Annabel Langbein
Easter’s date may change but the tradition of sharing food stays the same
Easter’s timing is all about the phases of the moon. Specifically, Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on, or just after, the spring equinox. This year it’s earlier — tomorrow, April 4.
The equinox occurs on Saturday, March 20 (in the Northern Hemisphere this date marks the spring equinox while in the Southern Hemisphere it’s the autumn equinox). This year the first full moon to occur after the equinox rose on Sunday, March 28. And that’s why tomorrow is Easter.
So why is this important I can hear you asking? Well, while Easter is widely observed as a Christian tradition celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, so many Easter traditions, including the fact of its timing around the phases of the moon, pre-date Christianity.
The Easter bunny is a leftover from the pagan festival of Eostre, a goddess of fertility whose symbol was a rabbit (not surprising, given the energetic breeding habits of this species). Exchanges of eggs, also celebrating new life, were another ancient custom, observed by many cultures. Special cakes were once made by pagans and left at the altar for their idols during the annual Spring Festival.
The Christian church frowned on this practice and tried to stop people from making them, but finally, faced with rebellious cake-baking pagan women, they gave up and blessed the cakes instead.
All the fun things about Easter — chocolate eggs and egg hunts, hot cross buns and bunnies, all originate from pagan traditions of the Spring Festival, which was timed, like Easter, around the spring equinox. In the 1700s German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania, brought with them their Easter tradition of an egg-laying hare called “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws” and so was born the magical Easter bunny who delivers chocolate eggs to children all over the world.
As kids we would always leave out a carrot or two for the Easter bunny in case he got hungry from all his hopping.
Here in the Southern Hemisphere, the recent autumn equinox means our daylight hours are now reduced. But though the cycle of summer growth is coming to an end and the mornings are cold and dewy, we still get to enjoy all the fun things Easter brings, not least of which, along with Sunday Easter egg hunts and mountains of chocolate, is a fabulous Easter Sunday Feast.
We might not be celebrating the arrival of spring, but Easter is a time we love to celebrate being together.
Here are some simple make-ahead, crowd-pleasing recipes to enjoy over a long lazy lunch, finishing with a special Easter cake.