Easter was a bigger thing when I was younger - all the Cadbury's and Rowntree's (when they were separate from Nestle) Easter Eggs to look forward to after we were made to eat all of our Sunday lunch. Now, it is low-ley in retrospect.
This year instead of the snooker session on BBC 2 on Sunday morning, I did watch the church service and Pope Francis doing his blessing from the Vatican - I assume that the London Marathon would have been today if had not been for Easter. And it was the Queen's Birthday as well, although not the one where she gives knighthoods and OBEs which is in June - I wonder how many times in the past that Easter Sunday has been on her birthday?
I am religiously impartial - in other words, I would go in a Methodist, Baptist or Catholic church to see a service, and in that respect I am neutral. I suppose if I would get to meet a woman and would enter a relationship with her who is a Baptist for example, I would convert to being a Baptist.
As most shops can usually open on Sundays courtesy of the Sunday Trading Act 1994, it can be almost a shock to go back 30 years or more and have shops closed on Easter Sunday, but in that respect, the irony is that Easter Sunday would feel less special by virtue of the fact that most shops were closed every Sunday back then - you had your work cut out trying to buy a loaf of bread for example. I am certain that Tesco Express and small shops like newsagents are exempt.
In many ways it didn't stand out in some aspects on a sluggish 1980s Easter Sunday - the same old News of the World was being read; the sane old boredom; the same old programmes such as the EastEnders omnibus
and Bullseye were being seen as usual. At least Highway and Songs of Praise would obviously be Easter themed. I also find it ironic that Scotland doesn't have the Easter Monday Bank Holiday when they have 2nd January as a holiday whatever day of the week that it falls on - only New Zealand has both I think.
I would put these in order, these days (with how I would have put them 30 years ago in brackets):
1 (2) Christmas
2 (1) Birthdays (30th August for my own benefit - always try and make it as special as possible. Sometimes I would combine this with the August Bank Holiday if it falls on Monday).
3 (4) New Year
4 (3) Easter
5 (6) May Day Bank Holiday (because of the World Snooker Final)
6 (5) Goose Fair (annual Nottingham funfair in October)
7 (7) Guy Fawkes Night
Etc...
Bank Holidays used to annoy me when I was young as it was a disruption of the cycle of life, but now it can be a break from the norm, although TV schedulers don't seem to think so these days.
prefer it to birthdays however which in my mature years has been just another day for a long time now.
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