Easter is approaching, and if you’re looking for something a little bit different to do over the long Bank Holiday weekend, then look no further!
Across the UK, there are a whole host of weird and wonderful Easter customs that you may not be aware of. In this article we take a look at just a few of them. Many of them would make great opportunities to take some unique and interesting photos too.
Read on to find out more . . .
You are probably already familiar with the concept that many children believe their Easter eggs are delivered by the Easter Bunny. The tradition is thought to date back to old German folk stories, in which the legendary rabbit will lay eggs and deliver them to children at Easter if they have been good.
It is worth keeping your ears open to see if there is anywhere local to you that does the Easter Bunny big time. Fans of The Vicar of Dibley will remember the episode where various well-meaning Dibley residents all tried to fill in for the absent regular Easter Bunny, resulting in several Easter bunnies scuttling all around the village. Now that would make a pretty amazing photo opportunity!
As well as Easter eggs, another popular Easter delicacy is hot cross buns. But there is a pub in London for which they are particularly special.
The Widow’s Son pub in Bromley-by-Bow, East London – also known locally as “Bun House” – hosts a Good Friday ceremony that dates back to the early 19th century. The building was originally owned by a widow, who left a hot cross bun outside on Good Friday to welcome home her sailor son for Easter. Sadly, he never made it home, but the widow continued this tradition every year until she died.
The property then became a pub, and the tradition continued. Hot cross buns are stored in a net hanging over the bar, and every Good Friday a member of the Royal Navy is invited to place a bun into the net in memory of the widow and her son.
Various types of dancing have become well-established Easter traditions across the UK. Look out for three in particular:
Dancers dance around a pole to which is attached an array of colourful ribbons. The dancers hold these and create different patterns as they dance. Maypole dancing is often accompanied by live music played by the village band.
Morris dancing is a type of English folk dancing which can often be seen during Easter parades. Morris dancers dress in white, with bells on their trousers and either a stick or handkerchief in their hands. They are traditionally all-male, but there are now also some female groups too. Definitely worth watching – and photographing – if you can find them performing near you.
If you enjoy dancing displays, then you may want to go and watch a very specific type of dance, unique to the village of Bacup, near Lancaster. The dance troupe is called the Britannia Coco-nut Dancers, known locally as “The Nutters”.
The Nutters dress in clogs, a red and white skirt, black trousers and shirts and dance for around 7 miles through the village, drinking a pint of beer in every pub along the way. So if you are in the Lancaster region over Easter, why not go along and experience the Nutters dance!
Dancing is not the only active Easter tradition in the UK. There are various types of rolling that happen, not to mention jarping!
Many places in the UK have some kind of Easter egg rolling activity over the Easter weekend. Of particular note is the Preston Easter egg roll, a 150-year old tradition which takes place on Easter Monday in Avenham and Miller Parks in Preston. As well as eggs being rolled down the hill, there is also live music, street theatre and various workshops for all the family to enjoy.
But it’s not just eggs that get rolled! For example, in Dunstable there is a tradition of rolling oranges. This old tradition involves people rolling oranges down the very steep slopes of Pascombe Pit every Good Friday, and there are still a few locals that make sure the tradition continues.
As well as rolling, there is also jarping. And if you don’t know what jarping is, it’s the tradition of knocking one hard-boiled egg against another to see whose egg cracks first. The World Egg Jarping Championships take place every Easter Monday in Peterlee, County Durham. Who knew?!
A final weird Easter custom you may want to check out is Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking, which takes place every Easter Monday in Hallaton, Leicestershire on Easter Monday.
This event is an annual contest between two local villages : Hallaton and Medbourne. It starts with a large hare pie being made to a secret recipe then blessed at the parish church. It is then cut up and half of it distributed to locals by throwing lumps of pie into the crowd. The rest of the pie is placed into sacks and paraded through the village of Hallaton, followed closely by wooden barrels filled with beer and decorated with ribbons : these are the ‘bottles’. The bottles are then thrown back and forth between the two village teams until a winner is decided, based on the bottles being carried over a specific location to score a goal.
This very detailed and much-loved tradition would be an amazing opportunity for some very unique photos!
We hope that the above information has given you some fresh ideas for a day out with a difference this Easter weekend. And if you do get some fabulous photos, why not get them made into metal prints to display either inside or outside your home, as a lasting memory of your weird and wonderful Easter? Print Your Memory can help you do this easily and quickly : you can find out more here.
Check back here soon for more lifestyle and photography tips from Print Your Memory.
