Tuesday 7th April
Of all the Bank Holidays the two at Easter are probably the least important, although to devout Christians they are the most sacred. Even Whitsun had been renamed Late Spring Bank Holiday and Christmas is all about presents and trees and food and very little about celebrating the birth of Christ. The trouble with Easter too is that it is a moveable feast, based partly on the Jewish Passover, another old religion and amended by some Pope or other a few hundred years ago. Because it isn’t on a set date like December 25th or 1st January it loses some of its significance and apart from buying the kids an Easter Egg is less and less observed. Not that people don’t enjoy a long weekend or extend this by taking the remainder of the week before or after as holiday too.
And like all holidays it is over too soon, and we must return once again to the mundanity of the working week. But in a way too Easter is a sign that the Winter is over and that Spring, a tentative moveable feast in itself, is surely on the way. This year, Easter being very early it has been quiet in Eymet; certainly quieter than the few years we have been coming before. Bank Holiday Monday there was hardly anyone in town, even the Café de Paris was quiet. And back home now that Easter is over for another year the election may just spring into some sort of muted excitement. Or maybe it too will pass us by, just another moveable feast, instantly forgettable and barely observed by most of us. Whatever, I hope you all had a nice Easter.