Indiana Wesleyan University will host its first annual Easter egg hunt for students at 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 13.

“The class representatives were having a meeting, collaborating on what to do [for Easter],” said Student Government Association junior class representative Danielle Hainley. “The sophomore class representative, Mike Bruce, presented his idea. Everyone seemed to like it, so we just went for it.”

According to Susan Shinkle (sr), SGA’s vice president of student organizations and university relations, this is the first time there will be an Easter egg hunt at IWU.

“The class representatives have only existed for two years now. I know that, between last year and this year, they’ve done a lot of events,” she said. “Every year so far, we try different things.”

“This is basically a test-run,” Hainley said. “We hope to do this again. We’ll see.”

Volunteers will set up for the event for an hour, starting at 1 p.m., according to Stephen Weeks (so), SGA’s vice president of public relations. Weeks said the event will last from 2:30 until about 4 that afternoon.

“Basically, we’ll have everyone meeting at the fountain, and we’ll explain the rules,” Shinkle said.

Each egg has a number inside corresponding to a different prize. The biggest prize is an iPad.

The representatives will have a table set up in the mallway of the Barnes Student Center, where participants in the Easter egg hunt will bring their eggs. Class representatives will check the eggs the students bring and dole out the prizes.

“If it rains, the eggs will be [hidden] in the Student Center,” said Hainley. “Otherwise, they’ll be everywhere, except not in the dorms.”

Shinkle said the class representative position was created to help SGA give students fun things to do while they bond.

“I really hope it becomes a tradition here,” Weeks said. “We need more tradition on this campus. And the class reps are doing a great job at trying to start traditions.”

SGA provides more information about upcoming events on Facebook and on Twitter, @iwusga.

Churches around Marion recognize the centuries-old celebration of Easter and choose to express the message of the Resurrection in their own traditions.

Brookhaven Wesleyan Church will center its Easter Sunday on the Resurrection through praise and worship and a drama presentation. The Saturday before Easter, the church will host an egg hunt for the children at a member’s house.

College Wesleyan Church will administer communion and conduct baptisms in coordination with a Seder lunch, a ceremonial meal in observance of Passover.

First Church of God will focus on evangelism and how Jesus’ resurrection has the power to change lives. The congregation hosted an Easter egg hunt on Palm Sunday and will sponsor a mid-morning “sunrise” breakfast on Easter Sunday.

Gods Grace Ministries will offer a special Easter breakfast at 9:15 a.m.

God’s House will hold an Easter service without using electricity in an effort to raise awareness and support of their work with families in Zambia.

Hanfield United Methodist Church planned a prayer walk for Marion after its Palm Sunday services. Thursday, the church will serve its annual Passover Meal, followed by a short service on Good Friday. Hanfield’s Saturday celebration will include an Easter egg hunt.

Lakeview Wesleyan Church and Lighthouse Assembly of God will each put on Easter Sunday productions.

Mt. Olive United Methodist Church will observe communion on Holy Thursday, with an egg hunt on Saturday and a surprise in the Easter Sunday worship service.

New Life Community Church will prepare 50,000 plastic eggs for its “Million Egg Hunt,” and the members will fast as a community from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday.

St. James Lutheran Church’s youth group will sponsor a breakfast at 8:30 Easter morning, followed by an egg hunt for the children.

St. Paul Catholic Church will conduct mass on Holy Thursday, a liturgy of Jesus’ Passion on Good Friday, an Easter vigil on Holy Saturday and two masses for Easter Sunday.

“We can use community Easter egg hunts and crucifixion plays to glorify God and to love our neighbor. It’s a time of celebration because God has given us everlasting life, and we look at the day as a time of complete, all-or-nothing, hope,” said Necole Reno (sr).

After celebrating my first Seder with my friends and coworkers Rachel Pyle (sr) and Molly Meyer (sr), I learned that I don’t know how to do tradition well. What was me trying to observe a Jewish holiday, turned into an unintentional mockery – not of the tradition, but of my attempts at the tradition. The three of us joked that Orthodox Jews everywhere would cringe to see us attempt Seder so poorly. (I know, because I’m Jewish and so is my family. Trust me – they’d laugh.)

OK, so the extent of my knowledge of Seder has come from the Christian encounter of the Last Supper. And … that’s it. I tried to observe the dinner with my church small group back in high school, but even then I didn’t even Google how to serve a correct Seder plate. I winged it.

Well, for The Sojourn, Rachel and I decided to throw our own Seder Dinner Fiesta. For those of you wanting to throw your own tonight, as Seder is the Thursday of Passover – think, this was Jesus’ last supper and tomorrow is Good Friday – here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to DIYSeder.com. Yes, I swear this exists. This site helped me personalize the Haggadah, which is kind of like a field guide to all things Seder.

2. Set the table. We set four places: one for Rachel, Molly, me, and Elijah. Yes, the prophet. I mean, he didn’t get a full meal or anything, just a glass of wine. (Ahem, grape juice, or “Wesleyan wine,” as I call it.) It’s tradition to set a place for the prophet at a Passover meal.

3. Fill 16 glasses with Wesleyan wine. Yes, four apiece. The Jewish people aren’t so strict with their drinking. Why? Well, Seder’s meant to be a relaxing holiday. Remember how Jesus reclined at the table with His disciples? The wine helped.

4. Bless the wine. We recited this Hebrew prayer, thanking God for the fruit of the vine: “Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam borei pri hagafen.”

5. Break the bread. This was my favorite part. OK, so you have three pieces of bread in a stack. That represents the three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The leader is supposed to take the middle piece of matzoh (OK, we used pita bread), and break it in half. The smaller half is put under a cushion, but still in sight. That’s the Afikomen, meaning “dessert.” We’ll eat this later.

6. Tell the story. Throughout dinner, in between blessings, hand washings and bites, the leader tells the story of the Exodus, how God led His people out of Egypt into the Promised Land. We’re called to reflect not only on the captivity and subsequent freedom of the Israelites, but of those in the present day who need to be freed.

7. Wash your hands. You do this a few times during the meal, actually. Luckily, the Haggadah gave me jokes to tell my dinner guests while they scrubbed. Here’s one: What do hard-working Karpas sellers hope to get every year? A celery increase. Ha?

8. Serve the food. Each plate gets four pieces: maror (bitter herbs), karpas (green vegetable, or potato), z’roa (meat with the bone), beitzah (a hard-boiled egg), charoset (a delicious sweet dish). On the table next to the plates are a bowl of salt water for each person and a stack of three pieces of matzoh.

9. Look at the food. So it turns out you don’t eat everything on the Seder plate. The chicken bone we had was meant to represent the lamb offered in the temple. And though I seasoned my chicken so beautifully, we didn’t get to eat it. That is, not until I gave us all a free pass to take it. (“God wouldn’t want us to be wasteful, would he? Would he, Elijah?”)

10. Dip. The next thing you do is dip the vegetable/potato in salt water, meant to represent the tears of the Jewish people when under Egyptian captivity. This is the first thing you eat at the supper.

11. Eat. You get to eat anything that’s not the chicken or the Afikomen (dessert matzoh). Each of the five pieces on the plate represents something. Other than the aforementioned potato and chicken, the pieces of the maror represent the bitter lives of the slaves. They’re dipped in charoset, which represent the bricks and mortar used to build the structures for the Egyptians. The egg represents mourning and, of course, fertility.

13. Sing. There are quite a few different songs to be sung at Seder, including dayenu. Apparently it has 12 verses, but only about four are sung. Phew. We didn’t sing any of them. (“That’s OK, right, Elijah?”)

14. Eat dessert! It turns out dessert comes in the form of a flaky cracker, hidden beneath a cushion. Yum. Bring out the Afikomen!

I’m not much of a traditions gal. I try to be, but my personal religious history hasn’t trained me in that way. So when I attempt tradition, I mess them up. I eat pita bread and drink juicy Wesleyan wine.

But this experience, though maybe not-so-orthodox in its praxis, has taught me that tradition is important. Traditions are there as reminders. Would I have thought about the Israelites’ plight, God’s mercy and man’s freedom if it hadn’t been for Seder? Probably not.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, Elijah never showed up. By the time we cleaned up after dinner, his wine glass was still full. So Molly drank it. You snooze, you lose, buddy!