| If you are a visitor to England at Easter, you | | | | For the week preceding the holiday, the DIY |
| would be forgiven for thinking that the English | | | | supply stores will be heaving with customers and |
| people have nothing much in the way of Easter | | | | taking more money than during any other week |
| traditions apart from exchanging chocolate eggs. | | | | of the year. Then it will all go eerily quiet while all |
| This is because the nature of Easter celebrations | | | | the customers adopt a kind of siege mentality |
| is low-key and private; Easter is a time for sober | | | | and remain at home while they try to cram too |
| worship and quiet family gatherings without the | | | | much work into the long-anticipated four day |
| razzmatazz and hectic atmosphere that | | | | weekend.At Easter Morris dancers, who are not in |
| accompanies Christmas. Even the exchange of | | | | the least fashionable except in spring, suddenly |
| Easter greetings cards tends to be confined to | | | | find themselves in demand. These troupes of |
| close friends and family.After the brief bright | | | | dancers are almost exclusively male, rarely seen |
| interlude of Christmas, we sink back into our | | | | outside of small villages and are normally |
| torpor and endure the dull cold winter months until | | | | associated with a particular public house. Many |
| our first spring bank holiday arrives and gives us a | | | | pubs in England will have a darts team or a quiz |
| reason to come wide awake. In England we greet | | | | team but there are only a few that can boast |
| Easter with all the relief of dusty travellers arriving | | | | their own troupe of Morris dancers. As with |
| at an oasis in a desert. Our desert might be grey | | | | playing darts, the availability of beer is an |
| and damp instead of sun-baked but we find the | | | | important part of this hobby. The amazing thing |
| green oasis with its promise of spring and rebirth | | | | about Morris dancers is not that there are so few |
| equally as welcome.Easter is the most important | | | | of them, it is that they have survived at all: |
| event in the Christian calendar but in the | | | | grown men dressed in silly costumes, skipping |
| multicultural society of England it is appreciated by | | | | around waving handkerchiefs and pigs' bladders to |
| both Christians and non-Christians for the two day | | | | the accompaniment of ancient folk tunes have |
| Bank holiday it brings. Unlike the two days our | | | | limited appeal to most of modern society as a |
| government allows us in which to celebrate | | | | source of entertainment. However, they have |
| Christmas, the Easter holidays never bring us a | | | | survived and have spread to places as distant as |
| disappointing mid-week break, they always | | | | Canada and New Zealand.If you want to fully |
| provide us with a four day weekend. A cause for | | | | enjoy all the old English Easter traditions, the best |
| celebration indeed!Easter arrives quietly, no | | | | place to be is in a quiet village far from any of |
| fanfare, no three month long advertising campaign | | | | the big cities. The village church will be beautifully |
| like the one preceding Christmas. We aren't urged | | | | decorated with fresh flowers. The village Easter |
| to eat too much, drink to much, party too much, | | | | Bunny will hide Easter eggs for the local children to |
| or do anything at all too much. We are permitted | | | | find during the traditional Easter egg hunt. The |
| to relax and enjoy family life. There is no | | | | Morris dancers will leap and prance at the slightest |
| pressure to overspend on gifts for everyone | | | | encouragement. The village bakery will offer |
| from our nearest and dearest to the neighbour's | | | | fragrant hot cross buns warm from the oven and |
| dog. Compared to the excesses promoted in the | | | | Simnel cakes with home made marzipan. Easter |
| name of Christmas, the consumption of chocolate | | | | Sunday dinner will be roast lamb with mint sauce |
| eggs seems a small indulgence.In England, Easter is | | | | and all the traditional trimmings. Chocolate will be |
| the official start of the gardeners' year and also | | | | guilt-free for a whole weekend.Apart from the |
| the time when all DIY enthusiasts, as if driven by | | | | weather, which will almost certainly include |
| some primeval urge, embark upon ambitious | | | | showers, the experience of Easter in a quiet |
| projects. If you are not interested in gardening or | | | | English village couldn't be more idyllic. It is only in a |
| DIY, you have four whole days free to enjoy as | | | | friendly village at this time of year that you can |
| you wish.Easter is really too early for gardeners | | | | witness anything approaching a return to a more |
| to be chancing the lives of tender plants but it is | | | | innocent time. There are not many places I can |
| hard to resist the lure of the first real sunny days | | | | think of where an adult can dress up in a rabbit |
| after the long grey winter. Amateur gardeners | | | | costume and hand out chocolate to children |
| take bedding plants from the hothouses and | | | | without having to worry about getting arrested, |
| thrust them into soil that's far too cold to | | | | and men dressed all in white can skip and wave |
| encourage growth. The experienced gardeners | | | | handkerchiefs at each other without attracting the |
| won't gamble on frost free conditions and content | | | | wrong sort of attention. The English village is |
| themselves with planting the less decorative but | | | | definitely the place to be for Easter. It is also the |
| frost-proof seed potatoes and onions. Gardening | | | | best place to enjoy May Day celebrations, but |
| at Easter is an anxious time because the English | | | | that's another story.Copyright 2006 Elaine |
| weather is reliably unpredictable and even the | | | | CurrieElaine Currie has a Work At Home Directory |
| most dedicated gardener is likely to encounter | | | | |
| showers heavy enough to dampen his enthusiasm | | | | Full of Ideas, Programme Reviews, Articles, Tips |
| and drive him indoors for a chocolate egg break.All | | | | and Free Resources for everyone who wants to |
| the DIY jobs that have been in the planning stage | | | | work at home. |
| since Christmas are lined up for the Easter break. | | | | |