Our Lady of Guadalupe crafts for kids

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of my favorite Catholic traditions I have adopted.

Dating back to 1531 in Mexico,  the celebration marks the appearance of the Virgin Mary to a poor man, Juan Diego, who was later named a saint.

I love this description of the lessons of this event, found on catholic.org:

The first lesson is that God has chosen Mary to lead us to Jesus. ...The second lesson we take from Mary herself. Mary appeared to Juan Diego not as a European madonna but as a beautiful Aztec princess speaking to him in his own Aztec language. If we want to help someone appreciate the gospel we bring, we must appreciate the culture and the mentality in which they live their lives. By understanding them, we can help them to understand and know Christ. 

We began celebrating this tradition in our family five years ago, when my daughter began participating in the church's children's processional. We have since grown that part to include crafts, scout patches and activities to help the children better learn and appreciate this aspect of Catholic faith tradition. 

We have adopted a tradition of creating a commemorative Christmas ornament that is simple for the kids to make. Last year's was a simple paper ornament that included a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This year's will likely be a little more complicated as we have an older group. We are looking at these two options:

The Catholic groups for both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts also have patches the children can earn for learning more about St. Juan Diego, and the Archdiocese of San Antonio has an Our Lady of Guadalupe Girl Scout patch as well.. All three of these resources offer ideas and activities to help school-age children learn about this aspect of their faith.

What has worked with you when sharing the culture of your faith with your children? Share your ideas and experiences below.

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