Happy Easter!

Ah well, I do switch to Radio 4 for part of the weekend (Question Time, Any Answers, Desert Island Discs and - for my sins - the Archers Omnibus). The rest of the time it's Radio 2 all the way in this house.

(or afficionados)

Ooh, someone else who listens to Radio 2!
So many on here seem to be R4 addicts...

Happy Oestre, bags!

I love the old Easter traditions and can't wait for the DGSs to be old enough to help colour eggs, etc. I'm an old traditionalist, and I have to say it grated on me yesterday when the Radio 2 presenters kept wishing us all a Happy Good Friday.

Always fish on Good Friday and we were not a religious family, and we always had a new cotton frock, new Clarks crepe soled sandals and a home knitted cardigan to match the frock. Was it warmer then!!!
Easter Eggs on Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter

Have coloured a few eggs (boiled them wrapped in onion skins with leaves to create a fossil look! Also coloured some with food dye and then rubbed with oil for shine) Will have those for breakfast tomorrow with date rings. All symbolising 'new life' for spring /Easter. A simnel cake and some m'amoul are also done for later in the day! Easter was pretty much an equal festival in our household when I was a child..a mix of a mum from the North East and a dad from the Middle East!

No idea, nfk! All I know is that that's where the name Easter comes from and I prefer the old pre-Christian form. When I wish people a happy oestre I mean have a nice spring and if you're celebrating anything special, especially that

sorry message got sent as I said DGD was the only child in her class to know why we have hot cross buns . In Scotland when I was a child we always rolled our eggs on Easter Sunday. We used candles to make a decoration then boiled them with onion skins.

DGD aged 5 was the only child in her class to

Just brought some daffodils in from the garden for the table, and they smell marvellous. I planted the bulbs last Autumn, Jack The Lad narcissus, they are double flowered and just gorgeous. if you buy a bunch somewhere they never seem to have a scent.

Well, it seems that most peole have fish on Good Friday, but we never have!It was always fish or cheese pie on Fridays at school........ But in the holidays it never applied in our house.Naughty us.
never had Simnel cake either, but hot cross buns, always.On Easter Sunday it would be any roast dinner, not just lamb. having a turkey crown and a ham this year.

Happy Easter everyone

Fish on Good Friday - as far back as I remember
(And most Fridays)
M&S hot X buns
Lamb tomorrow.
I used to make a simnel cake but newer family members don't like marzipan, so may try making a carrot cake instead.

DM used to make us all coloured soft boiled eggs on Easter Sunday morning for breakfast; she put cochineal in one pan and a different food colouring in another pan.

Happy Easter all.
Dismal weather here detracts from any festive spirit. Better curl up with chocolate, buns and Poldark

Happy Oestre Bags! (Should that have been a couple of weeks ago? Equinox?)

Happy Oestre, everyone.

Tried some Waitrose hot cross buns. Disappointing. Maybe I'll make some at DD's tomorrow.

At one time Hot Cross Buns were only available on Good Friday, and we had to get up early and queue at the BAKERS in order to get our supply, when they were eaten really fresh and hot with oodles of butter. That was the only time hot cross buns were eaten.

Thanks Penstemmon. I have learnt something this Easter !

On a Ramblers' holiday in Spain, I spent Good Friday at a (very comfortable) hotel that was part of the monastery of Guadaloupe. At dinner we overdosed on fish! I seem to remember fish soup; eggs were stuffed with fish; there was salt cod for main course. I never wanted to see salt cod again and I never have. After dinner we went out and watched a statue of the Virgin being paraded round the town, accompanied by a small band which struck up cheerful tunes seemingly randomly, though there may have been some reason behind it. As the procession passed, householders put white lace cloths over their balconies and after it had gone, they took them in again, presumably to be folded up and kept for the next occasion. The madonna paraded was not the 'black madonna' statue which is kept in the monastery under very secure conditions.

Ahh! It ways to dye the eggs! If you put some petals onto an egg, then cover egg in layers of onion skins or tights, next wrap newspaper round the egg & tie with string then boil. When you remove all wrappings you will have an egg with flower petal patterns and the shell coloured by onion skins/tights!

Thanks Penstemmon.I am wondering where the newspapers and tights fit in ?

Pace: hard boiled eggs decorated, jarped: each person has an egg and one holds an egg upright in their fist and the other person tries to crack it with the tip of their egg. The egg that does not crack is the prize egg!

I am always surprised how few people know or carry out what I always considered English /British traditional Easter customs: hot x buns /fish on Good Friday. Decorating eggs on Saturday. Egg (chocolate and boiled) hiding/finding cracking early on Sunday so you have hard boiled eggs for Easter Sunday breakfast with roast lamb for lunch, simnel cake for tea. Only say Happy Easter on Easter Sunday! As a child church fitted in between breakfast and lunch. When we got home from church that is when I would be given a chocolate egg

I also have loads of Middle Eastern Christian Easter food traditions too which I try to continue. This year, because I have been away I have nothing remotely Eastery in my house. Going to be a busy day tomorrow!!

hilda Sounds interesting. Please explain pace and jarped.

Yes, fish on Good Friday. We've had ours at lunchtime. I made pace eggs this morning, I made eight, all wrapped in onion skins and various petals, newspaper and old tights. They look lovely but three cracked. The broken ones we will have for tea today. The others are to be jarped on Easter morning, (a tradition in our house).

We always had fish on Good Friday despite being non-Roman Catholics....and we still do.It is as much a part of the Good Friday tradition as Hot Cross buns.