I’ve often said that the world was getting too complicated for me…. yesterday there was a fire in a building in Utah — that prevented my blog from being updated. We are not alone has never been more true, and apparently we can’t even function being alone. Anyhow, here’s what you would have read yesterday… if — there hadn’t been a fire in Utah.
One year in the early 70s, we were in Hong Kong over Easter. Almost the entire city was closed for most of the weeks preceding and following Easter. It was even hard to find a place to eat, outside of some hotels. I thought this was interesting, especially since the population isn’t primarily “Christian.”
We refer to Easter Monday around here, but it isn’t considered anything special — almost all stores are open… but people in more than eighty countries of the world celebrate the day after Easter as a holiday..
A little of my extensive research revealed that Easter Monday stands as the last remnant of a once much longer season of post-Easter festivities. In the early Middle Ages people treated the entire week following Easter as a holiday. People tended to their religious devotions in the week before Easter and celebrated with feasts, parties, games, relaxation, and attendance at religious services in the week after.
By the thirteenth century this two-week period had shortened and shifted to the latter half of Holy Week and the ten days following Easter. These last two days, the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter somehow acquired the mysterious name of Hocktide. In 1552 Parliament passed a law restricting post-Easter festivities to the Monday and Tuesday directly following Easter. This practice lasted until the 19th century, when lawmakers further reduced rejoicing to the Monday following Easter, known as Easter Monday.
In the US, there are only a few activities celebrated on Easter Monday — probably the most famous one is the White House Easter Egg Roll, held on Easter Monday. Claire took our kids there on some years.
Easter Monday was formerly regarded as unlucky and was known as Black Monday (White Monday in Greece.) For some reason, Monday itself was generally considered unlucky… maybe because it meant returning to school for many school children after the Easter break.
I hope everyone had a nice Easter and Easter Monday isn’t unlucky for you… and be glad you’re not in Hong Kong if you’re hungry.
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