Easter

[staffslad]

Just wondered where Easter came in the pecking order of things to look forward to when forum members were growing up. For me, there were four main events in the year: Christmas, birthday, Summer holiday and Easter, and I would put them in that order of how excited I would be about them. Although I looked forward to the break from school and getting lots of chocolate, Easter for me was always the poor relation of Christmas, my birthday and our Summer holiday.

[tex]

Re: Easter

Being atheist easter has zero religious meaning to me ,however i do enjoy the choc fest and the anual showing of the ten commandments on telly prefer it to birthdays however which in my mature years has been just another day for a long time now.

[George 1978]

Re: Easter

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.

[George 1978]

Re: Easter

I have just looked it up and 2019 is only the second time in Queen Elizabeth II's reign that Easter Sunday has been on her birthday - the first one was in 1957 (and prior to that, it was on 21st April in 1946). The next time will be in 2030, although we might have a different monarch by then as she would be 104.

[tex]

Re: Easter

Hottest easter break on record here in Britain this year.....Phew, who would of thunk it

[George 1978]

Re: Easter

I felt that it would be a waste to spend Easter Monday indoors so I went out for a few hours, testing out my digital radio.

[George 1978]

Re: Easter

Today being St George's Day should have been a Bank Holiday as well.

[Arran]

Re: Easter

Today being St George's Day should have been a Bank Holiday as well.

Yes, I agree.

I was recently talking about how Black Friday now seems a bigger celebration than St. George's Day despite it being American and that it didn't exist in Britain in 2000. Even Halloween is now bigger than St. George's Day but it was a minor event back in the 1990s.

In Yorkshire 4th November is Mischief Night or Miggy Night where young teenagers get up to annoying pranks.

There's also St. Andrew's Day / putting up the lights day that I think is a good candidate for a bank holiday as there are none between the August bank holiday and Christmas.

[George 1978]

Re: Easter

We don't get many regional variations when it comes to various annual events but Mischief Night is a curious one, even to a Nottingham person! Apparently, this used to be a national thing centuries ago but in recent times it had only been limited to the north of England - in Liverpool and Leeds, but not London and Leicester. Funnily enough, I was looking on the BBC News website for Mischief Night news stories and all of them were in the north of England - the most southern area mentioned was in Sheffield, I think. Even I only found out about it when listening to one of the northern BBC local radio stations online and wondered what they were going on about.

It's ironic that more people in England celebrate St Patrick's Day than St George's Day - on 17th March, you can't pass a pub without someone drinking Guinness and wearing one of those green felt hats. Black Friday only existed in the past six years or so - you can see why it doesn't fit in well in British culture, but on the other hand, rioting and looting doesn't seem to be alien in this country a la the 2011 riots...

[Arran]

Re: Easter

The epicentre of Mischief Night is believed to be Leeds but it takes place across West Yorkshire extending into South Yorkshire. It is far less common in North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire with the possible exception of parts of Hull. Leeds residents are known to quote that the nastiest pranks take place in Bradford.

IMO St. Patrick's Day has been hijacked by Guinness.

[George 1978]

Re: Easter

IMO St. Patrick's Day has been hijacked by Guinness.

Quite true - it's like how Bells whisky seem to hijack New Year in the 1970s and 1980s, and Coca Cola was rumoured (because of Father Christmas' red coat) originally seemed to hijacked Christmas.

[Arran]

Re: Easter

The two nationalities who make a big celebration of New Year are the Chinese and the Scottish.

[George 1978]

Re: Easter

Yes, but they don't happen at the same time, do they?

[Arran]

Re: Easter

Yes, but they don't happen at the same time, do they?

Not on the same day.

Has anybody here celebrated Eid or Diwali even if (like most people who celebrate Christmas) you don't follow the religions? Some primary schools hold celebrations for them.

[tex]

Re: Easter

The epicentre of Mischief Night is believed to be Leeds but it takes place across West Yorkshire extending into South Yorkshire. It is far less common in North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire with the possible exception of parts of Hull. Leeds residents are known to quote that the nastiest pranks take place in Bradford.

IMO St. Patrick's Day has been hijacked by Guinness.

Seems Hollywood may of taken the idea and just ran with it....
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339...1?ref_=nv_sr_1