you so much for sharing our joy, and to our fantastic CYRE volunteers who kept things running while we were away for the wedding!
In November we are looking forward to focusing on how to grow our RE programs for teens — on November 17th, from 12:00-1:30 pm, we will be holding a pizza party/brainstorming session with middle and high schoolers so they can let us know what they want to see from UUSM, and how we can meet the needs of more young people in the wider community. In K-5 RE, we’ll join the wider church in exploring the theme of “Repair” through our Soul Matters curriculum. And plans are underway for the winter holidays as well – stay tuned for more news about how we will be celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Winter Solstice, and more!
As always, you can contact me at interimdre@uusm.org if you have any questions about Children & Youth RE or if you want to get more involved in our programs!
Peace,
Jessica TenHave-Place
Interim Director of Religious Education
