Thinking Aloud on a Sunday

~ beetleypete

Chocolate, and hot cross buns

It’s Easter. I had to be reminded of the fact, as I am not (and have never been) remotely religious. All over the world, committed Christians are celebrating perhaps their most important religious festival, and I am more or less oblivious to their devotions.

I get mixed up. I thought last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, but that was wrong. But some things I am sure of. At Easter, we get chocolate eggs, as gifts. (Well most children do, anyway) And we can also buy hot cross buns. (They are not hot, unless you heat them up, which few people do now. But they have a pastry cross on them, for religious significance.) Trouble is, when I was young, you could only get those buns on one or two days of the year, obviously around Easter time. But now, you can get them all year round, so almost everyone has forgotten what they mean.

Same thing with those chocolate eggs. They used to be in the shops from the middle of March, but now they appear just after Christmas, being sidelined briefly for Valentine’s Day. Then there are Easter Cards (who sends them?) and small fluffy chick toys. They also pop up in early January, so by the time Easter arrives, they have usually been bought, put away, and forgotten. And Easter moves around. It is never on the same day, so it seems to an unbeliever like me. That makes it harder to keep track of, let’s face it.

Then there is the weather. In the UK, Easter is a long weeked. People are off from Thursday night, until Tuesday morning. But it’s at a time of year when the weather is notoriously unreliable in the British Isles. The redoubtable people of this sceptred isle still tend to go away somewhere anyway, if only to visit relatives, or to sit in a caravan by the coast. Then they can look at the grey skies, listening to the children complaining, as the rain beats down on the roof. Add to that the schools get a two-week holiday during some of the worst weather of the year, and you can guarantee a lot of very unhappy under-18s will be bemoaning their fate.

In some places, including many parts of the UK, religious people will be joyously celebrating whatever it is they celebrate at this time of year. Good luck to them, and I wish them well.

For the rest of us, it is too much chocolate, buns that are not hot, and too much time off, in abysmal weather. And no shops open on Easter Sunday, not even the greedy supermarkets. But that’s a good thing.

Happy Easter, to one and all.

65 thoughts on “Thinking Aloud on a Sunday”

    1. I am told it moves around for religious reasons. But as the modern calendar only dates from 1582, I wonder how they knew when it was before? And in the Orthodox Church, it is not until next week! 🙂 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  4. Thanks, Pete. It’s a strange time of the year. When I was a child, in Barcelona, all the TV content and everything else was religious, so Ben-Hur and the Ten Commandments were the order of the day, and officially the radio had to play either classical music or otherwise “serious music”. Things are very different, but I can’t say I particularly miss that. You are right. All the festivities seem to have been engulfed by their shopping and marketing possibilities and most things are now available all year around. We have a cake for Easter (Monday) https://hotelarclarambla.com/blog/mona-de-pascua-traditional-easter-recipe/
    One of the fun things we used to do was do the rounds of the bakeries and see what they had created for that year’s Easter cakes. Some of the cakes and chocolate sculptures were works of art. These days they tend to be more modest and very expensive but it retains the entertainment value. I hope you enjoy the day.

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    1. Thanks, Olga. I was remarking yesterday that there was no religious content on TV at all this year. All those old standby religious epics appear to have been ignored now.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. Our small Co-op was also open, Gilly, as were some small privately-owned shops. That did surprise me, as not long ago, Easter Sunday was a total shut-down.
      The big stores were all closed, and nothing was open on the high street in the local town.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. Whilst a very religious festival over here in Poland the commercialism hasn’t taken hold too much yet, at least not here in the Southeast. We took a trip to the in-laws and sat down with extended family for a breakfast of borsch followed by lots of cake 🙂
    Gosia did take Malina to the church with a little basket of eggs and others symbolic items to be blessed and we did tell her the story behind the resurrection as well as the pagan ritual signifying renewal, but as far as she is concerned she gets to eat a bit more chocolate than usual, no matter if its Jesus or Eostre. Mind you we had a flurry of snow and strong winds in the evening when we returned, so I wasn’t celebrating anything as I took care of the animals!
    Interesting to note that with the new laws restricting Sunday trading that this was the third Sunday in a row with the shops shut, an idea I’m begging to like more and more.

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    1. I could easily adjust to Sunday closing again. But I doubt it will ever happen here. The restrictions on hours do mean the shops all close at 4, but they are usually pretty full until then.
      Cheers, Pete.

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  7. Your description mirrors my feelings. I’m amazed, at how everything closes for Easter, yet Christmas, they make people work, and keep the doors open. One of the great mysteries I suppose.

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    1. As I understand it, Easter is considered to be a more ‘serious’ religious holiday, so more important than Christmas. Easter Sunday seems to be the only day that shops close here now, though many still close on December 25th.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  9. Haha Pete. You and me are on the same wavelength. Hate Christmas, don’t see the point about Easter. If you are not religious these ‘festivals’ are meaningless, though chocolate (and wine) helps on both occasions. Absolutely tipping it down here this afternoon too.
    BTW Easter moves because it is the first Sunday after the first full month since the spring equinox. Are you still following me? And the first full moon was yesterday.

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    1. I would advocate fixing a date of course. Why not the last weekend in March? The weather is usually bad then, so that would fit in with the celebration. I have had some Easter Rioja, the closest I get to the Catholic Church! 🙂 Best wishes, Pete. x

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  10. I am so interested to read that the shops are closed on Easter Sunday, Pete. I think that is a really good thing. Easter is the most religious holiday of the Christian year and it is good that it is respected even if not everyone is a believer. People should get some time off too, not a bad thing to gather with family and friends even if the weather is horrid. I have been to England in April so I know that it is horrid.

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    1. There are some small shops open, but no high street chains or big stores at all. I agree it is only right to give shop staff some much-needed time off. The rain stopped for my dog walk today, but it left the river overflowing, and mud everywhere! 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. I did my share of volunteering here, Chandler. They want too much for nothing, I’m sorry to say.
      If there is a doughnut day, I don’t know about it. But as doughnuts are my favourite cakes, any day will do for me. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. Today’s high in Las Vegas: 30° C / 86° F. We’ll have some cloud cover, though (thankfully).

    “The redoubtable people of this sceptred isle…” Not to be confused with “the redoubtable ranchers of the rough and tumble Far West.” I loved the line, though!

    I think commercialism is killing off the spirit of holidays by gearing up months ahead of time. When the holiday finally does arrive, one has already experienced holiday theme fatigue.

    As for Easter, it’s a good time to discover that you’ve purchased the winning lottery ticket, which is stuck beneath a bust of Buddha, and that the money will build a new Catholic church in Southern California while the former priest does a popular gig in Las Vegas. .

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    1. It is above freezing here, the only consolation from the heavy rain, mud, and gloomy sky. But I’m not complaining, as I did a 135 minute dog walk, and it stopped raining for all of it!
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  19. Happy Easter, Pete and I am not “Celebrating” the holiday either because it has become nothing but an egg and rabbit-dominated commercial schluck. But for what it may be worth, “Happy Easter To You and Your Loved Ones.” I am thinking I might “Shadow” your post here in one of my own …Maybe.

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    1. Like most festivals, John, it has become another over-commercialised sales-fest. Feel free to publish something similar, I will look forward to reading it.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  20. We don’t have chocolate eggs nor Easter bunny but I prepared carbonara pasta and guinatan (a Phil. delicacy with sticky rice balls, diced sweet potato, saba banana, taro root crop and tapioca pearls. These are all cooked in coconut cream) Happy Easter!

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  24. Haha, well after a day of total deluge yesterday we have a blue skies and fluffy white clouds today here, for now. Phil’s older sister sent us an Easter card 😊 but we haven’t any chocolate eggs or hot or cold cross buns, we don’t do Easter really either. Phil is working tomorrow a 12 hour shift so that’s the other bank holiday taken care of. I like it better when Easter is mid April as the weather tends to be better then, this silly moving it about is pants.

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    1. Do they still pay double time for Bank Holiday working? That was one of the benefits of shift-work, when I was still doing it. We have some brightness too, but ominous grey skies behind the house (looking north) are telling me not to get my hopes up. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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