Local residents packed the neighborhoods surrounding West Creek Park in Valencia on Saturday as Valencia Hills Community Church hosted its free annual Easter Carnival.
In addition to several East egg hunts throughout the morning and into the afternoon, the event offered a field full of inflatable bounce houses, carnival games, craft booths and an Easter Experience walk-through that had many guests talking.
“I cry every time,” said Valencia resident Jamie Pohlot, who was there with her husband and five kids. “It’s a great way to feel what happened in just a very, very small way.”
The walk-through led guests through the Easter experience, beginning with the “Hosanna” station.
“Hosanna,” derived from a Hebrew phrase that essentially means “save us,” is what the crowd in Jerusalem, who were waving palm branches, shouted out to Jesus as he rode into the city on a donkey during Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday, in Western Christianity, marks the beginning of Holy Week. Guests could see and pick up palm branches at this point in the walk-through.
Next, guests could write prayer requests on pieces of paper to be placed on a cross, followed by a station where those who were so inclined could try to lift the cross to feel how heavy Jesus’s cross was to carry. After that, guests could hammer nails into wood — the kind of spikes that might’ve been used to crucify Jesus.
Guests then moved down to the mumification station, in which they weren’t totally mummified, but a volunteer would wrap their arms with bandages (toilet paper in this case) to get an idea of the process.
And finally, guests ended up at Jesus’s tomb. A volunteer shared what happened on Easter Sunday, and then he moved a giant “stone” wheel (not actually stone) to reveal an empty tomb — empty because Jesus had risen, leaving behind his wrappings only.
According to Valencia Hills Community Church Pastor Dennis Stoneman, the walk-through proved to be a powerful way to share the Easter experience. People, he said, often came away from it with a better understanding of all the main elements of the Easter story.
“Jesus often used objects to teach his lessons,” Stoneman said. “This is just an object lesson … It does something to people’s hearts. I think just reading about it wouldn’t do that on its own. Maybe the fact that they’re feeling the weight of the cross, they’re considering what the weight of betrayal of a friend would be, they’re pounding the nails, they’re seeing how he (Jesus) died and how they wrapped him in grave clothes, and then to go through the empty tomb is so powerful.”
Stoneman expected 5,000 to 6,000 people at the Saturday event, more than last year’s 4,000. He said it was the biggest Easter carnival yet, and the church has been doing it for over 20 years.
According to Liz Bonaventura, the church’s business manager, they were prepared to feed about 2,700 people. She wasn’t too sure they’d have enough food for everyone there, but she was thrilled to see so many guests. She also pointed out that 200 people had volunteered to help with the event.
“The whole point of this is to bring the community together. Of course, we’re a church, so we want people to understand why we do this, and that’s the whole Easter experience over there,” she said, pointing over to the walk-through. “That’s really important for us to let everyone know. We’re trying to show people Christ’s love. This is what Easter weekend is all about. The word for our day is always ‘lavish.’ We want to give everything away. Everything is for free.”
The event was scheduled until 2 p.m. At 1, people were still just coming into the park.
