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.

I’m in western Australia - hardly any of that crap here. Shops closed Good Friday and Easter Sunday / Monday. Some eggs in shops and chocolate bunnies. No wreaths or other commercial crap. Hot cross buns are in shops but that’s more sensible imo and should be available around all of Easter not just Good Friday.

Easter now for me is pretty much as you describe how it used to be. Hot cross buns only from yesterday onwards. We made our own at an activity morning at church yesterday.

Today has been a big dog walk and will be some baking later. Tomorrow will be church, roast lamb with in-laws and DC will get a couple of big eggs.

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.?

Just wondering where you're watching this as I looked yesterday and there were no religious programmes listed. I love a biblical epic too.

I sort of agree. It has definitely become over commercialised and it seems like for many people it's pretty much a non event just with loads of cheap chocolate and the shops all still open. If they're happy with that I suppose that's fine, it just seems a shame not to really treat it as a holiday.

We prefer to spend Easter almost like a mini Christmas in terms of celebrating with food, seeing family and otherwise chilling out. I baked hot cross buns with DD2 yesterday, we've bought some party food for today and will be seeing family for a roast dinner tomorrow. Easter Monday will probably be spent pottering in the garden and watching films. We have bought a bag of mini eggs and that's it in terms of chocolate because DDs are usually given an Easter egg by family that we will see tomorrow.

We're not particularly religious though so I can understand people essentially ignoring Easter.....it just seems a shame to miss out on a celebration and excuse to do nothing much! 😁

I think your traditions sound lovely.

For me in the 80’s Easter meant a row of chocolate eggs on the mantelpiece in cool boxes from lots of family members. We could either have half an egg or the sweets inside each day. There were hot cross buns around but I think that was it.

My ex in laws did a huge Easter party for all the kids when they were young in the 2000’s with a disgusting amount of chocolate but nice things like decorating eggs, egg hunt, egg and spoon race, etc.

I think everyone celebrates differently especially if they’re not Christian.

Personally I don’t do anything for Easter other than buy my young adult DC’s an egg each.

I think I agree it’s too commercial but it’s your own celebration of it. I’m not religious. We have a few eggs and that’s it. And are having a roast tomorrow. But I think people should get what they want from it. When I was young it was a weekend of drinking round town with my mates. When dd was younger it was an egg hunt at a national trust. Now we just do whatever (she’s 13). When I was a child I just got way too many Easter eggs. Sometimes it lands on my birthday which is nice. I did hear a woman saying to her child who was begging for a toy ‘is it Christmas, no. Is it your birthday, no. Is it Easter, no. I was wondering when kids got toys at Easter. That said when dd was two I got her a cuddly lamb as didn’t want to buy mounds of chocolate.

I've never heard of Easter trees!

My gran used to buy hot cross buns in huge quantities and freeze them for use through the year. She would be so pleased that they are now available all year round!

But otherwise Easter is much as I remember it - too much chocolate and random extra days off.

I went to The Range this week and was surprised by the amount of decorations, including an Easter tree! Don't know if they've made this up themselves or it's something people actually do now.
As a kid in the 90s we had a few old chicks, cardboard eggs for an egg hunt and maybe a bunch or two of fresh daffodils. Eggs were a couple of pounds, not really made in fancy "adult" flavours and certainly not £15 or £20 for one egg like today.

But I love hot cross buns and Creme Eggs and wish they were available all year 😀

Easter trees are a German tradition... hanging decorated eggs on outdoor plants.

In the modern vernacular, 'you do you'.

Your recollection of Easter sounds nice, and if you want to do that still, there's nothing to stop you. I don't remember much about Easter growing up - other than being off, chocolate eggs (limited) and watching a film or Disney Time (thanks to a PP for reminding me of this). We had a roast every Sunday anyway.

I do have some Easter decorations up, some handmade, some given to us and some bought. The dc will get a normal sized eggs from me, and a little jar of creme egg/mini eggs. They will probably get an egg from relatives. DC1 has had a busy week with a hobby so tomorrow will be a nice rest. Possibly pizza for dinner.

Its only 'horribly commercialised' if you (litterally) buy into that.

I agree with you @PistachioTiramisu

It’s just like Christmas, Halloween and everything else in between!
Its now used as a money making celebration.

my husband has a hot cross bun every morning for breakfast 🤣

Easter for us (since the 1970s) was a modest chocolate egg and that was it, it wasn't something my parents otherwise celebrated so no change for us. So I don't miss anything other than eggs are way over priced and/or poor quality so we don't bother.

Your parents obviously went all out at easter and felt it was a special time. The only person not following through with that tradition is you - I am sure you'll find something religious on TV if you search through the channels and you can still do the rest if you choose too. It doesn't matter what others do, you make your own family traditions on the dates you choose to celebrate.

In the 60s/70s it was a majority Christian country. Now the majority are not Christian.

It’s as simple as that.

Interesting. I recognise the shape of your childhood Easter. In my family the rule was that we had to go to Sunday School all year round, and Easter was no different. We weren't religious and our parents weren't bothered about denomination, so we chose whichever ones our friends went to. Easter eggs were seen as expensive and poor value, so we were given money to choose any sweets or chocolate that weren't egg-shaped. Of course this meant that Easter eggs received from aunts and uncles were especially delicious. Our dad used to mark the occasion by dyeing boiled eggs on Easter Sunday.
Our DC were never sent to church and our modern Easter is very low key and secular.

We are no longer a 'Christian country'. And, no, that's not because of immigration and 'others'. It's because more people, including me, don't believe in any form of deity at all and/or aren't religious full stop.

I went to M&S yesterday for hot cross buns.

been in a couple of shops today & it seems no one wants the cadburys palm oil eggs. Cadburys creme eggs now 25p each (like being back in the old days price wise) but still wouldn’t buy them!

decided to come away this weekend so no lamb roast tomorrow but thats first year in god knows how many years I’ll be skipping it. Switching days though, picnic & walking tomorrow & Roast when back home Monday

social media is full of people talking about following the traditional and having fish & chops yesterday & a roast planned on Sunday.

i think Easter is one holiday that has remained pretty traditional, I suppose that would change without the bank holiday hrs so hope that never happens

I grew up in the 80's and went to a C of E primary school. There was a lot of Easter events in the run up to the holidays. At home we had hot cross buns, a few eggs (no rolling or hunting) and a roast dinner.

We do similar with our kids but they do have an egg hunt. We also go to church. I think you'll always have those people that go all out with decorations for every event and see it as a chance for a bit of family fun. I'm not against that. Just reuse your decorations rather than buying new tat every year.

Your description of the Easter of the past is missing the main thing! You didn’t mention the religious aspect of it. Did you not go to mass? Also on Good Friday there were no shops open where i’m from

“It seems a shame that the true meaning of Easter has more or less disappeared”. You are talking about Christian beliefs. I am not a Christian. I will use the holidays to have fun with my family, rather than celebrating a religious myth.

I went to see my parents on Thursday and will see Gran on Monday. Weekend to myself. That's how it worked out this year. Bought my adult younger brother an Easter egg because I wanted to.

For me, it's just a long weekend tbf. You should celebrate Easter however you like; no one is telling you to eat anything on days you don't like.

It's not just Easter. See also Mother's Day 'weekend', Valentines 'weekend', milestone birthdays, Halloween, baby showers, school proms and of course Christmas. All inflated to try to get you to spend more money.

Your Easter sounds quite similar to mine growing up in the late 70s. We weren’t particularly religious but my DM did like to watch morning service and of course songs of praise over the holidays. Good Friday of course was fish and my GPs would come over to stay - always a treat! There would be all the old movies on the TV, pretty boring as a kid to have to watch. Sunday was a huge roast and if we were lucky a pavlova that DM cooked. Nobody went anywhere apart from walks and drives in the car, certainly not to any shops, there weren’t any open. A couple of Easter eggs and a hot cross bun and that was it, but it was so magical as a kid, and probably because it was a time when all the family were together with no distractions.