Happy Easter

by Shane Foster

It only seems like yesterday that we were celebrating the new year, and we are now at Easter time already - as they say, time flies when you’re having fun!

Easter is, of course, the most important festival in the Christian calendar, and it is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. This year, Easter Sunday is this weekend - the 9th of April.

Good Friday

The lead up to Easter is known as ‘Holy Week’ and on the Friday of that week we celebrate Good Friday. The name is derived from the term ‘God’s Friday’ and it is considered good because sin was broken on that day.

Traditionally on Good Friday most people celebrate by eating Hot Cross Buns, which I have to admit is one of my favourites, however some Christians choose to fast on Good Friday.

It is also a tradition to eat fish on Good Friday, rather than eating meat, and so for many in the UK it has become quite commonplace to have good old traditional ‘Fish & Chips’ on the first day of the long bank holiday weekend.

Easter Customs

Just like Christmas, the festival of Easter has attracted many different traditions over the years, most of which have very little to do with the celebration itself, or so it may seem.

For starters, it is quite traditional to eat lamb at Easter, which most people associate with the spring lambs - due to the lambing season - which does make perfect sense, given the time of year. However, it actually relates to the biblical term “behold the lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world”.

Next we have the tradition of decorating eggs for Easter. On the face of it, this may (once again) not resemble anything religious, however during earlier centuries it was forbidden to eat eggs during ‘holy Week’, so they were decorated to distinguish them as eggs laid during that week.

Easter Egg Hunts

Of course, there are a few non-religious traditions that have become commonplace in today's society, such as Maypole Dancing or Morris Dancing, but there is one tradition that takes the top spot of course - and that is the Easter Egg Hunt.

Now first off, let’s get something straight - when we talk about egg hunts, we are of course talking about the hollow chocolate variety!

So as the story goes, the eggs are delivered and hidden by the Easter Bunny - yes, that’s right, the eggs are delivered by a rabbit. Now excuse me for being slightly sceptical about a rabbit laying eggs, but of course this comes straight out of a German folk story. And once someone tells you the bunny has delivered eggs for you to find (if you’ve been good of course), then scepticism goes straight out the window in favour of chocolate heaven mmmmm.

The traditional Easter Egg Hunt often takes place on Easter morning, weather dependant, where someone hides the eggs in the garden or other similar venue and then leaves clues for the others to find them. Personally - I just skip that bit and go straight to eating them!

Happy Easter