| If you are a visitor to England at Easter, you | | | | enough to dampen his enthusiasm and drive him |
| would be forgiven for thinking that the English | | | | indoors for a chocolate egg break. |
| people have nothing much in the way of Easter | | | | All the DIY jobs that have been in the planning |
| traditions apart from exchanging chocolate eggs. | | | | stage since Christmas are lined up for the Easter |
| This is because the nature of Easter celebrations | | | | break. For the week preceding the holiday, the |
| is low-key and private; Easter is a time for sober | | | | DIY supply stores will be heaving with customers |
| worship and quiet family gatherings without the | | | | and taking more money than during any other |
| razzmatazz and hectic atmosphere that | | | | week of the year. Then it will all go eerily quiet |
| accompanies Christmas. Even the exchange of | | | | while all the customers adopt a kind of siege |
| Easter greetings cards tends to be confined to | | | | mentality and remain at home while they try to |
| close friends and family. | | | | cram too much work into the long-anticipated |
| After the brief bright interlude of Christmas, we | | | | four day weekend. |
| sink back into our torpor and endure the dull cold | | | | At Easter Morris dancers, who are not in the least |
| winter months until our first spring bank holiday | | | | fashionable except in spring, suddenly find |
| arrives and gives us a reason to come wide | | | | themselves in demand. These troupes of dancers |
| awake. In England we greet Easter with all the | | | | are almost exclusively male, rarely seen outside |
| relief of dusty travellers arriving at an oasis in a | | | | of small villages and are normally associated with |
| desert. Our desert might be grey and damp | | | | a particular public house. Many pubs in England will |
| instead of sun-baked but we find the green oasis | | | | have a darts team or a quiz team but there are |
| with its promise of spring and rebirth equally as | | | | only a few that can boast their own troupe of |
| welcome. | | | | Morris dancers. As with playing darts, the |
| Easter is the most important event in the | | | | availability of beer is an important part of this |
| Christian calendar but in the multicultural society of | | | | hobby. The amazing thing about Morris dancers is |
| England it is appreciated by both Christians and | | | | not that there are so few of them, it is that they |
| non-Christians for the two day Bank holiday it | | | | have survived at all: grown men dressed in silly |
| brings. Unlike the two days our government allows | | | | costumes, skipping around waving handkerchiefs |
| us in which to celebrate Christmas, the Easter | | | | and pigs' bladders to the accompaniment of |
| holidays never bring us a disappointing mid-week | | | | ancient folk tunes have limited appeal to most of |
| break, they always provide us with a four day | | | | modern society as a source of entertainment. |
| weekend. A cause for celebration indeed! | | | | However, they have survived and have spread to |
| Easter arrives quietly, no fanfare, no three month | | | | places as distant as Canada and New Zealand. |
| long advertising campaign like the one preceding | | | | If you want to fully enjoy all the old English Easter |
| Christmas. We aren't urged to eat too much, | | | | traditions, the best place to be is in a quiet village |
| drink to much, party too much, or do anything at | | | | far from any of the big cities. The village church |
| all too much. We are permitted to relax and | | | | will be beautifully decorated with fresh flowers. |
| enjoy family life. There is no pressure to | | | | The village Easter Bunny will hide Easter eggs for |
| overspend on gifts for everyone from our | | | | the local children to find during the traditional |
| nearest and dearest to the neighbour's dog. | | | | Easter egg hunt. The Morris dancers will leap and |
| Compared to the excesses promoted in the | | | | prance at the slightest encouragement. The village |
| name of Christmas, the consumption of chocolate | | | | bakery will offer fragrant hot cross buns warm |
| eggs seems a small indulgence. | | | | from the oven and Simnel cakes with home |
| In England, Easter is the official start of the | | | | made marzipan. Easter Sunday dinner will be roast |
| gardeners' year and also the time when all DIY | | | | lamb with mint sauce and all the traditional |
| enthusiasts, as if driven by some primeval urge, | | | | trimmings. Chocolate will be guilt-free for a whole |
| embark upon ambitious projects. If you are not | | | | weekend. |
| interested in gardening or DIY, you have four | | | | Apart from the weather, which will almost |
| whole days free to enjoy as you wish. | | | | certainly include showers, the experience of |
| Easter is really too early for gardeners to be | | | | Easter in a quiet English village couldn't be more |
| chancing the lives of tender plants but it is hard to | | | | idyllic. It is only in a friendly village at this time of |
| resist the lure of the first real sunny days after | | | | year that you can witness anything approaching a |
| the long grey winter. Amateur gardeners take | | | | return to a more innocent time. There are not |
| bedding plants from the hothouses and thrust | | | | many places I can think of where an adult can |
| them into soil that's far too cold to encourage | | | | dress up in a rabbit costume and hand out |
| growth. The experienced gardeners won't gamble | | | | chocolate to children without having to worry |
| on frost free conditions and content themselves | | | | about getting arrested, and men dressed all in |
| with planting the less decorative but frost-proof | | | | white can skip and wave handkerchiefs at each |
| seed potatoes and onions. Gardening at Easter is | | | | other without attracting the wrong sort of |
| an anxious time because the English weather is | | | | attention. The English village is definitely the place |
| reliably unpredictable and even the most dedicated | | | | to be for Easter. It is also the best place to enjoy |
| gardener is likely to encounter showers heavy | | | | May Day celebrations, but that's another story. |