I read in the papers recently that Easter has now become almost as great a non-religious celebration as Christmas, with gifts and cards, crackers, candles and floral wreaths.
Personally, I won’t be celebrating in any way, except inasmuch as today being Easter Sunday has influenced the choice of photos for this blog post.
I suppose most people who do celebrate Easter will have been to church this morning. Apart from the fact that the building is actually in Wales, the top photo shows a fairly typical English country church, while the two señoras in the scene below are probably off to attend a rather more traditional Mass:
Some church bells will have been silenced over Lent, but Easter Sunday would hardly be complete without a peal or two, so first a detail from inside the bell tower at Brecon Cathedral and then some bells that I photographed yesterday.
From yesterday’s photos, first some bluebells, which I suspect are a hybrid of English and Spanish as as the bells are fairly wide and chunky rather than the true skinny English bluebells. (They aren’t pure Spanish, though, as they had white pollen not blue.)
And now what I think are Loddon lilies, apparently also known as summer snowflakes or St Agnes’ flower:
One more floral picture just because this kind of blossom reminds me of frilly Easter bonnets and lacy frocks:
And, finally, for those who prefer a more secular kind of Easter, the best I can do is a baby rabbit from last summer, as I think it’s still a bit early in the year for them to be about:
‘But in English-speaking countries, and in Germany, Easter takes its name from a pagan goddess from Anglo-Saxon England who was described in a book by the eighth-century English monk Bede.
“Eostre was a goddess of spring or renewal and that’s why her feast is attached to the vernal equinox,”‘
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-15/the-origins-of-easter-from-pagan-roots-to-chocolate-eggs/8440134
Rabbits and eggs? New life. Chocolate and cards? Good old commercialism. To the non-Germanic countries, Easter tends to be named after Passover.
So, we remember the first week after the solstice, when Jesus finished his game of hide and seek. Bluebells and Lilies are far more representative these days – imho.
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And Eostre was quite possibly invented by the Venerable Bede.
Personally, whatever the reason for celebrating new life, I think marking the holy day with Easter eggs ties in nicely with the theory that eating chocolate helps boost oestrogen levels.
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