LEGO Easter story

Video by BW Animations.

Purim

This last weekend was the holiday of Purim, remembering when the Jewish people were saved from destruction, as recorded in the biblical book of Esther. Here are some video versions of that story by Stephanie Englander, the Cohen family, AishVideo, and the Jewish Outreach Initiative.

Shana Tova!

Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This holiday, the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve in tradition, is largely a day of celebration and blessing leading to the more solemn Yom Kippur next week. Traditions for this day include eating apples and honey (for a sweet new year), blowing of the shofar (an instrument made out of a ram's horn), and the greeting Shana Tova (here in LEGO video form by Mola7171).


BTW, happy still being here, earth! Getting really inside-baseball here, there are some in some areas of Evangelical Christianity who had predicted that there would be huge calamities, largely economic, that were tied to the cycle of years in the Jewish calendar. I won't get into it here, but I don't have a huge deal of respect for apocalyptic date-setting.

Dia de Los Muertos

In some Christian traditions, Halloween is simply the opening of a three-day holiday, the Hallowmas. All Hallows' Eve leads to All Hallows', or All Saints' Day. This is a day to remember and celebrate all of those dead who have entered Heaven. At least in the Catholic tradition, the next day, All Souls' Day, is a day to remember and pray for those who died in the faith but have not yet entered Heave (i.e. they are still in Purgatory). In Mexico and some other nations, Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, has become a major holiday. Families will often bring favorite foods or other remembrances to loved ones' graves, or they will build small shrines in their homes. There are ceremonies and prayers in the churches, and there is also a generally festive atmosphere with parades, music, and parties. Seaotter71 built a number of scenes for a stop-motion video of Dia de Los Muertos traditions.

He is risen

Empty Tomb by Repellingspider. Indeed.

Wars of Humanity

The Wars of Humanity site is devoted to stop-motion animation using LEGO (called Brickfilms) based on stories from the Exodus and Joshua. Their 20-30 minute films have won awards at various film festivals and have been shown at churches and other venues. It looks like they are planning on selling a DVD, or you can contact them via their website if you want to learn how to schedule their film. Their site hosts short trailers for each of the three films. Attack of the Plagues looks at the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. Price of Rebellion follows the Israelites into the wilderness after they leave Egypt. Jericho, the Promise Fulfilled takes the Israelites into the Promised Land (this last one I linked on YouTube, as the video on their site seems to be broken).

Jewish history

I found this Jewish history lesson posted on YouTube by Bangnvolvo.

The Passion of Christ

Dan and Peter, 16 and 14 respectively, wanted to find a way to share the gospel story with their younger siblings and other friends. They came up with a LEGO film (actually not a true stop-motion Brickfilm, this is a slideshow of LEGO creations set to music).



View the other segments on YouTube: part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

What a great way to connect kids with this story. My critique as a LEGO hobbyist is that the building is pretty simplistic, but there are some nice details like the brick-built donkey Jesus rides. They use fig placement, lighting and music well to create drama and movement to what could otherwise easily be a very static PowerPoint presentation. There are some nice moments of humor, like when Peter bursts into the room he hits another disciple with the door, and you spot random figures in the crowd scenes like a viking or R2D2. Via Faith and Family.