Easter Escapades

Happy Easter fiends,

What’s been happening: my special girl, Moja, came to stay – she had a great time, not sure she was thrilled by our early and very chilly walks so, I made sure she was very cosy and had naps. She’s a little bit older than me!

And mum’s Godchildren (my Dogchildren!): Thomas 9 and Isobel 6 came to Ilfracombe for their Easter holidays. Small people have so much energy luckily, there’s loads to do around and about. And I went to a very special fancy dress Birthday party!

So, what about Easter – it’s the most important festival in the Christian calendar. It celebrates the resurrection, or rising from the dead, of Jesus, three days after he was crucified. The Easter story is at the heart of Christianity. If you don’t know about it from school, Messy Church or Sunday School and would like to read more you can here. Although some of the story may seem a little scary and sad it has an uplifting ending.

We do lots of things at Easter apart from going to Church, and most things seems to involve food and sweets. Lot’s would say we need to replace those with fruits instead. That’s not a bad idea as, they are just as colourful. And the mums and dads could have cherryade instead of sherry.

The Easter weekend starts on Good Friday (we think it was called God’s Friday first of all) when there are Hot Cross Buns – these are those current buns marked with a white cross (representing the cross on which Jesus died), these are best toasted. And many families have fish for the evening meal – I’m not sure why, though Jesus often talked about ‘fishers of men’ to his special followers; the disciples.

Exchanging and eating chocolate Easter eggs is very popular, no chocolate for dogs it’s not good for us. In the olden day’s the mums used to get real eggs. They were hard-boiled and painted with really bright colours and patterns (that’s the eggs not the mum’s). The bright colours are about new life, spring and light.

Nowadays, people give each other Easter eggs hollow and filled with sweets. And children hunt for Easter eggs hidden by the Easter bunny (mum or dad really). We think the Easter bunny or hare was a German idea that hopped over here. You can have an Easter egg hunt at home or some visitor places have big family hunts ….. not sure about those as,  think you must pay and then there’s the parking and Crudburys (think that’s what they’re called!?!) completely forgot, yes; forgot to put the word ‘Easter’ on all of their posters and adverts…. hmm too much sherry at lunchtime I expect.

There’s tons of other Easter things like: Simnel cake to eat, Morris Dancing to watch; that’s the one where the men dress up in costumes with hats, hankies and ribbons and bells around their ankles and they dance in random places; like outside pubs – which is handy as, all that dancing can make you very thirsty. When I see Morris Dancing I always hope that their mums have washed those hankies they twirl about or it could be tricky!

So, that leaves Easter Monday as the perfect time for quiet and peaceful reflection.

Until next time

Rx