Just as many of our Christmas customs and observations are pagan in origin, so too is Easter a festival with many customs from pre-Christian times, some of which, as with Christmas, have been taken over and ‘Christianised’.

 

LENT

       

The word Lent derives from a Middle English word meaning springtime and for Christians commemorates Christ’s forty days in the wilderness.

 

FORTY DAYS

 

Before the introduction of Ash Wednesday in the 10th century, Lent began with the First Sunday and continued until Maundy Thursday, a period of exactly 40 days. From Ash Wednesday through to Holy Saturday is 46 days but if Sundays – as Sunday is the Day of Resurrection – are discounted we return to a figure of 40 (hence the concept of an Irish Lent!).

 

SHROVE TUESDAY

 

Known also as Mardi Gras (‘Fat Tuesday’) or Carnival (from the Latin for laying aside meat) this is the final day before the start of Lent. In earlier times the Lenten fast was taken very seriously and the consumption of fats, butter and eggs was forbidden. The custom arose of using up any remaining on the day prior to Ash Wednesday by making pancakes.

 

The day is still marked in this country by the Pancake Race which has been held at Olney in Buckinghamshire since 1445 and is supposed to have started when a woman in a hurry to reach the church to confess or shrive forgot to leave behind her frying pan!

 

ASH WEDNESDAY

 

The official start since the 10th century of the ‘forty day’ Lenten fast, marked by the tracing of a cross with ashes on the forehead, a remembrance of the biblical “sackcloth and ashes” worn as a sign of mourning and penance. The ashes also symbolise  death and thus remind us that we will one day die and of the need for repentance: “Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return”. The ashes are made by burning the palm branches used the previous year on Palm Sunday – we rejoice at Christ’s coming to redeem us but also repent that our sins make that redemption necessary.

 

MOTHERING SUNDAY

 

This has its origins in both the ancient spring festival dedicated to mother goddesses and in scriptural references to Jerusalem as ‘mother of us all’.

The pagan festival was adapted by the early Church to honour Mary and, as the church grew and people began to live at a distance from the cathedral church, the custom arose of returning to the ‘home’ or ‘mother’ church once each year. This naturally became an occasion for family reunions and also led to the custom in the days when many people worked ‘in service’ of allowing servants a day off to visit their mother and family.. Nowadays children give presents, flowers and so on to their mothers to mark the day. In more recent times Mothering Sunday has become conflated with the American Mother’s Day which began in 1908 and is celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

 

HOT CROSS BUNS

 

The origin of these is probably pagan – the cakes eaten in honour of the goddess Eostre. In Christian times a cross was added to give them a Christian significance and they are now associated mainly with Good Friday.

 

EASTER

 

The word Easter itself comes from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn and spring, Eostre. Many customs associated with Easter have therefore to do with birth, good fortune and fertility. For pagans it marked the end of winter and a return to longer days, for Christians it marks the end of Lent and the resurrection of Christ.

 

DATE OF EASTER

 

This is determined by rather complex rules dating back to the First Council of Nicaea in AD325. These rules state that Easter Day in any year falls on the Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox on 21st March.

 

SIMNEL CAKES

 

These Easter cakes were originally given by girls in service when they visited their mothers each year on Mothering Sunday. The name comes from the Latin simila which was a fine wheaten flour and the cakes are usually decorated with eleven marzipan balls representing the disciples (but excluding the traitor Judas).

 

EASTER EGGS

 

Eggs have been a symbol of new life in springtime from pre-Christian times. Before chocolate eggs were introduced, real eggs were decorated with coloured paints. The custom of rolling hard-boiled eggs down slopes still persists in the north of England and elsewhere children hunt for eggs hidden around the garden.

 

THE EASTER BUNNY

 

A hare rather than a rabbit, since it symbolised the goddess Eostre. The former custom of hare hunting at Easter derives from this.