Catholic Easter
Description:
Easter is the oldest and most important holiday of the year. The name of the holiday dates back to the Jewish “Pesach”: the Jewish Passover, dedicated to the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery, was in the eyes of Christians the prototype of that redemption of mankind from sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the memory of which is dedicated to Christian Easter.
At this time, tulips, crocuses and daffodils appear in the UK. Schools are closed for 2 weeks.
Modern traditions of Easter celebration in England are very cheerful, bright, colorful and joyful. Easter is considered one of the most important holidays of the year. On Easter Day, religious services are held at dawn in churches. Concerts of organ music are held in Catholic churches. On this day, it is customary to wear new clothes, which symbolizes the end of the bad weather season and the onset of spring. Easter baskets filled with eggs, bread and other food are taken to the Easter service to be consecrated in the church. On Easter Monday, children are given candy and toys.
The kids are looking forward to Sunday when they wake up to see that the Easter hare has left baskets of sweets for them and hidden the eggs they painted last week. Children all over the house are looking for eggs. Even special competitions are held – egg search (“Eggstravaganza” – “Eggstravaganza”), the child who collects the most, receives a prize. Such festivals are arranged in parks and restaurants, but you can arrange egg hunting and at home, to the delight of children. For example, strain chocolate eggs in the house and come up with some rhyming clues, little poems that will help you find them.
On Easter mornings, children roll eggs from the mountain. It's an old game. The egg rolling from the mountain symbolizes the stone fell from the Holy Sepulchre. In Lancashire, Easter festivities and “egg runs” are arranged: hard-boiled eggs are lowered from the hill, and the one whose egg rolls to the foot of the hill first wins. The British brought this tradition to America.
One of the typical Easter traditions is preserved in Radley near Oxford. The parishioners hold hands and “embrace” their temple – form a living circle around it.
In England, the whole family gathers for Easter, prepares a Sunday dinner: bake a lamb with many vegetables, bake an Easter cake (simnel cake), paint eggs. On Sunday morning, tea is served with hot cross buns.
The Easter egg is a symbol of new life. The tradition of Easter eggs may have originated at a time when the church prohibited eating them during Lent, the 40 days preceding Easter. But the custom of dyeing eggs was laid by the ancient Egyptians and Persians, who did so during their spring festival. However, today in the UK, another tradition with Easter eggs is common - to give friends and relatives not real eggs, but chocolate, inside which caramel or some other sweets, as well as various souvenirs in the form of Easter eggs.