Admittedly, an Easter celebration on April 9th rather than on March 27th seems quite strange. April 9th is nearly fourteen days after Easter Sunday, conscientiously skipping over Qingming Monday.
In reality, considering the transient and wanderlust nature of the Beijing family community, Etonkids International Kindergarten is absolutely brilliant.
If a family were faced with buying cheaper spring break airplane tickets on the days preceding Easter versus sticking around for an Easter event, they most certainly would pick cheaper airplane tickets. After all, there are few with extended Western family relations in Beijing; no one is here to protest the absurdity of an untraditional Easter spent in Thailand. Why not travel out for Easter? Why not also travel for the school spring breaks scheduled around Qingming?
Although of course, we all like financial shrewdness, introducing children to cultural occasions from many parts of the world is an extremely important aspect to raising a globally minded child. These types of events are even more essential for third culture kids who might not otherwise have access to cultural traditions of their parents.
By holding the Easter celebration after spring break vacations, Etonkids is essentially letting the international family have their Easter cookies and eat them, too.
Last year, Etonkids International Kindergarten held the event at only four of their campuses. This year, they’ve widened the Easter festivities to include eleven locations! That makes traveling from around the city with a toddler in tow much easier. (Scroll down for a list of these locations. The admission is free, but don’t forget to register to receive a free Easter gift at your nearest campus!)
Sharing these types of events with all of the kids in the neighborhood and within the kindergarten will help children to have a sense of belonging and connection to their immediate community. Perhaps parents will even find new play date friends among the other cheerful families.
This year the Kindergartens plan to host creative Easter egg decorations, cookie decorations, pie decorations and additional kid friendly games. In years past, they’ve had an Easter Egg Match, Easter Egg Delivery Game, Easter Flea Market, Easter Treasure Hunt, Super Easter Egg Holder Game, Dynamic Curves Game and a Charity Donation Opportunity.
Jessica Suotmaa will be attending the festivities with her cute son Jax; you can learn more about Jessica in this post and look at cute pictures of Jax here. If you see them, don’t be shy! They’d love to meet you and get to know your family.
Etonkids International Kindergarten Easter Celebration
Recommended Ages 2-4. Neighborhood Easter celebration to involve the whole family. More information in Chinese here. Free, but please register by calling 400.818.9098. From 9.30am – 12.00pm. Palms Springs Campus (Chaoyang), Lido Campus (Lido), Wangjing Baoxing Campus (Wangjing), Peking House Campus (Chaoyang), Central Park Campus (CBD), Global Grade Mansion Campus (CBD), Datun Campus (Chaoyang), Overseas Chinese Town Campus (near Happy Valley), Eastern Province Campus (Changping), Arcadia Campus (Shunyi), Poly Viladom Campus
Photo: George Atanassov (Flickr)