Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Both the Christian Easter and the Jewish Passover take place next month.  Here’s a “The Best…” list sharing my picks for the best online resources out there about these holidays that are accessible to English Language Learners (you can also find them on my website under Religion):

EASTER:

As usual, the History Channel has excellent Easter resources, including online videos.

Here’s a short reading with comprehension questions about Easter.

Read Robby Saves Easter, an animated talking story about the Easter Bunny.

The CBBC Newsround has a variety of accessible Easter resources.

The Easter Bunny Rap is fast, but entertaining.

Speaking of the Easter Bunny, you can see a picture of him/her hugging George W. Bush and, on the same page, view a slideshow of the annual White House Egg Roll.

Here’s an introduction to basic Easter vocabulary, followed by a number of games to review and practice them.

MES-Games has another fun activity to learn Easter words.

You can find a listening exercise about Easter at Heads Up English.

How Stuff Works has quite a bit of accessible information on How Easter Works.

Learn how Easter is celebrated around the world.

And here’s a slideshow showing how it’s celebrated in different countries.

EL Civics has a good Easter Lesson for ESL students.

You can send a regular Easter E-Card at Blue Mountain or Yahoo Greetings.

You can read an animated talking book about the Easter Story.

Here’s an interactive graphic about Easter and another about Holy Week.

Here are two activities designed for ESL students — read about Easter and answer comprehension questions; then take an Easter Quiz

The New York Times has a slideshow on Good Friday activities.

Easter’s Global Reach is a slideshow from MSNBC.

Topmarks has some great Easter materials

Here’s a photo gallery of weird Easter Eggs.

Renee Maufroid, who is a tireless creator of excellent online activities for English Language Learners, has an exercise teaching “Easter Words.”

Reuters has a video showing Palm Sunday in Rome and Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday Mass is celebrated in San Antonio, Texas as seen in this slideshow.

A Brief History of Semana Santa is a slideshow from TIME Magazine highlighting how Holy Week is celebrated in Latino communities.

The Sun Sentinel newspaper in Florida has created a neat graphic It’s called Natural Hues that shows pictures of amazingly colorful bird eggs that look that way naturally.  They certainly compete with colored Easter eggs!

From Egg To Art is a slideshow from the Wall Street Journal.

Here’s an article and photo from The San Francisco Chronicle about an Easter Egg Hunt for blind children.
Easter Celebrated Throughout The World is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Holy Week is a similar series of photos from the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture.

Watch a video from the Wall Street Journal about a crazy Easter egg celebration.

Here are The Top Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Easter from TIME Magazine.

Easter, 2009 is another series of slideshows from The Big Picture.

Easter Celebrated Around The World is yet one more slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

PASSOVER:

Again, the History Channel has great resources on Passover.

Here’s an interactive graphic from the Orange County Register on Passover.

The CBBC Newsround also has accessible resources.

The ESL Free Press gives a very accessible overview of both Easter and Passover.

You can see a Virtual Seder Plate here.

And here’s another virtual Seder Plate.

The BBC has a good site, though it’s probably only accessible to high Intermediate or Advanced English Language Learners.

Here are quite a few photos of Passover in Israel.

You can send a Passover E-Card at Blue Mountain or Yahoo Greetings.

Every twenty-seven years Jews celebrate a ritual called The Blessing Of The Sun. This year, 2009, it coincidentally occurred on the eve of Passover, so I’m including resources about it on this list. You can see a slideshow about it from the Wall Street Journal, and a series of images from the Sacramento Bee.

Feel free to offer additional suggestions.

If you found this post useful, you might want to check out my other “The Best…” lists.

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