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.

As per PP it’s too commercialised now like Christmas. The older generations have passed, traditions changed and lost. This is my feelings anyway. Before my parents passed celebrating Easter was as big as Christmas, with family gatherings lots of food, love and laughter.

Lots of people still do this.

Brian Bilston’s take on it…

As I said this is my feelings 🤷🏻‍♀️

Easter in our house was an event. It was a low key Christmas atmosphere. Hot cross buns on Friday and a big roast lamb dinner on Sunday with family round. My house was the same when my children were all at home. We are not particularly religious but do like a reason to celebrate. It’s very quiet now that the children have all gone their separate ways.

Apart from the shops all being open, Easter is for me much the same as when I was a child (1960s) and when my children were little (1980s). All the usual church services still happen and we always have lamb on Easter Sunday. Much more than Christmas, I think Easter is what you make it.

When I was a child I remember the chocolate in Easter Eggs being a lot thicker. The one I had today, I could have pinched it and it would have broken.

True meaning of Easter 'Go early to get Hot Cross Buns'
Oh the irony You were lucky.
Not being arsey pistacio but I spent my childhood Easter Sundays in Church after fasting from the night before (pre Vatican 2) for those of us old enough to take Communion, in my case 6, then came the Easter egg, note the singular, to break our fast before dad's special breakfast of eggs and champ.
I don't remember having a hot cross bun till I was about 10.
We had no TV to see holy programs, we reenacted bible stories
Tell that to today's kids and they won't believe you
(invoking the 4 Yorkshiremen sketch)

In the 80s for me Easter revolved around the church....confession, stations of the cross, all very dark and sad, day of fasting on Good Friday, long mass on Easter Saturday/Easter Sunday. No chocolate allowed until Easter Sunday.

I far prefer it now... chocolate, egg hunt, celebrating Spring, and a nice dinner and time off work.
I don't love the commercialisation and pressure to do Easter baskets, Easter decor etc so I don't.

I am 40 and my Easter as a kid was largely same as it is for my kids now. We did an egg hunt and some egg rolling, ate some Easter eggs, had some days off school, that was it. We weren’t religious so there was none of the religious stuff for us, I don’t remember anything on TV about it or anything like that, and I don’t think we had a special meal either although we quite often were at my grandparents for the holiday weekend so had a family meal just due to that.

I remember Easter bonnets, chocolate eggs, painting eggs, hot cross buns and a family meal.

My kids easters were pretty similar. There seems to be more organised easter egg hunts now.

It seems a shame that the true meaning of Easter has more or less disappeared,

What’s your church doing for Easter?

Irish Catholic family (but I was brought up in London - 80s/90s). I think the older generation went to Mass, but other than that all Easter meant was that my parents didn’t have to go to work, us kids got an Easter egg and we had ‘bacon & cabbage’ for Sunday lunch <urgh>.

Oh, and some of the Irish community bought paper lillies to pin to their clothes to commemorate the 1916 Easter Uprising.

It wasn’t a particularly big deal, even in a Catholic community.

I grew up in the 70s/80s - I only remember Easter being a fun day when my mum hid eggs around the house and we'd search for them. My mum ate hot cross buns, and I probably did but I wasn't bothered about them. I'm sure she ate them on other days too. Later, when my own children were small, we'd meet for dinner with extended family, after finding eggs left by the Easter Bunny. None of us were religious, it was just a nice weekend when no one was working.

I have 2 very disappointed DC as we were due to go to a local pagan Ostara festival today which is held on easter weekend as an alternative for those of us who prefer the Old Ways. (Yes we know Ostara was earlier but it does encourage visitor numbers). It’s fabulous but Storm Dave had other plans so it’s a duvet day and loads of crisps and movies instead. We might venture somewhere on Tuesday when the hoardes have died down a bit.

I’ve never done any of that. Not religious so probably why. Things change and move on in different ways. People with egg trees and decorations are still celebrating but just in a different way to you.

for me it’s about chocolate and hot cross buns that I eat for a week or so before and after! I like the spring flowers and animals and getting out in some better weather.

you can still eat fish and watch religious TV.

Same. We maybe had Simnel cake as well, or maybe just chocolate eggs.

commercialisation and consumerism is what you make it. I bought a few craft bits and a stuffed Easter bunny for DS because he doesn’t like chocolate. He has a few chocolate eggs from kind friends and neighbours etc which I will eat over the next few weeks. We’d have had a small egg hunt in the garden or in a friend’s garden were it not for the wind and rain. Just celebrate a long weekend however you want.

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.

I can identify with all this ^ except our mother baked our own Hot Cross Buns and we were dragged out of bed at dawn on Easter Sunday for the Daybreak Service.

Where we lived was a big Jewish community and they had their own grocery shop which was, of course, very busy (apart from Easter Saturday) with Gentiles coming in for a loaf or half a pound of butter !
They put whatever you bought in a big paper bag to disguise it as I think it was against some trading laws.

When I was young we never had hot cross buns to celebrate Easter. Instead, we had stupid Easter baskets full of chocolates and sugar crap and new clothes that we went to Easter mass in (I was raised Catholic). It wasn't religious then and it isn't any more religious now.

It's the continuation of the pattern as religions change. Pagan festival gets appropriated by a Christian one. Eventually that gets appropriated by a capitalist one. Nothing is stopping you from continuing with your Christian celebration, just as nothing is now stopping me celebrating my pagan one.

We can all celebrate the renewal of life in our own way and it doesn't hurt anyone.

Easter trees or branches are really nice. Pick something what will flower, ecorate with eggs and they brong spring indoors. I am CE, we used to get various branches.
If you want to have gun with kids, hollow out eggs, get them painted and hanged. It can be quite fun and it's not "commercial bs".

How is going to Mass not "religious" ?? 🤔

Not religious, so didn't do the traditional Easter weekend stuff as a child, nor with my children, but I have fond memories of seeing family and friends, having some sort of get together with games, film nights etc. I vaguely remember hot cross buns being sold from a week or so before Easter. None of this huge pile of chocolate eggs and/or wrapped gifts.

Everything seems so competitive these days, Easter seems to be catching up with Christmas and Halloween. Even the boiled egg competitions at primary school now have huge themes and moving objects if your parents are technical enough. If I were a teacher, I'd be awarding the one that looked like the child made it. Whatever happened to gluing cotton wool onto your egg and sticking it on some green crepe paper.

My childhood Easter in the 80s was nothing like that either. Painting/blowing eggs, making an Easter basket or bonnet in school. Easter eggs. Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday were non-events as we were off school anyway. We often went abroad over the Easter holidays actually, as it was cheaper than summer. Nothing religious. I don’t like hot cross buns much so can’t remember when they sold them!

I'm not religious at all and my parents wouldn't have observed fish on good Friday, church on Sunday etc at Easter, unless we're at grandparents on an occasion they wanted to go. We'd have a hunt for chocolate eggs and a couple of large eggs (usually with a cup, or when Thornton's would personalize them).

The community aspect of church is something I do think society is lacking and the over commercialise nature of absolutely everything is just exhausting. I don't blame small businesses and attractions going along with it to some degree (as long as realistically priced) but it's just so driven by supermarkets. Why does anyone need £30 Easter eggs or 10 different flavours of hot cross buns. I'm so sick of people asking FB where is doing a hunt or meeting the Easter bunny, I know that sounds a bit mean 😂