Easter

To many people in the village Easter is just a long holiday weekend, a chance to meet up with family or friends, and for children to over-indulge in chocolate eggs. It wasn’t always though

Celebrating Easter has been the highlight of the Christian Church for over two thousand years. The victory of Christ’s Resurrection over death. Here in Whitchurch, it’s still incredibly important for Christian believers, and a chance to demonstrate their faith. Until Covid and the lockdowns, the Good Friday Walk of Witness through the village by hundreds of Christian folk was quite a sight; it’s great to hear that the walk is due to recommence today (Good Friday), so watch out

Easter is a moveable feast every year, based on the lunar calendar. It’s generally accepted as the first Sunday after the full moon after the 21st of March. This year it’s the middle of April and last year it was quite early in late March

A few weeks ago, we looked at the changes between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and all of the upheaval that caused. Easter has always been associated with the Jewish calendar and their Passover festival. And of course, the Jewish year has different months and weeks to the main calendars. No wonder it’s all confusing

There have been calls to fix the date of Easter for many years past, but there seems to be no progress. There is a current proposal to fix Easter as ‘the Sunday after the second Saturday in April’ but this is very controversial still. Apparently, here in the UK there is an Easter Act of 1928 which fixed the date, but this was so controversial that the act was never enacted!

Around the world, Easter customs vary, with sunrise services, midnight vigils, Paschal greetings and the breaking of Easter Eggs (the symbol of an empty tomb)!

Here in Whitchurch, I’m sure that churches and chapels of yesteryear were decorated with spring flowers and candles, after the 40 days of Lent. Today, in all of our local chapels and churches this continues. Of course, it was always traditional that many young couples were married at Easter, and there are reports of Easter baptisms too, in the brook by the Three Elms. Elsewhere, there would probably have been Easter parades, dancing and Easter hat competitions?

Whilst chocolate eggs are a recent introduction, there were many traditional Easter foods consumed. Does anyone have any family stories to share?

As part of the Easter season, AWEN have celebrated with an Easter Egg Hunt for the young children of the village, and this has been held in the Library Park. As part of the post-Covid programme, AWEN have reintroduced the hunt. The photograph below shows the egg-shaped poster advertising this year’s event (thanks to Angela Bird for this). It’s fantastic to report that the hunt attracted our largest turnout yet, with over 100 families and probably over 300 children. So many in fact that the organisers had to send out for extra eggs and cakes. The responses so far have been terrific, with everyone thoroughly enjoying themselves. Well done everyone!

So, whether Easter for you is just a long lie-in, a celebration of Christian life or just an excuse to eat lots of chocolate, enjoy yourself. Hopefully, the weather will do its bit too

Pasg Hapus/Happy Easter everyone!

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