Easter marks the beginning of summer
The worst thing about winter is finishing work at 5 pm and driving home in the pitch black; it’s so depressing to shut your laptop and feel like your day is already over. When the clocks go back around Easter time, finishing work doesn’t feel like the end of the day anymore. It’s still brilliantly light outside and I’m motivated to get out of the house whether that be for a relaxing walk, a catch-up with friends or some outdoor exercise (yes, running actually becomes bearable when it’s not miserable outside!)
The suns out, the sky is blue and the flowers are in bloom. Switch off your SAD lamp and put away your sweaters and knits because, ladies and gentlemen, summer is on its way!
There’s no pressure to be perfect
With some holidays (*cough* Christmas *cough*), there’s an immense feeling of pressure to do everything perfectly. The perfect decorations, the perfect presents, even the perfect, orchestrated fun! Sometimes it can feel like you’re so busy thinking about how much fun you’re supposed to be having that you actually forget to enjoy yourself.
Take the food for example. At Easter, there’s no pressure to cook an amazing lunch. What to cook, what not to cook, who’s a vegan this year, who’s vegetarian, who’s gluten-free, who is absolutely not eating anything with a face but actually was looking forward to the pigs-in-blankets and is annoyed that you didn’t cook them like you usually do.
Christmas meal pressure starts with the newspaper supplements in November promising a stress-free perfect Christmas and continues rising, peaking at about 4.30 pm on Christmas Eve when you panic buy some more butter and more cheese and some double cream because you’re not vegan and actually you would like some and it’s your Christmas too, actually. You come home and try and hide it in the fridge, but it won’t fit because it’s too full with everything else you’ve bought, and which you’ve been guarding with your life for the Big Day.
There’s none of that at Easter. You can eat what you want. I had some crisps.
So much good food
On the topic of food, it’s just better at Easter. Hot cross buns, lamb and mint sauce, Easter biscuits and let’s not forget the pancakes on Shrove Tuesday – the true beginning of Easter!
Most important, of course, is the chocolate. Maybe it’s because I’ve usually tried to give it up for Lent but the chocolate at Easter is just superior to what you can buy any other time of the year. It hurts my soul that I can only get Mini Eggs from February-April; not just for the taste but the smell! Seriously, why haven’t they bottled the Mini Egg scent and sold it as shampoo, shower gel or perfume yet?
As one of the only socially acceptable times to eat chocolate all day, I tend to make the most of it. A Creme Egg for breakfast, a Lindt bunny for lunch and a whole chocolate egg (or two) for dinner. It has to be the right egg though – one year my mum bought me Nestle instead of Cadbury’s and I was genuinely heartbroken.
Surprise! Easter is a movable feast
There’s a lovely topsy-turviness to Easter. Early Christians knew how to sell their creed, and one way was by placing their festivals on already-celebrated holy or festival days. Christmas (for Western Christians anyway) is on December 25th because that’s when the winter solstice was celebrated in the Roman Calendar. Easter, on the other hand, was originally marked on the same day as the Jewish festival of Passover. That’s celebrated on the first full moon following the spring equinox.
Now the equinox is a fixed point on the solar calendar. But the full moon is predicted by the lunar calendar, which uses a shorter month (29 ½ days) and so is always ‘gaining time’ on the solar year. So the actual date of Passover differs each year. That’s where Easter’s mobility originates. To complete the story, in the 4th Century AD the various branches of the Christian Church came together to try and iron out differences in creed and custom, and at that conference, it was determined that Easter day should always be a Sunday: the first Sunday, after the first full moon, following the spring equinox. Who knew!
A long bank holiday means it’s truly a time to relax
With the usually pleasant weather and no pressure to jampack your time off work making extravagant plans with the whole family, Easter is a time to properly switch off from the world. Pull up a garden chair with a glass of wine, a Malteaser Bunny, and a good book, and enjoy doing absolutely nothing for a few days. You deserve it!
What do you think?