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Easter Traditions

(94 Posts)
Oldwoman70 Fri 19-Apr-19 08:16:18

We are all aware of the tradition of not eating meat on Good Friday, but what other traditions do GNs remember from their childhood - I remember my mother telling me you should never do washing on Good Friday

BradfordLass72 Sat 20-Apr-19 23:01:38

My sister and I were always allowed to eat half an Easter egg for our breakfast on Sunday.

These were quite big eggs in fancy windowed boxes and the eggs themselves always contained even more chocolates in a cellophane bag.

My sister used to take her egg to her bedroom afterwards and eat everything!

My egg lasted a few weeks unless my sister got at it, which she often did.

madmum38 Sat 20-Apr-19 21:28:33

I got told off on Twitter as I was looking at the pictures of the parade in London of “Jesus” with the cross and then on the cross. I put the true meaning of Easter which for me it is, my daughters and son will be going to two services at church tomorrow.
I got told it was all wrong as it scared the children, would have thought some of the stuff they are allowed to watch would be a lot more scary than a man walking with a cross, never did my family any harm knowing the Easter story

Callistemon Sat 20-Apr-19 20:40:47

ps would blue eggs turn purple in cochineal water?

Callistemon Sat 20-Apr-19 20:39:58

as janipat said, Rufus, they were just eggs boiled in water with cochineal or other food colouring, not painted.

Breda Sat 20-Apr-19 18:13:14

No Catholic Mass on Good Friday or early on Holy Saturday. The service on Good Friday is the Adoration of The Cross and generally starts at 3.00pm and can last for up to three hours.

The first Mass of Easter is the Easter Vigil Mass which is held often in the Evening of Holy Saturday around 8.00pm or maybe a little earlier.

As a child we never had meat on any Friday and we had to fast for a minimum of three hours before receiving Holy Communion. Many of these customs were changed after the Second Vatican Council which started in 1962 and ran until 1965. The changes brought about by the council included the liturgy which was changed at that time as were many of the customs that had been observed by Roman Catholics across the world up until the results of the council were made known.

janipat Sat 20-Apr-19 16:36:13

Rufus, I think most just boiled the eggs with either food colouring or something like onion skins in the water, so no extra effort. Haven't ever bothered myself smile

Rufus2 Sat 20-Apr-19 15:53:31

Good Morning from Melb! It's well past time for my "rugged" beauty sleep, but I had to stay up to watch M/c City beat Spurs live on TV. Cheers!
As for eggs; we Mancunians had duck eggs (blue) for brecky, but after reading these posts, it never crossed my innocent mind they could have been painted!

But why on earth would Mam or Dad or anyone else for that matter, waste time like that? confused

grabba Sat 20-Apr-19 11:29:30

No mass on a Good Friday

janipat Sat 20-Apr-19 00:25:25

crazyH I'm Methodist so we don't have quite the same attendance levels !!! or elements to fulfil. Whatever, Happy Easter to you and yours, I hope you have great joy at this very special time of the Church year xxx

crazyH Sat 20-Apr-19 00:07:00

Another queue

crazyH Sat 20-Apr-19 00:06:23

I know what you mean janipat ......a good proportion of the time was taken up with the gospel(long one!!), communion was another (had nearly 300 people) and then another for 'kissing' the crucifix

janipat Fri 19-Apr-19 23:58:12

crazyH that would severely stretch my attention span. A 1 hour service suits me fine. Our Good Friday service is 10.30 am, which I must say I prefer to an afternoon service.

crazyH Fri 19-Apr-19 23:47:52

Went to Good Friday service this afternoon......90 minutes

monkeebeat Fri 19-Apr-19 23:34:55

As a child - Good Friday - the day Jesus is hung on the cross. Felt like a Sunday - kids playing quietly, fish for meal. Hot cross buns.
Easter Sunday - Jesus rises - Easter eggs yeh!!! Boiled eggs with coloured shells for breakfast. Sunday school.
Whit Sunday new shoes/socks.

Longdistancegrnny Fri 19-Apr-19 22:24:04

I remember ‘fasting and abstinence’ on Good Friday -basically less food than normal and fish - being brought up RC we never ate meat on Fridays. Also an interminably long church service on Good Friday afternoon, may have been about 3 hours, I don’t remember ever questioning it. Coloured boiled eggs for breakfast on Easter Sunday, and cornflake crispy cakes made into nests with little eggs and fluffy yellow chicks at teatime. My niece who lives in Bermuda has just told me that it is traditional to eat fish cakes in hot cross buns there on Good Friday!

1inamillion Fri 19-Apr-19 21:55:56

BlueBelle ?

BlueBelle Fri 19-Apr-19 20:58:55

Linamillie it’s our town post office not the spar one
We only ever had new clothes when they were needed none of this Whit or Easter new outfits I wonder if this was appertaining to the part of the country you lived in I never heard of it round here Also the only people I ever heard of not eating meat on a Fridays were Catholic’s and I never did understand why a Friday (not Good Friday) is different to a Monday

Blondiescot Fri 19-Apr-19 20:20:37

Not eating meat on Good Friday? I never even knew that was a thing...guess that's what comes from being brought up a heathen

phantom12 Fri 19-Apr-19 19:36:23

I remember my Gran saying that if you put washing out on Good Friday that the devil would wee on it!

NanaSuzy Fri 19-Apr-19 18:49:45

Nanah67 In our Town in the 50s and 60s the new clothes were for the Whit Monday parades. Sad that it's all gone now.

Nanah67 Fri 19-Apr-19 18:39:17

Forgot to mention we always got a new outfit. A dress hat and gloves also sandals. Did not matter if it was warm or cold. They were Sunday best for the rest of the summer.

Bellanonna Fri 19-Apr-19 18:33:11

Have always eaten fish on good Friday. We still do. In earlier years we went to Stations of the Cross. As a young person everything was very sombre. No shops. No entertainment. Always had hot x buns usually home made. One Easter egg on Sunday. Eggs boiled in cochineal for Easter Sunday breakfast after return from church.

Grannybags Fri 19-Apr-19 18:27:44

Hot cross Buns and fish on Friday. Egg (just the one) on Sunday.

phoenix Fri 19-Apr-19 18:26:41

janipat I am an advocate of eating more venison!

Deer have no natural predators, and do serious damage to woodlands, as they eat saplings, thus depleting natural woodlands.

The meat is low cholesterol, and could make a healthy option for carnivores!

pydora Fri 19-Apr-19 18:17:30

I remember growing up in the 60's, DM would always get up early and bake home made hot cross bums for breakfast - warm and running with butter smile
Haddock for lunch - no meat allowed. It had to be haddock because the skin bears the thumb print of Jesus where he held the fishes on feeding the 5000 with fishes and loaves - so I was always led to believe.

And definitely no Easter eggs before Easter Sunday....