I can remember (during Lent, I suppose) that my younger brother and I were taken to buy new sandals and white ankle socks for Easter Sunday. I cannot recollect whether or not they were entirely suitable for the weather on Easter day, but as children weather did not worry us a lot. It did, however, herald that Spring and Summer would be arriving after a cold and often snowy winter.
Good Friday began with the radio playing:-
“There is a green hill far away,
without a city wall,
where our dear Lord was crucified,
who died to save us all”
Hot cross buns were eaten only on Good Friday and not before. The local shops in Warwickshire only sold them on Maundy Thursday, unlike today’s supermarkets where they appear on the shelves soon after Christmas. Fish was mandatory for lunch.
On Easter Sunday we listened to the radio playing ‘Jesus Christ is risen today - Alleluia’ for television was still a media of the future.
I do not recollect having Easter eggs, but my brother and I always received a gift of a book of children’s prayers or Bible stories: and there was always roast lamb for lunch.
Memory can be so selective, but I seem to recollect that the sun always shone on Easter day when the new sandals and white socks made their first outing of the year!
The traditions of Fish and Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday and lamb on Easter Sunday have, for us, stayed constant over the years.
Angela
Photo credit: Clarks Shoes.