Easter lamb

[purpleheartsandroses]

Why is lamb the go to meat for Easter?

Let's celebrate the new life of spring....by eating it???

I love lamb, it's my favourite meat. But wouldn't mutton be more appropriate? Or chicken so we can celebrate the new life hatching from the eggs?

AIBU to think we should be eating the "old" meat, so we can celebrate the arrival of new life?

It's not equivalent though. Lambs are nearly a year old when they're slaughtered for meat. They're not new born. It's not too much different from the age cow or chicken when killed for their meat.

The religious side of it is it represents Jesus as ‘the lamb of god’ so Christians eat lamb to commemorate Jesus’s sacrifice.
Lamb is also the first fresh meat available in spring after winter marking the start of spring and because the meat is easily available it’s a popular choice

Or maybe not eat dead animal full stop…

Why, if we like the taste so much?

Quite.

Lots of Christians are celebrating Easter. Lots of Jews are celebrating Passover. Lots of people are not celebrating anything other than a holiday and an excuse to eat a lot of chocolate and have a family meal.

A tiny number of people are celebrating a pagan festival or any concept of new life.

Duplicate post due to dodgy signal

Christians believe God WAS Jesus, God in human form. God brought himself to the world die for our sins. The passion of Christ is the frailty of his humanity in conflict with the divine, to show both human and divine exist in God. I'm not a Christian but that's how I was given to understand it.

That sounds cool. I would try it if I saw it. There was one organic meat man at our market but he vanished.

But yeah I've got lamb, half a leg marinaded in red wine with rosemary and garlic stuck in.

I've not complained about anything! 😂

I think I've been pretty clear that I love eating lamb, just find it peculiar that eating lamb is associated with a festival of new life (or spring but I think spring and new life are pretty synonymous).

True. It's almost like all forms of SM are pretty redundant really and just for entertainment and/or communication purposes.

Not a duckling...a full grown 2.7kg duck. A duckling wouldn't feed 5 of us. The duck was delicious 😋

You can eat a lamb today if you want, I just find it an odd choice for a new life/spring/rebirth celebration. I would eat lamb every day if it wasn't so expensive!

As a compromise, how about mutton dressed as lamb? 😃 🐑

But I don't think most people do see it as a festival of spring or new life. That's your spin on it. For those who aren't Christian or Jewish it's not really a festival or celebration of anything particularly.

A 2.7kg (approximately 6 lb) duck is typically a young, prime table bird, usually around 7 to 8 weeks old.

A duckling is generally considered a baby duck from hatching until it is about
6 to 8 weeks old, at which point it grows its full adult feathers and begins to look like a small adult. They are covered in downy fluff when born, begin growing feathers around 3 weeks, and are typically fully feathered by 6 weeks.

You can eat whatever you want, but duckling is arguably a newer life than lamb.

I don’t really understand your argument? Surely if you’re celebrating new life, you’d eat something young and not old?

I loathe lamb, and the smell

No, they don't think about it at all.

It’s traditional.
It’s seasonal.
It’s on offer at Tesco.

I doubt very few people eat it symbolically (except for the Passover).

I’m a Christian and I had beans on toast. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I like lamb. I don't like this trend of having it slow cooked though. And shredded. Lamb should be pink.

I agree. I don't eat meat, (I do eat fish) but will cook anything else for the family. Except lamb. It smells so greasy. Dh cooks lamb chops occasionally and the smell really lingers.

I can assure you that NZ lamb is very much not "inferior rubbish". If British lamb is for sale it will have been in freezers for a while as lambs are born in spring and of course need to grow a bit first.

That's not correct. Fresh British lamb is on sale.

I speak from the perspective of having a Mum who is extremely fussy about a food having spent her formative years of getting it fresh from family with farms. The NZ lamb we get imported has a noticeably more gamey flavour than British lamb.

We got a British leg for lunch today which I have no doubt came from a freezer but it still tastes more delicate than imported lamb. It is all down to what you are used to and what you prefer.

hes talking rubbish

We lamb here from end of November for the Easter demand

No New Zealand Lamb on sale here - its all NI

It's horrifying how detached people are from farming.

We (sheep farmers) sold the last of 2025 April born lambs a few weeks ago direct to slaughter.

We start selling our March/April born lambs in July and carry on all the way through to Feb/March the year after depending on when the lambs reach the correct weight - we have around 800 lambs to sell for meat over 12 months (out of around 1600 - we keep some and sell others for breeding). Other people lamb in Nov/Dec and will hit the Easter Market with younger lambs. The end consumer has no way of knowing what they are buying unless it is specifically marketed as 'new season lamb'.

I would imagine this is what most people eating British lamb will have been eating today unless they have bought frozen lamb. Otherwise it will have been from New Zealand - another country that produces excellent lamb, but it's not British lamb.

British lamb is available all year round in the UK but could be anywhere between 3 - 12 months old. The 'best' time to est British lamb is around August - December as its when the spring born lambs are plentiful and at their prime having spent the summer eating grass, lamb creep and drinking milk.

No one is eating actual baby lambs at Easter. Except from foxes badgers and crows.