How to set an Autumn Easter table – the Catholic way

How does a Polish Catholic in the Southern Hemisphere set an Autumn Easter table? By celebrating the abundance of nature and the warm and cozy colours of autumn.

The garden

The garden has great symbolism in Christianity. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden, Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane and he rose from the dead in the tomb that was in a garden. Jesus is the new Adam. He has made everything new again in the garden.

For our Easter table, I was inspired by this and wanted to create this garden on our table.

I started with the Calvary crosses that were bare during Lent and I placed them in a bed of moss. I added a crystal cave to be the open tomb, little eggs and egg cups filled with flowers. I covered the central cross with a linen cloth and made sure to add a folded up piece of linen cloth inside the empty tomb.

”Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.“

John 20:6-7 NRSV

The crown of thorns

Next I gathered greenery and flowers from my own garden. I collected sweet box, sea lavender, yarrow, nandina and rosemary. With these, I created a wreath using the crown of thorns I had on the table for Lent. I placed a new candle in the centre and adorned it with more eggs and moss. White is the traditional colour for Easter, but I only had a light green taper on hand. I think it came out quite pretty.

Egg cups

I filled egg cups with cracked eggs and filled these with chrysanthemums, roses and sea lavender. I used shades of pink, purple and white which looked nice with the creamy and earthy hues of the table runner and linen. I used flowers that are in season in Autumn.

Easter in the southern hemisphere always feels a bit different, because we are preparing for colder days. A garden can be beautiful at all times of the year, so using the garden as my Easter table theme, makes it just as special as a spring Easter table. The garden is so abundant at this time of year and Easter is such a beautiful time, reminding us of new life and new hope.

Polish butter lamb

Our Easter butter lamb had great prominence on the table. We had the lamb blessed the day before with our Easter basket in the Polish church. You can read all about the Polish tradition of blessing the Easter baskets in this post. It gives details about how we prepare the basket, what goes inside and the significance of each item.

Place settings

I fell in love with these adorable bunny napkin rings from Kmart (similar here and here) and placed them simply onto the place settings in pretty beige napkins and rosemary from the garden. Rosemary is known as the herb of remembrance. I like to think that the scent of it will evoke happy memories for us of our time around the table for years to come. I like that the napkins are linen with little flowers, as they remind me of the cloths enveloping Jesus in the tomb. Perhaps these same flowers were growing in the garden outside the tomb, imagine that.

The plates are from Alfred Meakin, in the “Old Mill” pattern. I found them at the opportunity shop for a bargain. I found some cereal bowls from the range here on Etsy. The shipping cost is prohibitive to Australia, but if you are in Europe you may like to get them. I think they are pretty easy to find, so be on the lookout when you are out doing second hand shopping! I know that I will be keeping an eye out so that I can expand my collection.

We enjoyed a beautiful feast and ate a lot of traditional Polish food. As always the potato salad was a big hit! We also ate lots of cold meat, bread, mizeria (a type of cucumber salad), żurek (a sour soup made with rye starter and white sausage), copious amounts of tea and of course, chocolate!

I wonder how you celebrate your Easter and how you decide to set your table? Do you consider the season? Do you tell a story with your table? Please share, I would love to know.

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