Traditions can be good, bad or indifferent and the numerous traditions that have grown up around Easter probably cover all three categories.

Pancake Tuesday for example is a wonderfully quaint tradition – using up all the eggs, fat and other perishables in the house to prepare for the Lenten fasts and enjoying a big feed of pancakes in the process.

Ash Wednesday we’ve covered previously. Palm Sunday is celebrated in many churches by a procession and the giving of small crosses made from palm leaves or flax.

My wife and I used to attend a high anglo catholic church where Easter was a marathon. We marked Maundy Thursday with a feet washing ceremony – an example of a tradition which needed to be updated to be relevant in our sock and shoe wearing culture. At the end of this service the church was stripped bare of all the banners, altar cloths and other decorations and people kept vigil during the night.

I remember one Easter when I was alone from 3am to 4am in the big, dark city church and yet I was most definitely not alone, or scared or cold.

Friday had several services including a three hour service in the afternoon to mark the hours that Jesus was on the cross. Saturday was pretty quiet but at midnight the celebrations began. We greeted each other with shouts of “Jesus is Risen!” “He is risen indeed!” Maybe you had to be there.

Obviously you can get carried away with tradition or trapped in some meaningless ritual. I love the old story of the monastery cat… a stray who moved in with the monks. The cat proved a useful companion, keeping down the mouse population, but there was a problem when the brothers were at prayer the cat would rub and purr round their legs, interrupting their devotions. The old abbot therefore ordered that the cat be tied up during prayer times. A few years later the old abbot died and a new abbot was appointed who continued to tie up the aging cat. Some years after that the cat died and a new cat was bought so that they could tie it up during prayer times.

Rituals which have lost their point should be dropped but good traditions can shape and enrich our lives. It would be a shame if Easter slipped by, marked by nothing more than a mention in the regular Sunday service. So enjoy your hot cross buns on Good Friday relishing their symbolism as well as their cinnamon and fruit. Enjoy your chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday, celebrating the sweet taste of new life. But please resist the tsunami of commercialism which has turned meaningful traditions into tawdry, excessive indulgence. That one kilo chocolate pig may be tempting but it’s as bad for the real traditions of Easter as it is for your teeth and your waistline.

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