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Easter Food

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Food features heavily over Easter. In the Christian calendar it's a time for celebrating the end of Lent and forty days of fasting and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whilst it is also a time to celebrate the coming of Spring and a more plentiful supply of food.

Though Easter eggs are perhaps the food most associated with Easter, there are other Easter foods that have a special symbolism.

Hot Cross Buns

Good Friday marks the day that Jesus was crucified and the start of the Easter weekend. It is customary to eat hot cross buns on this day as the cross is symbolic of Christ's crucifixion.

Another tradition associated with hot cross buns is to share one of these with a friend to cement your friendship throughout the coming year. The following rhyme should accompany the sharing ?half for you and half for me, between us two shall goodwill be?.

Easter Eggs

Eggs have a strong association with Easter because of their symbolism of new life and resurrection.

Eggs were also something that were forbidden during the fasting period of Lent and were traditionally used before fasting began. Hence the custom of making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday (the day before the start of Lent) as a way of using the households supply of eggs.

One of the oldest Easter traditions is to dye or paint eggs and give them as gifts. However the more modern custom is to give chocolate eggs. These are usually hidden around the home for children to find in an Easter egg hunt on Easter morning.

The Easter Meal

Lunch on Easter Sunday is one of the main events of Easter. This Easter feast would have marked the end of Lent as well as celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Easter meal is customarily a full roast dinner with lamb as the main component. Lamb is traditionally chosen, not only because of its seasonality at this time of year, but also due to it being a prominent Easter symbol. The lamb is representative of Jesus and relates his death to the sacrifice of a lamb on Pasch (Passover), whereby blood is spilt to redeem the world.