Easter

Next: Sunday 28 March 2027

Easter Sunday and the days around it: egg rolling, pace-egg plays and bottle kicking.

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The year from Wednesday 7 April

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Folklore from the old calendars

A bidding at the Green Dragon, Carmarthen No longer kept CarmarthenshireA Carmarthen man about to marry on Easter Monday 1802 sent round a handbill inviting friends to a bidding at his house, the Green Dragon in Lammas Street.
A bundle of box for Palm Sunday No longer kept ShropshireDomesday Book records under Shropshire a tenant who paid for half a carucate of land with a bundle of box twigs on Palm Sunday.
A cross bun kept all year Lore and belief EnglandSome people kept one hot cross bun from Good Friday to the next Good Friday as a charm against the many crosses of life, out of piety and fear of disease.
A pennyworth of eggs at Easter in Sebergham No longer kept CumberlandAt Easter every tenant in Sebergham owed the parson a penny, or a pennyworth of eggs, instead of a tithe hen.
Ale for the Passion singers at Reading No longer kept BerkshireAt St Laurence's church in Reading the singers of the Passion on Palm Sunday were rewarded with ale and wine.
An Easter egg, good dame No longer kept Cheshire, Cumberland, WestmorlandIn Cheshire children went round the village begging eggs for their Easter dinner, singing a short song to the farmer's wife that asked for an egg, bacon, cheese, an apple or anything that would make them merry.
Bees moved only on Good Friday No longer kept DevonIn Devon bees were never moved from one place to another except on Good Friday.
Black clothes for Lent No longer kept WalesSome old people in Wales used to wear black clothes all through Lent as a sign of the season.
Black Monday No longer kept EnglandEaster Monday was long known in England as Black Monday.
Bringing in the with before Easter No longer kept LondonIn the week before Easter great shows were made in London by carrying a twisted tree, called a with, into the king's palace and the houses of the nobility and gentry.
Buckles and spurs at Ripon No longer kept YorkshireA Yorkshire clergyman told Brand that on Easter Sunday the young men of the villages took the girls' shoe buckles, and on Easter Monday the young women took the men's shoes and buckles in return.
Cakes from the steeple No longer kept EnglandA Protestant dialogue of 1554, quoted by Brand and Hone, mocked the old Palm Sunday processions, saying hardly one in ten thousand knew what they meant.
Carlings on Carling Sunday Still kept Northern EnglandOn the second Sunday before Easter northern families ate carlings, grey peas soaked overnight and fried in butter.
Changing the baby’s cap on Good Friday Lore and beliefGood Friday and Easter Sunday were both held to be lucky days for changing a young child's cap.
Charlie Marston’s Good Friday potatoes Lore and belief County Durham, YorkshireIn the North Riding it was held impious to disturb the earth on Good Friday with spade, plough or harrow.
Chopping at the tree at University College No longer kept OxfordshireOn Easter Day a mock tree dressed with evergreens and flowers was set up on a turf by the buttery at University College, Oxford.
Clearing the winter hearth on God’s Sunday No longer kept EnglandMedieval sermon books say Easter Day was called in some places God's Sunday, and describe a household custom that went with it.
Clipping the churches No longer kept WarwickshireA Warwickshire correspondent remembered being taken as a child every Easter Monday to watch the charity-school children clip the churches of Birmingham.
Cock eggs on the Solway Still kept CumberlandA Maryport man told Hone that Cumberland families sent each other's children presents of eggs at Easter, and the price of eggs rose for weeks before Good Friday.
Corn-showing at Easter No longer kept HerefordshireAt Easter the country people round Ross went corn-showing: parties went into the wheat to pick out the cockle, taking cake, cider and, as one informant put it, a yard of toasted cheese.
Creeping to the cross at Durham No longer kept County DurhamBefore the Reformation a gold crucifix kept inside the image of Our Lady of Bolton in Durham Abbey was taken out every Good Friday, and everyone in the church crept to it.
Cross buns from the Easter bread Still kept EnglandBrand thought the cross buns sold on Good Friday in his day had come down from the cakes of Easter bread given as presents at Easter in the Greek church.
Dancing for the cake in Westmeath No longer kept LeinsterSir Henry Piers wrote in 1682 that in most parishes of Westmeath, on the patron day and at Easter and Whitsuntide, the country people met in the afternoon on a convenient spot near the alehouse to dance for the cake, with a piper always in attendance.
Dick and Doll’s Easter Monday walk to Islington No longer kept LondonOn Easter Monday afternoon servants who had been kept at home all week walked out to Islington to court.
Double flowers from Palm Sunday sowing Lore and belief GloucestershireMr R.
Dressing the graves at Whitsun in Glamorgan No longer kept GlamorganIn Glamorgan it was an old and general practice to plant the graves with flowers, so that many churchyards looked like rich gardens, and only sweet-scented plants were allowed: pinks, polyanthus, sweet williams, gillyflowers, carnations, mignonette, thyme, hyssop, camomile and rosemary.
Easter eggs for the vicar of Clee No longer kept LincolnshireEvery Easter the parishioners of Clee gave their vicar a quantity of eggs collected round the parish.
Easter football on the Roodee No longer kept CheshireAt Easter the mayor and corporation of Chester and the city's twenty guilds went in procession to the Roodee to play football.
Easter Monday football at White Conduit Fields No longer kept LondonOn Easter Monday the London roughs gathered in great numbers in the fields round White Conduit House, near Islington, to play football.
Easter Monday on the Cave Hill No longer kept UlsterOn Easter Monday several thousand working people of Belfast and the country round went out to the Cave Hill, about three miles from the town.
Eggs and green sauce at Gray’s Inn No longer kept LondonDugdale records that the gentlemen of Gray's Inn who came to breakfast on Easter Day, after the service and communion, were given eggs and green sauce.
Eostre, the goddess who gave Easter its name Lore and belief EnglandBede wrote that the English named Easter after Eostre, a goddess of their heathen forebears whose feasts were kept in April, called Eosturmonath after her.
Fig Sunday at Kimpton No longer kept HertfordshireAt Kempton in Hertfordshire, as the book spells Kimpton, it had long been the custom for the villagers to eat figs on Palm Sunday, which they called Fig Sunday.
Fig-sue on Good Friday No longer kept Northern EnglandMany families across the North of England ate nothing but fig-sue for dinner on Good Friday.
Fives and stool-ball from Easter Eve No longer kept WalesWelsh holiday ball games began on Easter Eve and started again once Easter Day was over.
Flowering Sunday in South Wales Still kept South WalesIn South Wales Palm Sunday was called Flowering Sunday, when people gathered in the churchyards and laid fresh flowers on the graves of their friends and family.
Flowers at the spring on Easter Monday No longer kept Carmarthenshire, GlamorganOn Easter Monday young men and women walked to the nearest important spring, drew water into jugs and threw flowers on the grass, stones and bushes around it.
Flowers in the Easter pew at All Saints, Hereford No longer kept HerefordshireAt Easter the clerk's wife at All Saints church in Hereford dressed the pews of her parishioners with flowers.
Going a-palming No longer kept LondonEarly on Palm Sunday men and boys went out from London to gather willow or sallow branches with their grey, velvety buds, which stood in for palms.
Going a-pudding-pieing No longer kept KentAt Easter young people in Kent went holiday-making to public houses to eat pudding-pies, which they called going a-pudding-pieing.
Good Friday bread Lore and belief EnglandBread baked on Good Friday was kept in the house all year, in the belief that a little of it grated into water would cure almost any illness, and diarrhoea especially.
Greenwich Fair at Easter No longer kept KentEaster Monday and Tuesday were holidays in most London trades, and on the Monday Greenwich Fair began.
Hail be thou our King No longer kept SurreyDives and Pauper, printed in 1496, describes the priest in the Palm Sunday procession drawing up the veil before the rood and falling to the ground with all the people, saying three times Ave Rex Noster, hail be thou our King.
Hand-ball for a tansy cake No longer kept EnglandIn the Easter holidays work stopped and servants were given their liberty, and the favourite pastime was playing at hand-ball for a tansy cake.
Heaved in a ribboned chair at the Talbot No longer kept ShropshireOn Easter Tuesday the maidservants of the Talbot inn at Shrewsbury carried an armchair lined with white and trimmed with ribbons into the breakfast room and asked to heave the guest in it.
Hiring an angel for Palm Sunday No longer kept LondonLondon churchwardens' accounts show parishes paying players for the Palm Sunday procession.
Hot cross buns Still kept England, LondonIn London and all over England, though not in Scotland, Good Friday began with the street cry of hot cross buns, and a plate of them on every breakfast table.
Into the fields to see the sun dance Lore and belief EnglandOrdinary country people rose before the sun on Easter Day and walked out into the fields to see the sun dance, which an old tradition told them it always did that morning.
Jauping paste-eggs Still kept NorthumberlandNewcastle boys spent Easter jauping their dyed paste-eggs, knocking one against another until a shell gave way.
Kissing at the Walter No longer kept UlsterOn Easter Monday several hundred young people from Portaferry and the country round went in their best clothes to a pleasant spot near the town called the Walter.

Folklore from the old calendars

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