Many American churches are resurrecting an old Easter custom begun by the Greeks in the early centuries of Christianity-"Holy Humor Sunday" celebrations of Jesus' resurrection on the Sunday after Easter.

For centuries in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week following Easter Sunday, including "Bright Sunday" (the Sunday after Easter), was observed by the faithful as "days of joy and laughter" with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.

Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, told jokes, sang, and danced.

The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. "Risus paschalis - the Easter laugh," the early theologians called it.

In 1988 the Fellowship of Merry Christians began encouraging churches and prayer groups to resurrect Bright Sunday celebrations and call it "Holy Humor Sunday," with the theme: "Jesus is the LIFE of the party."

Many churches from different traditions responded enthusiastically. Holy Humor Sunday services are bringing back large crowds to churches on a Sunday when church attendance typically drops dramatically.

If you Google “Holy Humor Sunday” on the Internet, you’ll be amazed at how widespread Holy Humor Sunday celebrations on the Sunday after Easter have become among churches of all traditions. It’s clearly a movement of the Holy Spirit to shore up belief in the resurrection of Jesus.

Both the religious and secular press are now reporting on this phenomenon.

Lutheran laughter

Sonia C. Solomonson, managing editor of The Lutheran, wrote a splendid article titled “Two Parts Faith, One Part Humor” in the magazine’s April issue, reporting on how some Lutheran congregations are observing Holy Humor Sunday.

For instance, Pastor Jim Arends of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in La Crescent, MN, said, “This gives us a chance to celebrate the joy of Easter in a fun way a week after we’ve celebrated it in a glorious way… We don’t celebrate this to increase attendance but it has had that effect.”

The church used the regular liturgy, the appointed lessons, and added Easter songs, songs of joy and camp songs. The congregation’s musical groups contributed especially joyful and fun selections.

Solomonson’s article mentioned the painting of “The Risen Christ by the Sea,” and how to order it.

She concluded: “so who says we can’t laugh and celebrate in our places of worship? We can find a way to mix faith and humor, stir it into our lives, and let it simmer into a rich stew that will feed all those around us.”

Playful Presbyterians

In the April issue of Presbyterians Today magazine, Rev. Edward McNulty of Walton, KY, authored a marvelous article titled “Exit Laughing. Why the Long Faces in Church? Jesus Is Alive! The Gospel Is Not a Tragedy.”

“Followers of Jesus today view the tragedy of the cross through the lens of resurrection,” McNulty wrote. “How much more inviting would Christian worship services be to outsiders if they embodied this resurrection outlook. The Lord’s Supper, for example, ought to be more like a celebration than a funeral service.”

The article noted that “nine years ago the First Presbyterian Church in Winter Haven, FL, joined the Holy Humor Sunday movement, and attendance has been climbing steadily for its Sunday-after-Easter service.”

Associate Pastor C. Alan Harvey said he got the idea for the service from JN, and at last year’s service he was rewarded by getting a pie in the face tossed by Pastor Steven D. Negley.

‘It’s good theology’

David Crumm, religion writer of The Detroit Free Press, wrote a delightful article titled “Be of Good Cheer” about the Holy Humor Sunday service at First Congregational Church of Royal Oak, MI.

Crumm noted that Holy Humor Sunday is “a modern adaptation of the ancient custom of Easter Monday, which still is a holiday in dozens of countries,” featuring picnics, parties, practical jokes, joke-telling, and boys and girls drenching each other with water.

“Thanks to The Joyful Noiseletter, Americans need not worry about being drenched with water in the name of extending Easter joy,” Crumm wrote. “In hundreds of churches across the country, as at First Congregational Church of Royal Oak, everybody stays dry and the celebration is moved from the Monday after Easter to the following Sunday.”

The Royal Oak church staged a fully costumed series of baseball sketches in a nine-inning baseball service, complete with a chicken mascot cheering on the congregation.

Pastor John Miller, dressed in a baseball costume, pitched his sermon from the mound – i.e. pulpit while two relief preachers warmed up in a makeshift bullpen on the side. In the middle of his sermon, a young coach stopped the service, said loudly, “John, you just don’t have it today,” and called for a relief preacher.

Rev. Miller insisted that Holy Humor Sunday “isn’t sacrilegious. It’s good theology.”

Commented Joyful Noiseletter editor Cal Samra: “After all the pain of Holy Week – the crucifixion of Jesus and all the pain that led up to that – a lot of Christians feel that they should spend more time rallying around the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. A growing number of Christians feel that we should celebrate the joy of the resurrection for more than just one day.”

Rebirth of a tradition

Samra explained that the Fellowship of Merry Christians originally encouraged churches to revive Easter Monday celebrations (also called “Bright Monday,” “White Monday,” and “Emmaus Day.”)

In The Easter Book (Harcourt Brace, 1954), Rev. Francis Weiser noted that Easter Monday was traditionally a holiday in Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant countries. It was a day of special festivities: games, Emmaus walks in the country, picnics, pranks, practical jokes, and “drenching customs.” On Easter Monday, for instance, boys drenched girls with water, and the girls retaliated by drenching the boys.

Easter Monday is still observed as a holiday in 125 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and the state of North Carolina.

In The Easter Book, Rev. Weiser observed: “In the early days of Christianity, all of Easter Week was one continuous feast… a week of intense happiness and spiritual joy.”

Easter Week celebrations went on for centuries until they faded away in the last century in increasingly secularized societies.

Samra said that a few JN subscriber churches tried to revive Easter Monday celebrations starting in 1988, but Monday is a day of rest for many overburdened pastors and church staff. And it simply became more practical to transplant the celebration to the Sunday after Easter (“Bright Sunday,” which became known as “Holy Humor Sunday.”) The idea then spread after so many congregations responded enthusiastically.

‘Sunday Morning Alive’

In The Wichita (KS) Eagle, religion writer Joe Rodriguez had fun describing the Holy Humor Sunday services at two Mennonite churches, blending comedy and spirituality. The theme was “Sunday Morning Alive.”

Rev. Tom Harder, co-pastor at Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church, said most members accept the theological justification for holding the church’s fifth annual Holy Humor Sunday service.

“God delights in our laughter and receives it as an act of worship,” Harder said. “The service continues the Easter story. We’re celebrating the greatest practical joke of all time: God overturned death.”

Rev. Lois Harder, the church’s copastor, said, “The idea of it is that God, in fact, had the last laugh over death.”

There were comical musical performances in which lyrics about Mennonites were inserted to songs from the musical, “The Sound of Music.” For instance, instead of singing “The hills are alive with the sound of music,” they sang, “The pews are alive with the sounds of Mennonites.”

Bethel College Mennonite Church in North Newton, KS, also held a Holy Humor Sunday service.

‘Fools for Christ’

Tom Heinen, religion writer for the Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel, did an excellent article on a Holy Humor Sunday service led by Lutheran Pastor Dale Radke (“Rollo the Clown”). It was titled “Pastor Resurrects Humor in Church.”

Radke appeared in clown makeup as “a fool for Christ” and the people came dressed in bright and silly clothing for the service at Chapel of the Chimes in Wisconsin Memorial Park.

Radke performed magic tricks, and at the end of the service, he handed out colorful pinwheels and gave this benediction: “And now may you know the glee of the Lord Jesus Christ, the mirth of God, and the laughter of the Holy Spirit, this day and 24/7. Amen.” The article was illustrated with color photographs.

Local coverage

Your church’s own Holy Humor Sunday service is likely to receive extensive coverage from the media in your own community if you inform them about it well in advance.

That’s what Rev. Dr. Karl R. Kraft, senior pastor of Mantua (NJ) United Methodist Church, discovered when the church held its 12th annual Holy Humor Sunday service.

Both the Courier-Post of Camden, NJ, and the Glouchester County (NJ) Times did feature stories on the service, illustrated with photos.

This time both Rev. Kraft and Assistant Pastor Gene Wilkins wore period costumes to honor the 300th birthday of Charles Wesley, a Methodist hymn writer.

The sermon was a skit about Wesley, performed by Kraft and Wilkins dressed as John Wesley and Charles Wesley. Kraft wrote parodies of Charles Wesley hymns, which were sung by a congregation wearing birthday hats.

The choir members wore bathrobes, and used the occasion to take up a collection to buy new choir robes.

Courier-Post religion writer Kim Mulford wrote: “Holy Humor Sunday is a high attendance Sunday for the church. Families and kids especially love it.”

Commented Rev. Kraft: “We need to realize that, above everything, we Christians have the greatest reason to be joyful.”

Here are some of the other creative and hilarious ways that churches have celebrated Holy Humor Sunday:

Mantua (NJ) United Methodist Church will be observing its 10th annual Holy Humor Sunday on April 23. Last year, Rev. Dr. Karl R. Kraft and his associate, Rev. Gene Wilkins, showed up dressed as the Blues Brothers (Jake and Eliot) and led the service.

Helium-filled balloons with smiley-faces were tied to the pews, and there were "Humor Breaks" throughout the service, giving parishioners the opportunity to tell their favorite jokes. Everyone who came to church got a kazoo to play.

"Our Holy Humor Sunday services have been a huge success," said Rev. Kraft, who has persuaded other churches in New Jersey to hold such celebrations. "Other pastors welcome the idea when they discover that it is solidly grounded theologically and historically," Kraft said.

The First Presbyterian Church of Winter Haven, FL, celebrated its seventh annual Bright Sunday celebration, decorating the sanctuary with large butterflies - a Christian symbol for the resurrection. Those who had lost loved ones since the previous Easter released live butterflies in their memory in the courtyard.

People dressed in their brightest colors, and the women of the church wore "Easter parade" hats to church that day.

"The people greatly enjoy this service, and so many look forward to its celebration each year, even remembering jokes that were shared the year before," reported Rev. D. Alan Harvey.

The three congregations in the Crooked Creek Cooperative Lutheran Ministries in Ford City, PA (aka "The Crooked Lutherans") had "a hilarious time" at their Holy Humor Sunday service, reported Pastor April Dailey.

"We encouraged people to wear silly clothes, and did they ever!" she said. The organist wore a jester's cap with bells. A choir member dressed like a hillbilly, braided his long beard, wore ribbons in it, and came barefoot.

Others wore tie-dyed T-shirts and Dr. Seuss hats. One man wore shorts over longjohns.

The congregation sang Easter carols, based on the music of Christmas carols, with the lyrics composed by Lutheran Pastor Paul Lintern of Mansfield, OH.

Corinth Reformed United Church of Christ in Hickory, NC, celebrated its ninth consecutive Holy Humor Sunday with the theme, "The Funny Side of Aging."

The bulletin was printed in very large print, and there were lots of jokes about growing older. Pastor Robert M. Thompson sprayed his hair white. Thompson has also dressed up as a medieval jester with the theme for the service taken from the Apostle Paul referring to himself and the early Christians as "fools for Christ's sake" (1 Cor. 4:10).

Everyone coming to church on Holy Humor Sunday at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion in Norwood, NJ, was given a button with a quote from G.K. Chesterton: "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly."

The cover of the church bulletin featured a print of "The Risen Christ by the Sea," a painting of a joyful, smiling, risen Jesus surprising his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.

Rev. Robert R. Smith, the rector, distributed a satirical newsletter with this mission statement: "The Seven Healing Words of a Healthy Church - Laughter Heals the Church of Deadly Seriousness."

The third annual Holy Humor Sunday of the First Congregational Church of Royal Oak, MI, had a baseball theme. It was billed as "the funniest Sunday this side of spring training."

People came dressed in baseball uniforms, and hotdogs were served at the potluck which followed. In the bulletin Senior Minister John F. Miller was listed as the bat boy and the minister of music as the park organist.

The order of worship was divided into nine innings. A Gospel Quartet sang, "Life is a Ballgame."

For the first time in his life, Rev. John G. Lemnitzer, pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in Phoenix, AZ, dressed as a clown with big shoes and flashing lights, and made his entrance running down the center church aisle to the pulpit. His sermon: "The Joy of the Lord."

At the urging of a 96-year-old member, the congregation at Holy Ghost United Church of Christ in St. Louis, MO, composed of mostly retired persons, sang "Dry Bones" - "Them bones, them bones, gonna rise again," and told knock-knock jokes.

For Holy Humor Sunday, Rev. Realff H. Ottesen, pastor of the Shell Rock (IA) United Methodist Church, put together a revised version of the United Methodist Book of Worship Communion Service "designed for the light, yet contrite heart," and called it the "Holy Humor Communion Service."

The revised version began: "Giving thanks to God is a good and a joyful task, to be done with smiles on our faces and laughter in our hearts; for it is God who created us creatures of mirth and joy…the God who helped us overcome the gloominess in our own lives."

Hope of Israel, a Messianic Jewish Congregation in Charlotte, NC, had a "Messi-antics" celebration of Messiah's resurrection at a Saturday service, congregation member Stephanie Smith reported. It was the congregation's "Saturday version of Holy Humor Sunday," she said. Jokes from JN were used in little booklets, and gift boxes given to the members of the congregation.

At various churches, clowns have acted as ushers and greeted people at the doors. Church sanctuaries have been decorated with streamers, smiley faces, and multicolored balloons emblazoned with messages like "Smile! God Loves You!" and "Christ is risen! Smile!"

Choirs have shown up wearing outlandish clothing-bathrobes, little-kid outfits, rubberized Mickey Mouse ears-and played kazoos and handbells.

Some churches distributed plastic Easter eggs-each containing a joke or cartoon from The Joyful Noiseletter.

A sign outside the Maplewood (MO) Christian Church announced: "If you must sleep in on Sunday, sleep in here." Sleeping bags on the back pews invited people to reserve a few minutes for naps during the service.

At Key Biscayne (FL) Community Church, knock-knock jokes were used to introduce various parts of the service, reported Rev. Bud Schroeder.

Parishioners played practical jokes on their pastors. The pastor at one church was advised that the announcements had been stolen, and if he wanted to get them back, he would have to sing "Jesus Loves Me" to the congregation.

Churches reprinted cartoons in their bulletins, and deliberately filled the bulletins with funny bloopers and typographical errors.

Church members at some churches composed and performed hilarious skits, satirizing popular TV shows like Star Trek from a Christian point of view. At one church, readers acted out jokes.

Choirs led congregations in a variety of old and new joyful hymns and songs.

For his first 23 years as a United Methodist Pastor, Rev. Edd Myers said he "dreaded the Sunday after Easter because it was depressing. The large Easter congregation shrank so much by the next Sunday that I often wished I had taken that day off.

"Six years ago, that all changed when I read in The Joyful Noiseletter about Holy Humor Sunday and decided to give it a try. Now I look forward to the Sunday after Easter, and so do many of our church people" at Centerville/Taylor United Methodist Churches in Brownsville, PA.