Thursday 8 April 2010

Easter in the UK


I hope everyone had a lovely Easter, or whatever spring holiday you celebrate.

Easter in the UK is a bit different than the west coast of the USA. There is egg decoration and there are Easter egg hunts for the children. As much as I like hard-boiled eggs, I decided not to casually mug any small children for their spoils. However, I did make a silent vow that if I saw any likely targets (small children whose parents were looking the other way), I might snatch their chocolate bunnies. Are chocolate Easter bunnies universal? They might be.

One thing they don't seem to have here is the big holiday family meal. I'm sure many families do gather for a meal but it doesn't seem to be the focus of the day. So...no ham feast like many of us have in Amerikee. And thus, no opportunity to complain in low tones 'That was not a quality ham!' Anyone familiar with the film Stewart Saves His Family is likey rolling on the floor laughing at this point. Anyone not familiar with the film should see it. It has nothing to do with Easter.

For a fairly secular society, though, the British do seem to take a lot of days off at Easter. First, there's Good Friday, and it seems like a great many people
have this day off (especially bankers as they certainly like to feel they are being crucified lately). The thing to do on Good Friday is to go to the store and buy lots of stuff and generally clog the aisles and make a nuisance of yourself. I say this because we went to the store on Friday in the middle of the day and that seemed to be what everyone else was doing. There were throngs of people. It would almost have been more efficient if we'd all worn our Easter bonnets and paraded through each aisle of the store in an orderly fashion and selected our items for purchase. Two birds with one stone. But they don't do Easter parades here. However, they do like to engage in home improvement projects. My partner informs me that the Easter holiday is a big Do-It-Yourself weekend for homeowners in the UK. I suppose secular Americans would think nothing of doing a project during this holiday; however, even though I would count myself among them, I still do feel an odd twinge at the thought that someone might go into Home Base or the local B&Q on Good Friday and buy some 4X4 timbers and some, oh I don't know, large nails. It would shock my American sensibilities.

Then there's Easter Eve, otherwise known as Saturday. Lot's of sawing and digging and, um, nailing things. Then after that it's Easter Sunday. Church bells ringing across the land (all day, it seemed), and people walking to church. Pretty much the same ones that always go to church. So...no change there I guess. Well, that's that, right? No.

They also have Easter Monday here. I don't know exactly what that's about. I have a suspicion that it has to do with going back to Home Base or B&Q to get all the items you forgot, or get replacements for the items you broke while doing your home improvement project.
We witnessed this on Monday when we went for key supplies for our own home improvement project. The mission? Replacing a component of the toilet: the flapper. I'm proud to say I installed, in three minutes flat mind you, a replacement flapper for the Fluidmaster flapper-type flush valve. Don't ask. But don't you just love the idea that there's a plumbing item called a flapper?


The result of not immediately eating the two chocolate bunnies.


A good start

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