The Friday before Easter Sunday and the Monday after are a bank holiday (public holiday) in the UK. Over Easter schools in the UK close for two weeks, just enough time to digest all the chocolate.Good Friday (Holy Friday). When is Good Friday?
Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday. Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is a day of mourning in church and special services are held.
Why is it called Good Friday?
The name may be derived from 'God's Friday' in the same way that good-bye is derived from 'God be with ye'. It is 'good' because the barrier of sin was broken.
What happens on Good Friday today?
Since the early nineteenth century, before the introduction of bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day were the only two days of leisure which were almost universally granted to working people. Good Friday today is still a public holiday in much of the UK. This means that many businesses are closed.
Some Christians fast (go without food) on Good Friday. This helps them remember the sacrifice Jesus made for them on the day of crucifixion. Many churches hold a special service. This may be a communion service in the evening or a time of prayer during the day, especially around 3 o'clock as that is about the time of day when Jesus died.
Many churches hold services lasting three hours. They may celebrate the Stations of the Cross, or take part in Passion plays and dramatic readings.
It is traditional to eat warm 'hot cross buns' on Good Friday. Hot Cross Buns with their combination of spicy, sweet and fruity flavours have long been an Easter tradition.
Why do we eat Hot Cross Buns?
The history of hot cross buns dates far back to the pre-Christian era. It is thought that they are descendants of the small cakes offered to Eostre, the goddess of spring. They may have been marked with a cross even in ancient times, to represent the four quarters of the moon. In later centuries the church, unable to stamp out ancient pagan traditions, decided instead to "Christianize" the buns by associating the cross with that of Jesus.The pastry cross on top of the buns symbolises and reminds Christians of the cross that Jesus was killed on.
The buns were traditionally eaten at breakfast time, hot from the oven. They were once sold by street vendors who sang a little song about them.
"Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns."
Other traditional Good Friday food. It is traditional to eat fish on Good Friday instead of meat.
Good Friday Traditions
Traditionally Good Friday was the day when everything was cleaned and whitewashed in preparation for Easter Sunday.
Holy Saturday. When is Holy Saturday?
It is the Saturday before Easter, the last day of Lent and is the day when Christ's body lay in His Tomb. In the early church Holy Saturday was a day of fasting and preparation for the Easter Vigil.
Traditional Holy Saturday Event
The Bacup Nutters Dance traditionally takes place on this day in the small Pennine town of Bacup. Each year a team of folk-dancers with blackened faces dance through the town from boundary to boundary. A form of morris dancing, the blackened faces may either reflect a need for the dancers to disguise their faces from evil spirits, or have a mining connection. The tradition of this dance is thought to date back to 1857.
Easter Saturday
Holy Saturday is also often incorrectly called Easter Saturday, a term that correctly refers to the following Saturday after Easter.
Easter Sunday / Easter Day. What happens on Easter Sunday today?
Christians gather together on Easter Sunday for a Sunrise Service. This service takes place on a hill side so everyone can see the sun rise.
Some Christians take part in an Easter vigil, lighting a new fire outside the church early on Sunday morning. The Easter Eucharist is a particularly joyful service. It is a popular time for baptisms and renewal of baptism vows.
The Traditional Egg Gift
The traditional Easter gift is a chocolate egg.
The first eggs given at Easter were birds eggs. These eggs were painted in bright colours to give them further meaning as a gift.
As chocolate became more wide spread in the 20th Century, a chocolate version of the traditional painted egg was developed. The size of the chocolate egg has grown over the years and is now more likely to be the size of an ostrich egg rather than a small birds egg.
Easter Presents
Chocolate eggs are given to children. The eggs are either hollow or have a filling, and are usually covered with brightly coloured silver paper.
Around 80 million chocolate eggs are eaten each year in Britain.
Easter Egg Hunt
Small chocolate eggs are hidden for the children to find on the traditional Easter Egg Hunt. In recent years this game has been linked to the Easter Bunny, which only arrived in Britain relatively recently.
Origins of Colouring Eggs at Easter
Decorating and colouring eggs for Easter was a common custom in England in the middle ages. Eggs were brightly coloured to mimic the new, fresh colours of spring. The practice of decorating eggs was made even more famous by King Edward I of England who ordered 450 eggs to be gold-leafed and coloured for Easter gifts in 1290.
Special Food at Easter
After the lean months of winter and the fast weeks of Lent, food at Easter was always a special treat. Easter day, like Christmas day, is also associated with special food.
Boiled eggs are traditionally served at breakfast, then Easter cards and gifts may be exchanged.
Roast lamb is the traditional meat for the main meal on Easter Day. It is served with mint sauce and vegetables. The traditional puddings are custard tarts sprinkled with currants and flat Easter biscuits.
Simnel cake is baked for tea.
The Simnel cake is a rich fruitcake covered with a thick layer of almond paste (marzipan). A layer of marzipan is also traditionally baked into the middle of the cake.
Eleven balls of marzipan are placed around the top to represent the eleven true disciples (excluding Judas). Originally the simnel cake was a gift to mothers on Mothering Sunday in Mid Lent.
Easter Monday
Easter Monday, another public holiday in much of the UK, has little religious significance but is the occasion for numerous secular customs.
Egg rolling
Egg rolling is very popular in England and is an Easter Monday sport. Hard-boiled eggs are rolled down a hill. Customs differ from place to place. The winner's egg may be the one that rolls the farthest, survives the most rolls, or is rolled between two pegs.
Dressing Up For Easter
Easter was once a traditional day for getting married, that may be why people often dress up for Easter. Women would make and wear special Easter bonnets - decorated with flowers and ribbons. Even today in Battersea in London there is a special Easter Parade, where hand-made bonnets are shown off.
Why does the date of Easter move?
Easter is called a moveable feast because the date of Easter changes every year. Easter Sunday can fall on any date from March 22 to April 25. The reason for this variation in the date of Easter is based on the lunar calendar rather than our more well-known solar one.
Easter always falls on the first Sunday following the full Moon (the Paschal Full Moon) either on or after the Spring Equinox (March 20 or 21). If the Full Moon falls on a Sunday then Easter is the next Sunday.