Isn’t the Easter Long Week End Just Perfect?
Easter is brilliant, especially when it falls in April. As a kid you went on a church camp or a Scout or a Guides camp or a family camping trip or to the same holiday house the family went to every year since Federation. You went ‘down to the shack’, ‘over to the island’, ‘up the river’, or ‘to the beach’. You’d made it through a couple of months of school or work after Christmas. It was good to forget about it.
Easter is about sameness.
You had the same food from the same old bowls and tangy cutlery. Same routine too. Meals and snacks all on the same day at the same time as last year: Barbecue Friday, fish and chips Saturday, sandwiches, peaches from a can, just enough of Grandma’s cake and biscuits in those good old cake tins to last till final cuppa on Easter Monday. If you were lucky you dodged washing for four days.
Easter jobs are easy in the right weather too.
If you stayed home you painted the house, re-did the garden, built a cubby, cleaned out the shed, went on a picnic, went to church; if Pesach coincided, you went to a Seder, you went to the pictures or the footy, had friends over, caught up with rellies, played a big game of Monopoly or did your traditional Easter weekend jigsaw. If you were lucky you dodged changing your clothes for four days.
Easter is bliss.
Four days were too short but you still got everything done; the routines though slower all fitted into the days. You got into it and wished Easter would last forever. The days were clear but cooler, the nights were cold and crystal clear under the biggest moon of the year. The girls were prettier, the boys were more appealing, the fun was funnier. It was a reminder of the Christmas holidays, only shorter so you intensified the joy.
Hot cross buns.
And the hot cross buns. Weren’t they bigger back then? Did you know that 100% fat butter was invented purely for the purpose of being laid a 1/4 of an inch thick on hot cross buns? So was blackberry jam.
Why?
I still love the Easter break. I still love to recall that we get it because of its being the perfect reminder of love in the face suffering, forgiveness in the face of humiliation, anticipation of life in the face of death.
Enjoy it. Life is for living. You only get one run at it. Make the most of every wonderful minute.
PS Why not write a comment about your best memories of Easter?
