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Easter games England it became the custom for parishes to divide themselves into two opposed groups at this season of the year, which usually coincided with Shrove Tuesday, to engage in 'rough and tumbles', such as those at Ashbourne, AInwick, Cliester-le-Street, Dorking and Yetholm in Roxburgh shire, to mention but few of the forty-two towns or districts in which they have been recorded, and in which they have survived to within recent memory. So seriously was the event taken in 1928 at Ashbourne that the Duke of Windsor, who was then Prince of Wales, started the match by throwing up the ball, and in Wales in the parish of Lampeter the combatants assembled in church before the contest, which incidentally took place there on Christmas Day rather than on Shrove Tuesday. So highly esteemed was victory Scotland that a Bro of the Highlands or a Blaenau of the Lowlands would as soon lose a cow from his cow-house as the football from his portion of the parish. These pastimes may be gleaned from an Easter verse in Poor Robin's Almanac for 1740: Similarly, contests with eggs, symbols of new life and resurrection, have been common on Easter Day. The game consists in a hard-boiled egg being held by one player and struck at by the other, like the chestnuts in the autumn game 'conkers'. The egg that first breaks is won by the striker, and this process is repeated till all the eggs have been disposed Brightly colored eggs decorated in yellow, red or gilt, and other tints artistically blended in an elaborate pattern or with furze or broom flowers, are rolled down hills by children in Switzerland and in the north of England until they are broken, and then eaten. On Easter Eve boys and men in Lancashire used to tour the towns and villages as 'Pace-eggers' begging for eggs and performing the St. George Mummers' play, or the Pace-Egg (i.e.Pasch play) version of it, transferred from the Christmas Festival, with the same characters and words except for local peculiarities, to obtain money for those taking part. The custom declined at the end of the last century but survived until recently in the Lake District and at Blackburn. Disguises were a feature of the play, and a female called Old Miser Brown Bags, played by a boy, was sometimes introduced. Source: Seasonal Feasts and Festivals by E. 0. James. New York: Bames & Noble, 1961, pp.300, 305. Egg rolling Egg rolling is most popular in northern Britain. Hard-boiled eggs are rolled down a hill. Customs differ; the winner's egg may be the one that rolls the farthest, survives the most rolls, or is rolled between two pegs. In several places egg rolling is an Easter Monday sport. Popular egg rollings take place at Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, at the castle moat at Penrith, Cumbria, Bunker's Hill, Derby, and Avenham Park in Preston, Lancashire. Natural dyes Eggs may be dyed with onion skins (golden brown), furze blossom (yellow), pasqueflower (bright green), cochineal (red), or with a colored cloth. Pace egging Paste (Pasche-Easter) or Pace Egging was once popular in northern England and Scotland. As late as World War II the customs survived in parts of Cheshire. Young men would tour, chanting and performing a Pace-Egg Play, a variation of a mumming play. They would be given money and drinks. Children would tour for eggs. A Cheshire chant follows: Source: Customs and Ceremonies of Great Britain by
Charles Kightly. London: Thames and Hudson, 1986, pp. l0~l07.
Hot cross buns on Good Friday Good Friday. Called in the early Church The Pasch of the Cross. On this day all penitents were absolved, and it was kept throughout Europe as a day of fasting and mourning, "the day that the Bridegroom is taken from them," for this is the anniversary of the Crucifixion. It was originally called "Good" to distinguish it from other Fridays, whose luck would be notoriously bad; but this idea has been much obscured, and most people regard Good Friday as a day of very ill-omen. So the bread baked on Good Friday would
be marked by cautious housewives with a cross, "to keep away the Devil,"
and there is a lingering superstition that a hot-cross bun hung up in a
house will ensure against ill-luck till Good Friday comes again.
In some farmhouses the Good Friday cake hung on the rack till next Good Friday, and a little was supposed to be beneficial to sick cows. To preserve friendship, two friends broke a bun within the church doors, and if they kept the halves they could preserve their friendship. On Good Friday, herb pudding was eaten
formerly, in which leaves of the Passion dock appear as an essential element.
It was the day for the annual meeting of the witches.
Source: Festivals, Holy Days, and Saints' Days by Ethel L.Urlin. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent. Reprint. Detroit: Gale Research, 1979, pp. 62, 63. Watching the sun dance on Easter morning Another custom inspired by religion was that of rising before dawn on Easter Day and climbing a hill to see the rising sun dance in the sky in joy at the Resurrection; this was quite commonly done in Shropshire and Herefordshire in the nineteenth century, but has now died out. In other districts, for instance round Clyro in Kilvert's time, it was held that one must look at the sun reflected in a pool, in order 'to see the sun dance and play in the water, and the angels who were at the Resurrection playing backwards and forwards before the sun.' This method is certainly to be preferred; the quivering surface of the water would favor one's chances of observing an effect of 'dancing' in the reflection, and furthermore there is no risk of damage to the eyes. Washing and baking on Good Friday As our Blessed Lord was carrying His Cross on the way to His Crucifixion, a woman who bad been washing came out of her house and threw her dirty water over the Savior; another woman who was standing near with some freshly baked bread said to her "Why do you treat that poor man like that, never did you any harm?" And she gave Our Blessed Lord a loaf which He ate, and said 'From henceforth blessed be the baker and cursed be the washer.' Hot Cross Buns in particular were baked on Good Friday and each marked with a cross. Some would be kept all year for luck. They could also serve as medicine when crumbled and mixed with water. They cured intestinal disorders in men and animals. Good Friday bread would never mold. Pace egging and egg rolling on Easter Monday A later generation of Cheshire children, in the Wirral between the two wars, used to go round on Easter Monday collecting pennies, but their verse still alluded to eggs: Egg rolling could also take place on Easter Monday instead of on Easter Sunday. Sometimes pegs were placed at the foot hill and the colored hard-boiled eggs had to pass between without smashing. Source: The Folklore of the Welsh Border by Jacqueline
Symposia, Toot, New Jersey, 1976, pp. 144, 146.
Hunting the Easter Hare The custom of eating the Easter hare is classed by Mr. Elation among those ceremonies which bear most openly the marks of their original paganism. It is best known in Pomeranian, where hares are caught at Easter-tide to provide a public meal. In Other parts of Germany there are traces of a similar tradition. Thus the children in South Germany are told that a hare lays the Paste eggs, and a nest is made for the hare to lay them in; and it is customary in many parts of the country "to place a figure hare among the Easter eggs, when given as a present, either a hare in a basket of eggs, or a small figure of a hare in one fancy eggs." The same object is common on Easter cards. In England there are a few indications of the same kin would appear", writes Mr. James Briton, "that the hare at one time in some way associated with Easter observance in the country"; and he quotes an entry from the Calendar of Papers (Domestic Series), which is as follows: At Cole shill, in Warwickshire, if the young men of parish can catch a hare, and bring it to the parson before 10 o'clock on Easter Monday, the parson is bound to give them a calf's head and a hundred of eggs for their breakfast, and a grout in money. But the most complete instances of
Easter-hare ritual surviving in this country are furnished by two striking
customs, both of which were once observed on Easter Monday in the county
of and one of which is still celebrated.
 Egg rolling
Source: lore and Language of Schoolchildren by Peter and lona Opie. Oxford, 1959, p.253. Easter foods . . . Easter was the occasion of yet another ceremonial meal, when veal or young lamb was eaten. In certain areas a young kid was cooked on this day, and the eating of gaily decorated Easter eggs is an old tradition which may be of pagan origin. Source: Lije &
Tradition in Rural Ireland by Timothy P. O'Neill.
london: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1977, p.64.
Egg rolling is traditional on the Isle of Man, and is reported from many places in Ulster, such as Lisburn, Dundrum, and Kilkeel. The Ulster eggs are colored by boiling them with whin blossom and have faces painted on them. Source: Lore and Language of Schoolchildren by
Peter and Iona Opie. Oxford, 1959, p.253
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