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Easter — British Style
Eggs, Bunnies and a bit of Religion
Are you ready?
- Chocolate eggs — check
- wine — ch… wine??
- sunlounger — Oh come on! Now you’re in the realms of fantasy.
- The weather forecaster did say — In your dreams. This is British Easter we are talking about.
Yes, Easter is upon us. When did it all start? Just after New Year if your supermarket is anything like mine. Enough heckling from the back, there!
Practising Christians among us will know exactly when the religious festival started, and why. Except… For centuries after the event, the Passion and Resurrection of Christ was not called ‘Easter’ but ‘Pascha’ due to it taking place during the Jewish Passover (Pesach).
Because its origin was based on the Jewish lunisolar calendar which changes year to year, Easter continues to be a movable feast. To make matters more confusing, there are two Easters: Western Christianity now follows the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern Orthodox Christianity follows the Julian calendar. Mmm…
Eggs did play a part, though, in earlier centuries. As well as being an almost universal symbol of renewal, eggs were painted red to denote Christ’s blood shed during the crucifixion. Modern hand-painted chicken’s eggs…
