Today is Good Friday and the school is closed for a long weekend. Easter in the U.K is celebrated on the weekend following the paschal full moon date. This is the ecclesiastical full moon that comes after the 20th March. Meaning that Easter each changes date, landing on any weekend between the 22nd of March and 25th o April.
Easter is celebrated with Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. As with all holidays, Easter is a historical mash up of traditions, beliefs and values. Starting with ancient appreciation for Spring time, the time of fertility, growth and the end of the dark and dangerous winter. The Babylonian and Assyrian God ‘Ishtar’, represented fertility and sex and was celebrated at this time long ago. Christians noted this time as the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
Easter in farming epitomizes the end of the ‘hunger gap’. This is the shortage of remaining winter crops and absence of upcoming spring crops, something which we are only aware of if we eat locally grown produce. You may eat a chocolate egg this Easter, which is where our older traditions and symbolism combine with modernity. The egg being a symbol of fertility in many doctrines, while chocolate is a commodity readily available to all, only in the later 20th century. Even one hundred years ago, chocolate was seen as a luxury to be enjoyed on a rare occasion, by those with at least a modestly comfortable living. Today, a very stark minority of the Western world will grow up without having eaten more chocolate than was consumed by the entire populace, not so long ago.
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