How has Easter changed so much?

[PistachioTiramisu]

When I was a child (60s/70s) Good Friday was a day when you went early to buy Hot Cross Buns and this was the ONLY day you ate them. Otherwise, all the shops were closed, there were religious programmes on TV and a lot of people ate the traditional fish for dinner. Easter Saturday was a 'fun' day, buying nice food for Sunday. On Easter Sunday you probably were given a chocolate egg or two and had roast lamb for dinner. Again, there were religious programmes on TV. Easter Monday was a day for picnics, etc., but all the shops were still closed.

It seems a shame that the true meaning of Easter has more or less disappeared, having been overtaken by a mountain of chocolate in various shapes and forms, some people having Easter trees with decorations and other themed items. I saw one comment this morning (not on here) stating that 'Easter is for kids', echoing the nonsense that 'Christmas is for kids'. It is not - it's for everyone who wants to mark the event.

So odd! You can do the above if you wish why on earth are you bothered if others do not?

Sounds terrible. I'm glad hot cross buns are not restricted to one day of the year.

You can do all those things if you want though.

It's the horrible over-commercialisation I hate.

I'd have thought because it dilutes the shared community aspect of it.

Rituals and traditions are important to feel part of something larger.

OP, I agree that it's a shame. Especially because the whole trend feels commercially driven.

I am watching Greatest story ever told it has been on for hours, I am not religious but I love a.biblical epic. I mean you can celebrate Easter how you wish but it sounds like you had a child centered Easter as a kid with days out and eggs isn't that the same.?

Late stage capitalism turns everything into a consumer experience.

We never celebrated Easter as kids yes you were off school and got an egg but Easter Sunday was just like any Sunday we had a roast at my gran parents house.

Things change. Before we had Easter festivals there were Spring festivals . If you are Christian you can still celebrate Easter that way if not does it matter what other people do.
Having said that I am in my late 60s and for me growing up Easter was all about chocolate eggs and Disney time on TV. We didn't go to church or watch any religious programmes.
We had hot cross buns over the Easter period and not before though and had fresh fish on good Friday.. There is nothing stopping anyone from doing that still if they want to

We are no longer as religious as a country. And for many it's not a religious event.

i don't really recognise your description of Easter from my own childhood. We were not a religious family. Good Friday was a non event, Easter Sunday was for rolling eggs. And Easter Monday was just a day off.

I remember going to the little bakery near my house to pick up hot cross buns on Good Friday. The shop shut at lunch time so you had to make sure you were up and out to get them before then. Then you’d have them for lunch. We never had them at other times of the year back then (I don’t know if they were actually sold other times of the year when I was a child though). I grew up in the 80’s.

Tbh I don't know anyone who does Easter like that.

I give things up for Lent so Good Friday is a nice day.

We spent yesterday and today tidying and baking (little Easter cakes). Tomorrow we will do an egg hunt and the kids will get those chocolate mini eggs and one "big" chocolate. That is it.

Then Monday we will go to PILs' and have lunch and MIL will usually have made simnel cake or her own hot cross buns.

Then that's it.

That is similar to most families we know, no "mounds" of chocolate or Easter wreaths.

Most people aren't practicing Christians

for me it’s just the chocolate holiday

Oh yes i forgot we did roll eggs, which was fun. My Dc are adults and they also rolled eggs.

So we should all be firced to follow your rituals, even if we arent the same religion?

I dont recognise any of your post from my own childhood. Its was decorating eggs for the school competition, then easter eggs on Sunday. Maybe gkibg to visit my Grandmother as it was the school holidays (6hrs by train, so we went for a few days) and going to church with her as it was important to her)

Easter was days off school, one Easter egg in a mug (I still have my Winnie the Pooh mug, 40+ years on), hot cross buns when you want, roast lamb, James Bond on the TV, as well as El Cid, Ben Hur, Spartacus etc...

Now I'm in Spain and it's a mona cake that you make/give to godchildren, processions for a week with hooded figures, Roman centurions, effigies/floats being carried by shoeless people, drums until 3am. And going to mass.

Except Monday isn't a holiday in Madrid and other parts of the country, although it is here in Catalunya - whoopie!

Oh yes - egg-rolling! Took a hard boiled egg to primary school, painted it, went to the local park that has a hill and rolled them until they broke! Bloody loved that!

Agree but my Easter still looks like that. Good Friday was a stations of the cross service at church followed by a bit of a quiet afternoon. Today is preparing for lunch for 10 tomorrow. Possibly a church service tonight.

Then church tomorrow morning followed by Roast Beef and too much chocolate!

What I hate is that Easter eggs are now mostly cheap crap and so are hot cross buns. I don't want quantity, I want quality.

Regarding Easter trees, these are very popular in Germany, a country where everything still closes on Sundays, most people who are christened also have a confirmation and there is huge social pressure not to do anything that might be regarded as work, so, for example you can't clean the stairs in your apartment block or wash your car on your own drive.

agree

It's 60 years since the 1960s, which is like comparing the world you grew up in to that of 1906, when there were no cars, you'd have been wearing a corset, and unlikely to have electric light in your house.

Things change, the UK is largely secular, and we're in the thick of late stage capitalism. Abundance and consumerism is where it's at, but it doesn't stop you keeping your traditions.

In some countries Easter trees/decorations have been a thing for a long time. I lived in Germany and Austria in the nineties and they were a part of the Easter celebration.

I think it’s better now, what you describe sounds miserable (although to be fair I don’t remember it being that bad when I was growing up in the 70s/80s but we weren’t particularly religious). We used to go to my grandparents for a week (several hundred miles away), decorate and roll eggs, roast dinner, chocolate easter egg. Don’t remember being closed but they lived in the middle of nowhere. I do remember working in a supermarket as an older teen and there being restrictions on alcohol sales and everyone complaining.

I think most people still keep Easter fairly low key, church if you are religious, Easter egg hunt, Easter art for children, a few decorations (we have a wreath and put little wooden eggs on a vase of twigs), roast lamb dinner. Maybe a few Easter eggs but not mounds of them.

When I was a child - I’d get the big chocolate egg I picked out in advance, a surprise smaller egg, surprise craft kit and sometimes a bunny toy or some stationary etc. I remember one year I got a new pair of wellies filled with stationary, sweets, sunglasses etc. Oh the consumerism…!
We’d do an egg hunt in the garden for smaller eggs, a bag of mini eggs, bunny etc.
We had hot cross buns on Easter Sunday for breakfast and roast of some sort (not always lamb) too.
Play outside if the weather was nice etc. If we watched TV it would’ve been CBBC or picking out a film out of our VHS collection.
😁 You just had an extremely religious Easter holiday (perhaps upbringing generally) - what you’re describing certainly wasn’t normal when I was a child.

Like all my friends, Easter was considered a celebration spring has recently started really. And that’s still the case for most people.

I am 40. None of my parents, grandparents or aunties / uncles ever went to church or was religious. We never did anything for Easter as children (apart from eat chocolate!)

My family in Germany who are atheist had an Easter tree but that isn't new.

I wonder if Easter will become less popular as time goes on. Less chocolate and whatnot. More focus on Spring 💐☀️

Who knows ☺️

I remember hot cross buns and the odd Easter egg but nothing particularly special about it. It is made more of now but in a commercial way. I don’t remember lamb being special for example. Lamb used to be affordable and we often had a lamb roast when in season. Can’t really afford lamb and I have a good income.