Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2018 | Page 41

Notebook
Real eggs - in most cases, chicken
eggs - were hard-boiled and dyed
in various colors and patterns. The
traditionally bright colours represented
spring and light, and mothers and
children would enjoying painting or
dyeing them in preparation for Easter
Sunday. Sadly, nowadays if you gave a
child in Britain a hard-boiled egg on
Easter Sunday, you would probably
end up wearing it!
In an older tradition, real eggs would
be rolled against one another or down
a hill, and the owner of the egg that
stayed uncracked the longest would
be declared the winner. Even today in
the north of England, the custom of
egg rolling is still a popular celebration
of a simpler kind of Easter, with hard-
boiled eggs being enthusiastically
rolled down slopes to see whose egg
goes furthest. Typically everyone
repairs to the local pub to celebrate
the egg rolling champ.
Whether you plan to celebrate Easter
with a chocolate binge, a charming
egg hunt for the kidlets or a bit of
rolling of the hard-boiled variety down
a handy slope, you’ll be doing it rather
earlier this year: Good Friday falls on
March 30 and Easter Sunday on April
1st. Last year Easter fell in the middle
of April.
This quirk of timing is because
Easter traditionally is observed on the
first Sunday after the first full moon
following the first day of spring in the
Northern Hemisphere. Got that? Yes,
it’s complicated! This means that the
festival can occur on any Sunday
between March 22 and April
25. Not only is Easter the
end of the winter, but it
also marks the end of
Lent, traditionally a
time of fasting in the
Christian calendar.
Hence its reputation
as a season of fun and
celebration.
So head on out and
enjoy the silliness of
Easter bonnets and egg-
rolling, painting funny
faces on your breakfast
eggs – and loosening the
belt to take on board a bit of
chocolate!
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