Easter signalled a time when we’d never be hungry again

Country Living with Francis Farragher

We’re having a relatively early Easter this year thanks to the full moon falling on April 4 but a glance ahead at the 2016 calendar indicates that the biggest festival in the Christian world will be even earlier next year.

In 2016, the first full moon after the Spring Equinox will appear on the Wednesday of March 23 giving us an Easter Sunday on March 27 next year, so the moveable feast that is Easter does really dance all over the place in terms of where it slips into the calendar.

Even the death of Jesus has been linked through references to full moons with the date of the crucifixion reputedly falling on the day after the night of the full moon that followed the Spring or Vernal Equinox.

This has led to a date of Friday, April 3, 33AD at around 3pm being worked out by different theorists for the pinpointing of the crucifixion, all arising from that famous full moon that follows on from the Spring Equinox, so the lunar influence on our calendars and lives has been quite significant going back over time.

Easter though does have its own special appeal in terms of its arrival in the later Spring period when there’s a good ‘stretch’ coming in the days; the crops are being sown; and temperatures tend to be making their way into the mid-teens.

In the past, Easter also had the added bonus of signalling an end to the penitential season of fast and abstinence, where all those bold commodities that satisfy the senses could again be enjoyed without fear of adding on any ‘extra-time’ in purgatory. Back in the 1960s, Easter Sunday night always signalled the start of the carnival season, following a complete Church ban on dancing during the Lenten period.

Marquees were erected with great fervour and effort across the length and breadth of Ireland on the days leading up to Easter Sunday to cater for bumper crowds. The frustration of six weeks of no swinging or ‘company keeping’ invariably was brought to an enthusiastic conclusion on the first dance of the carnival on Easter Sunday night.

Good Friday, apart from being observed as a day of the utmost solemnity out the country, was also a day set aside for sowing at least some of the spring crops, if suitable weather conditions pertained.

As a young boy, dusty lines were etched out in the soil by the horse and three part harrow to provide a summer bed for the barley and oats that would provide the meal feeding for sheep and cattle over the winter season.

An early start and an assiduous clock watch were always part of the Good Friday routine as all work had to be completed well in advance of the ceremonies of the day that often had a 5pm start.

The early start never seemed to impact on the numbers attending church for the Good Friday ceremonies and hardly anyone – apart from those involved in the essential services – seemed to be at work on the day.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.