There is something special about the first Sunday School class of a new year. The children are meeting a new teacher, seeing old friends again, and wondering what this year’s lessons will be like. And if we’re honest, some of them may be wondering if they really want to spend another Sunday sitting through a lesson!
For me, the beginning of the Sunday School year is especially meaningful because it coincides with Nayrouz, the Coptic New Year. Nayrouz marks the beginning of the Coptic liturgical year and is celebrated on September 11 in most years. It is also a time when we remember the martyrs of the Church.
I am blessed to be a Grade 2 elementary Sunday School teacher, and I wanted our first class to feel like something the children would actually look forward to.
If you’re looking for a fun, low-cost Coptic New Year Sunday School activity to welcome your students, here’s an idea that we hope will turn our first class into a celebration as we have tried some of the elements in our End of Sunday School Year celebration and it was a blast!.
A Coptic New Year Sunday School Carnival
When I was growing up in Egypt, Sunday School was very different from what our children experience today.
I remember sitting in rows on church benches, listening to Bible stories. We collected little pictures of saints and Bible scenes and carefully glued them into our copybooks. Every once in a while, we might watch a movie on a projector.
There were no PowerPoint presentations, VeggieTales, elaborate crafts, or technology-filled games competing for our attention. We memorized Bible verses and prayers, listened to our teachers and, if we were lucky, went home with a little prize.
But I don’t look back at those days and think that we need to recreate them exactly.
Our children live in a different world. Their expectations are different. Their attention is pulled in a hundred directions. As Sunday School teachers, we need to understand the children God has entrusted to us and speak their language without allowing the world to determine what we teach them.
Serving these children is a blessing, an honour, and a privilege. Their realities may have changed, but our mission has not.
So what do we do?
We hold a homemade, low-cost carnival!
Like the one we held the previous week as part of our End of Sunday School Year Celebration, and the children—and the adults—loved it. So why not recreate the fun for the beginning of the new Sunday School year?
What You Need for Your Sunday School Carnival
You don’t need an enormous budget or a professional event planner. The whole idea is to make the classroom feel special with a few simple additions.
Carnival Food and Supplies
- Cotton candy machine (borrow from a friend, rent one, or buy an inexpensive one- here is one on Amazon)
- Cotton candy sugar and cones (also purchased from Amazon)
- Hot dog machine or roller (borrow, rent, or split the cost to buy one – here is an example from Walmart)
- Hot dogs and buns
- Plates, cutlery, and napkins
- Condiments
- Juice boxes or another simple drink
- Balloons
- Helium tank and balloons (if desired)
You can buy or rent the machines or ask around your church. You may be surprised by how many families have something sitting in their basement that they would be happy to lend!
And because you’re feeding children, remember to ask parents ahead of time about allergies and dietary restrictions rather than making assumptions about what children can safely eat.
How to Set Up Your Sunday School Carnival
Prepare the Classroom
Start with balloons. Lots of balloons!
You don’t have to completely transform the classroom. A few colourful balloons, simple decorations and a cheerful welcome can immediately make the room feel different.
Set up your tables before the children arrive. Have your plates, napkins, condiments, and drinks ready.
Set Up the Food and Activities
Preheat the hot dog and cotton candy machines before class begins so that you’re not spending the entire lesson waiting for everything to be ready.
Then welcome the children as they arrive and let them know that today is going to be a little different.
It’s a carnival—but it’s also Sunday School!
A Fun Icebreaker for Your First Sunday School Class
Before getting into the lesson, give the children an opportunity to talk, laugh, and get to know one another.
One activity I like is “My Favourite Things” from Activity Village. You can easily customize the questions for your class.
For example, ask each child about their:
- Favourite colour
- Favourite Saint
- Birth month
- Favourite food
- Favourite thing to do
This is a simple way to get children talking, especially when they are meeting a new teacher or new classmates.
Teach a Coptic New Year Lesson
Now comes the part that makes this more than just a party.
Start serving the hot dogs, and while the children are eating, talk about why we are celebrating.
Nayrouz is the Coptic New Year and marks the beginning of the Coptic liturgical year. It is celebrated on the first day of the Coptic month of Thout, which corresponds to September 11 in the Gregorian calendar in most years. It is also closely associated with remembering the martyrs of the Coptic Church.
Why Do We Celebrate Nayrouz?
The Coptic calendar has 13 months: twelve months of 30 days each, followed by a short final month of five days—or six in a leap year.
The Coptic calendar is also known as the Calendar of the Martyrs. The Church’s era was reset to A.D. 284, associated with the beginning of Emperor Diocletian’s reign and the persecution of Christians in Egypt.
This gives us a wonderful opportunity to teach our children that Nayrouz is not simply the Coptic equivalent of January 1.
It is a new beginning, but it is also a reminder of people who held firmly to their faith.
What Do the Red Dates Mean?
One of the traditions associated with Nayrouz is eating red dates.
The red colour reminds us of the blood of the martyrs, while the white interior can remind us of purity, and the firm pit reminds us of the steadfastness of their faith. This symbolism is also reflected in Coptic educational materials about Nayrouz.
For children, this gives us a simple, memorable way to connect something they can see and eat with an important spiritual lesson.
Use My Nayrouz Sunday School Presentation
Need a little help with the lesson?
I created a Nayrouz lesson presentation for my Sunday School students to make learning about the Coptic New Year engaging, visual and age-appropriate.
The presentation covers the Coptic calendar, the history behind Nayrouz, why the Coptic year is known as the Year of the Martyrs, the meaning behind some of our Nayrouz traditions, and—most importantly—the example the martyrs give us about standing firm in our faith.
It ends with a question that I especially wanted the children to think about: How can we be witnesses to God in our own lives?
You are welcome to use the presentation with your own Sunday School class and adapt it to suit the age and needs of your students.
👇 Download or open the free Nayrouz Sunday School presentation 👇
Teacher’s note: The presentation includes the Coptic calendar, Nayrouz, the martyrs, the symbolism of red dates, and practical ways children can be a light to those around them.
The Martyrs Were Ordinary People
One of my favourite parts of the presentation is asking the children whether they think the martyrs had “super powers.”
No.
They were ordinary people like you and me.
They were young and old, women and men, mothers and children. What made them extraordinary was their deep and grounded love for God.
Their courage reminds us that being a witness to Christ isn’t something reserved for people in the pages of a history book.
Our children can be witnesses too.
How Can We Be a Light?
We can witness to God through our:
- Actions
- Words
- Way of life
But first, we need to know God and become grounded in Him through daily prayer, reading the Word of God, and choosing to be a light to the people around us.
That is a much more meaningful lesson to take home than simply remembering that September 11 is the Coptic New Year.
End Your Coptic New Year Celebration With Cotton Candy
And now for the grand finale!
After the lesson, bring out the cotton candy.
There is something about watching that fluffy cloud of sugar form around the stick that makes children—and, let’s be honest, adults—smile.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. The goal isn’t to compete with a professional carnival. The goal is to create a joyful memory and make the children excited about coming back to Sunday School.
And if the children leave talking about the cotton candy, the balloons and the hot dogs, that’s wonderful.
But hopefully, somewhere in all that excitement, they also leave remembering the martyrs, thinking about their own faith and understanding that they, too, can be a light for Christ.
May God Bless Your New Sunday School Year
The beginning of a new Sunday School year is a beautiful opportunity to begin again.
We don’t need to recreate the Sunday School experience of our childhood. We need to take what was beautiful about it—the love of God, the stories of the Bible, the Saints, prayer and the life of faith—and present it faithfully to the children God has placed in front of us today.
So decorate the room.
Make the cotton candy.
Serve the hot dogs.
Play the icebreaker.
Teach the lesson.
Laugh with your students.
And most importantly, pray that every child who walks through your classroom door comes to know how deeply they are loved by God.
May God bless you all abundantly throughout the rest of the regular and Coptic year!
In Christ,
Mireille
Other articles you might enjoy: Fun ideas to welcome children to their new Sunday School class!
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Thank you so much for this absolutely beautiful idea. And thank you for putting together such a complete and concise set of instructions, tools and presentation. We are going to do it this Sunday.
God bless you Mireille!
You are very kind, Sandra. To God all the glory. Thank you very much for taking the time to send me such an encouraging and thoughtful message. It means a lot to me.