Discovered at Easter Time...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

There are finally daffodils peering tentatively from their leaves, last Tuesday was Pancake Day (aka Shrove Tuesday...) and it occurs to me that we've never had an Easter Dialj challenge! I think alot of people could do with some brightly-coloured cheer just now, so perhaps it's time for...

There are a few Pros-y stories out there set around Easter, mostly involving Bodie and chocolate easter eggs, if I recall correctly, and in a way that seems strange because Easter's quite a thing over here. Back in Lads-time, the shops would be shut for days on end (well Good Friday and Easter Monday as well as the Sunday, at least) and the kids were all on holiday. There'd be hot cross buns, roast lamb on Easter Sunday, people trying to remind you that it was about church and in 1984 it would only have cost you 14p for a Cadbury's Creme Egg...

What would the lads think of Easter? A time for chocolate and too many shops shut? Or would they have been too busy dealing with Easter tensions amongst the politically active to enjoy a piece of simnel cake or an easter biscuit or two? Which of them ate the last chocolate bunny, remembers their nan wearing an Easter bonnet, refuses to get into the rabbit costume again?

Easter Monday falls on the 25th of April this year, and so whatever Easter means to you - or might have meant to the lads - if you'd like to join in the challenge, please feel free to post stories, drabbles, poems, pictures, vids and creations of all kinds anytime from now until the end of Easter Monday in your time zone (and if you need a quick visit to Pago Pago, in the very last time zone of all, then do feel free... *g*). The trailer to use is on the User Info page - simply cut and paste it to the end of your story/creation, under a cut - and if you'd like a prompt then comment below requesting one, and I'll see what olde Eastere traditione I can find for you to use as a starter... *g* And, as ever, stories etc don't have to be about Easter, simply inspired by the theme.

Comment below if you think you might join in, if you'd like a prompt, or if you've memories of Easter in lads' time that might help inspire others... or just surprise us by posting one day! So - would anyone like to play?

Comments

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Weeeeell,... I'm feeling blessed by the Easter miracle lucky. Prompt, please?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Excellent! How about this old superstition about Good Friday...

Having a hair cut on Good Friday will prevent toothaches the rest of the year.

*g*

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

LOL - then again, I could just wing it...

Actually, I do have a possible plot bunny; I'll see what I can do. :D

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

ah, what a lovely brightly-coloured post, just what I needed.

The thing I don't remember, growing up in Australia, is pancake day. Marking the start of Lent for the religious minded, yes, but I am surprised by how ubiquitous pancakes are here on Shrove Tuesday.

From my Aussie nieces' lack of experience of Easter customs when they visited us last Easter, I think you're right that Easter is more of a thing in the UK. I'll be in Oz for Easter this year, so will continue the cultural comparison, but this also makes it unlikely I will be able to contribute.

Definitely my abiding memory is stocking up on groceries ready for the shops to be shut for four days, apart from the Saturday morning (all-day Saturday opening was unknown in WA at any time of year). And Easter eggs were mostly just foil wrapped, in different sizes and lots of bright colours, without the cardboard packaging.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh how funny - I definitely remember Pancake Day from Australia - I think we were on opposite sides though, so maybe that's got something to do with it...? I actually remember all the Easter things in general then too - egg hunts and church on Sunday (*humpff*) and hot cross buns on the Friday... Then again, neither of my parents were yer actual Australians, and one of them was from the British Isles, so that might have had something to do with it too...

Actually something else I remember people talking about then (I think from then) but not now, was Easter Tuesday - I could swear there was Easter Tuesday when I was little as, well as Easter Monday... And Easter was a separate break from the May holidays, whereas over here it's mucked into the two-week holiday...

We didn't have all day Saturday opening on the eastern side either - I think I remember being surprised that they did in the UK... But then they had half-day closing on another day to make up for it, I guess, and that often caught me out!

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

oh yes, we had Easter Tuesday in WA when I worked for the state government, something to do with days off in lieu for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, so it was a five-day public holiday. We really are starved of public holidays in the UK, how dare the government try to 'transfer' May Day to October - they should add an extra one in October.

I love hot cross buns and always have them on Good Friday - but not before and not after (is strict)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me started on the "transferring" May Day to October - how in the world they can even begin to suggest that, when they pose themselves as the party of "traditions"... Of course May Day isn't a nice, upper clas Christian tradition, and International Worker's Day is positively red, so... Grrrr. If they try it, then I shall encourage everyone I know to stay off sick that day - sick of the Tories! *g*

And yeay hot cross buns! I actually try to be quite strict about them too, though I have realised that if I'm too strict I sometimes miss out altogether (like with mince pies), so I reckon the week before works for me... Plus I can't eat four in a single day anyway... *g*

[3745rule.livejournal.com]

When I was a child we ate fish on Good Friday (we were not Catholics). I also remember that Easter Saturday was not the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday but the following Saturday!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, d'you now that you've said that, I remember fish on Good Friday too - and we weren't Catholics either! Catholics at school did have it on Friday, and that was an accepted thing - but Good Friday was fish for us too!

I don't remember that Easter Saturday thing... mind you, I don't really remember it being called "Easter Saturday" either - there was Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Monday and Tuesday... and the Saturday in between was sort of a normal Saturday - when we had to wait two whole more days for Easter eggs! *g*

[rach74.livejournal.com]

I always imagine Bodie disliking Easter due to being stationed in Ireland and having to face the tensions inherent there at the time. Fascinating idea and wow cream eggs were cheap! LOL

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was wondering about the marches and so on too... I wonder if that would be enough to overcome whatever his thoughts of Easter were as he grew up, though? Do bad experiences when we're older always erase fonder childhood memories of things? Presuming he had them to start with, of course... *g* Sounds like lots of good imaginings to start a fic with though... *vbg*

[rach74.livejournal.com]

I guess it would depend on just how bad adult memories were.And yes does sound like good ideas for a fic! Wish my muse wasn't on a long term holiday!

[merentha13.livejournal.com]

I think I'll play. I seem to work best with a prompt. What have you got? :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh excellent - okay, how about the tradition of... an easter egg hunt!
(http://pics.livejournal.com/byslantedlight/pic/0076ahr1/)