For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Easter is as much, if not more, about family traditions than it is about church-centered festivities.

On Easter Sunday, the day when Christians traditionally celebrate the resurrection of Christ, many churches pull out all the stops. The air is heavy with the scent of lilies or possibly incense, brass bands greet congregants attired in their spring finery and there is the occasional breakfast in between the multiple services to sustain clergy and choir.

While there may be flowers and special Easter-themed music, by the standards of many Christian churches, "Easter is a much simpler thing," local LDS Bishop Brad Smith said.

Since the LDS believes in the "principle … that families can be together forever, a lot of our celebrations are more about family traditions than (about) the traditions of the church," said Smith, of the Lititz Ward.

Easter Sunday is traditionally reserved for a sermon by church leaders. Not so in the Mormon church, where church members share preaching responsibilities with the local bishop, Smith said.

As on other Sundays, the focus is on the sacramental meal of bread and water "blessed and sanctified to the souls of those who are willing to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ, keep his commandments and always remember him," said Mary Lou Ellsworth, a Lititz Ward member whose roots in the Mormon church go back to 19th-century forebears who knew founder Joseph Smith. The bread and water are then passed to the congregation by the male members who have been ordained to the priesthood.

No meetings are scheduled after the service that Sunday, to allow families to go home and celebrate the day with their children, perhaps with a special meal, she added. Now a grandmother more than 20 times over, Ellsworth and her husband supplemented congregational instruction by teaching their children the Easter story at home with videos and family Scripture study.

LDS members do have distinct beliefs about what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the Crucifixion and after the Resurrection.

They believe, Ellsworth said, that Christ suffered for the sins of humanity in the Garden of Gethsemane and "willed himself to suffer until he had suffered for each of us."

When he was resurrected, it was, Smith said, as a corporeal being "who has a resurrection body of flesh and bone."

"As Latter-Day Saints we reject the Nicene Creed, which was formulated centuries after Christ lived and died and was resurrected, in which three members of the Godhood were combined into one," she said.

Easter often sees a spike in attendance in many Christian churches. But Smith doesn't expect to see more than eight or 10 new faces amongst his normal Sunday congregation, which averages around 180 participants.

"The only thing the church does relative to Easter is our responsibility as members to be always mindful of Jesus Christ, and to take a little extra time to consider what he has done for us," Smith said.

As for the rest of the Easter pageantry, said the bishop, "We leave the Easter egg hunt to the families."