How and when do you celebrate Easter?

[Sandwichlunch]

As a child, I was given a chocolate egg from each set of grandparents and my parents and we ate hot cross buns and toasted teacakes at some point but I don't remember anything more specific and also I don't know if this is supposed to take place on Easter Friday, Sunday or Monday.

Have a baby daughter who has received a few Easter gifts - a cuddly lamb, a new outfit and some books, and I don't know a) whether to wrap them b) when to give her them and c) how to celebrate in general! Doesn't matter this year as she won't know what's going on, but was wondering what other people do for the years to come!

TIA!

That's very interesting sequin I didn't know that about the tomb/eggs. I must tell that to our dc in the morning. They would enjoy that.
Many years since I went to church on Good Friday so I forgot that is wasn't mass.

Nothing apart from a few chocolate eggs in a hunt. Ideally we'd be skiing, always were away as children.

Good Friday, church children's activities, hot cross buns and service if able.

Holy Saturday (yeah, I only found that out recently) normal day, though we used to do chocolate sometimes.

Easter Sunday, church, church Easter egg hunt. Greeting people with Christ is risen, he is risen indeed. When younger did dawn service a couple of times. I am really shit at getting up early though.

The kids get Easter eggs on Easter Sunday but apart from that we don't really do anything.
I remember going to Sunday school when I was little though

I still decorate the house, have an Easter tree, bake, have hot cross buns.
When the kids were young it would be lots of crafts, big easter egg hunt in the garden with their friends, lamb for lunch.
Nothing christian, bit of a gruesome story, so jesus would have no mention.

Catholic here.

Today fasting and abstinence. So no meat, less food in general, and church service this afternoon.

Easter Saturday hot cross buns for breakfast. Easter vigil service at night (which means no need for church on Sunday). It's full of candles and quite exciting - but long for a child to sit through.

Easter Sunday hot cross buns for breakfast. Easter egg hunt for the kids in the garden. Followed by the most delicious Shri Lankan curry (family tradition). Normally we'd have a massive family gathering too.

If I wasn't religious and didn't have a curry it would be hot cross buns all weekend, with roast lamb on Sunday and no church.

I eat an easter egg or two at some point over the week and enjoy the long weekend off work. I literally never knew people did anything particularly special for it before mumsnet! Maybe I should take some notes for when my LO gets old enough to notice!

When I was a kid shadier I had no idea that most people didn't go to church Thursday, Friday, Saturday at Easter!

Tbh it was a real chore when I was little and my DM wouldn't even allow us to watch TV on Good Friday (except the year of the Good Friday Agreement- we watched that). Good Friday was a sombre day and you had to find ways to occupy yourself whilst everyone was a bit snappy from being hungry. And that would be the day my mum would cook a delicious curry ready for Sunday .

Now I'm older I'd give my right arm to be in church services with a full congregation. Even my children who used to moan about going to church feel the same now.

We don’t do anything special until Easter Sunday, but the house will be decorated.

On the day itself, the children will hunt the house (and garden if it’s nice) for small eggs. Big eggs are set up in the living room with a small gift each.

We go for a lovely long walk in the countryside and then have a roast lamb. I also make a mini egg cheesecake which is good fun to decorate.

We’ll likely do a few Easter crafts too.

I have very fond memories of Easter; it’s always sunny when I think back! X x

I used to hate the Good Friday service when I was little. The bit where everyone has to go up and kiss the crucifix - I was like eeeew even as a small person at the thought of picking up some horrible germs from the person in the queue in front of me.

We didn’t do any Saturday night vigil in my day, no memory of that at all.

I lapsed when I was 18, but I still spend Good Friday thinking I have to be somewhere important at 3pm (church).

On Palm Sunday we go to church where there is a parade while the children wave palm branches. We also make some Easter decorations e.g. painted eggs, little crosses made of twigs.

On Maundy Thursday the adults go to the evening communion service. With the children we make flatbreads out of yoghurt and flour (the children like doing this), and talk about the last supper.

On Good Friday we make hot cross buns and easter crosses out of sticks and hang them on windows or the front door. There is a children's service at church (online this year) and fish for dinner.

Easter Saturday, there is an Easter trail outside our church to walk around. The children make chocolate nests and I make a Simnel cake and bake/cook like a mad thing ready for...

Easter Sunday. Church in the morning, then relatives come over (only in the garden this year) and we do an Easter egg hunt and have a roast meal. Usually lamb.

We are Christians so make a big thing of Easter. But we have lots of non-Christian friends whose children love to join in with all the activities (and parents love it too), as it's just nice to have a Spring celebration and some traditions that you do every year regardless of faith.

Catholic here - today I'm going to DMs (in our bubble) with the DC to do Easter crafts (mainly because the electrician is coming and the DC need to be out of the house), will only eat boring food, and DM might stream a Good Friday service from Italian tv.

Easter Sunday we are having an Easter Egg hunt and lunch in DMs garden. DH might go to Mass but he might have left it to late to pre-book.

I miss normal church with hymns, and childrens litrugy, and tea and biscuits afterwards. Even DS1 misses the tea and biscuits bit!

Today we're having fish and chips for lunch, seeing some of my side of the family in the garden tomorrow and then on Sunday we are having SIL, BIL & their 3 kids round for a (takeaway) lunch and Easter egg hunt.

We give the kids an Easter egg & a gift (usually clothes or small toy - nothing overly expensive)

DD is 15 months so she's getting a book about a bunny, a small cuddly chick, a chocolate rabbit & new dress for Sunday.

They also have chocolate buttons & jelly babies in their refillable eggs for the Easter egg hunt.

We just eat hot cross buns in the general time frame of Easter and then have Easter eggs on the day.

My son is 14 months old, so we got him a little Milkybar egg- and some family members got him some eggs and other gifts. To be honest I was surprised because we’re atheists so Easter is just about spring and chocolate for us. I wasn’t really expecting the extended family to get anything for him but I think they just like having a baby to spoil.

Of course now he has way too much chocolate for a baby so I’ll probably be rationing it out to him for months!

We don't really celebrate easter. Just eat easter eggs on Sunday.

We used to do Fish Friday when DH was alive (not religious but his dad was Catholic so he grew up doing it). DS refuses to have fish on Good Friday now because it makes him miss DH more (strangely all of his grief triggers are about food).

Easter eggs on Sunday, then go to my mum's for a roast. Always used to be lamb but again DS won't eat lamb any more. Will probably have beef.

Actually thinking about it most of his little peccadilloes are related to our usual Easter traditions, which is strange - DH loved Christmas but Easter was just his excuse to eat leg of lamb.

We are Christians so make a big thing of Easter. But we have lots of non-Christian friends whose children love to join in with all the activities (and parents love it too), as it's just nice to have a Spring celebration and some traditions that you do every year regardless of faith.

Exactly.
Easter should be inclusive, regardless of faith ( or none).
A pre christian festival anyway, no-one "owns" easter.
Christians have their spin, it's meaningful for pagans, athesits enjoy it.
It has christian, pre christian secular and cultura aspects.
Festivals like these, and christmas are for all to celebrate ( or not) as we see fit.

No eggs here as me and DC have a chocolate allergy! When younger, DC used to have clothes or xbox games instead from family, but now they are over 18 they get booze the same as me! I'll take a bottle of gin over a bit of chocolate any day, especially if it will save my life

Christian here. On Good Friday we have a church service in the morning and then in the afternoon there would normally be a walk up a local hill where there would be a 3PM outdoor service. Quite a few churches in the area joined together for that one in non-covid years.

Easter Sunday - big celebratory church service. Roast dinner with the family and of course, eating chocolate eggs!

Decorations: we have an easter tree set up - blossom branches in a jar with painted eggs hanging from them. Some people make easter gardens - stones for the tomb, flowers for new life.

Nothing until Sunday,
We have toasted hot crossed buns for breakfast, DS (he’s 3) has a small Easter egg, we do a little treasure/egg hunt, play in the garden or maybe go for a walk, have a roast dinner (this year we’re having gammon as it’s dh and ds favourite) and that’s it. But we’re atheists, I just like to celebrate spring and have a nice day as a family more than the religious reason behind Easter.

I used to do the eater egg thing when DC were little but now they’re adults, and none of us really like chocolate, we don’t do anything. We’re not religious so it’s really just a normal weekend for us, although longer than normal.

We don’t do anything special at all other than organise an egg hunt for the kids in the garden on the Sunday morning.
We don’t have roasts because nobody likes them apart from me. I buy hot cross buns all year round.

We celebrate from Good Friday until Easter Sunday.

Usually family gatherings open air church service Good Friday then Fish and chip supper and family egg hunt, then Easter Sunday the kids get their Easter baskets, we go to church then a big Christmas style dinner with all our family.

We have always had a big Easter though, we were always told Easter is more important than Christmas and our celebrations reflect this.

Sunday roast and Easter presents for my dd on Easter Sunday other than that not a lot really!!

We aren’t religious, but I love Easter - 4 days off to spend with family without the pressure, stress and expense of Christmas. Like a PP said, Easter is always sunny in my mind (and so I’m generally a bit disappointed when it’s not ) and I see it as a celebration of spring.

I’ve put up Easter egg fairy lights and have a few bunches of daffs. We usually do fish and chips on good Friday. I’ve given DD some Easter craft things and we will make some bunny shaped cookies today. Saturday is usually spent getting the garden ready for summer, with a nice walk. Easter Sunday is egg day with an egg hunt in the garden and roast lamb for lunch. Monday is just a lovely bonus day off work.