The Confection Connection

With Easter behind us, I trust you are all glutted with candy and toting egg-salad sandwiches to work this morning. Those of you in the US, that is. I, however, am enjoying the Easter Monday holiday and mulling over previously unnoticed differences between a US and UK-style Easter.

I'm surprised I haven't noticed them before; this is my sixth Easter here, and it's not like I haven't been paying attention (that's my job, after all), but somehow, every spring, I never looked beyond the obvious "we get four days off and you don't" difference. There are, I am finding, many others.

This oversight can be attributed to sloth if you desire, but I think it has more to do with the fact that we don't have any growing children in our household. Easter candy, colored eggs and hunting for chocolate treats the wascally wabbit concealed in the garden do not figure in to our current lifestyle. But some thing are simply too big to miss if, as in my case, you are given enough opportunities.

In America, if you go to the store any time between Lent and Good Friday, you will find stacks upon stacks of Easter baskets, bags of shredded green plastic that is supposed to resemble grass, egg-coloring kits and huge chocolate Easter Bunnies. Here, there are simply shelves lined with hot cross buns and boxes of oddly oversized chocolate eggs. The absence of Easter baskets piqued my curiosity so I began researching this arena in my usual fashion (i.e. asking my wife about it). The following observations resulted from that discussion:

Easter, in general, is taken more seriously here than in the US. With the exception of Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Tuesday) passes by unnoticed in the US. That's not possible here; as early as Valentine's Day the stores fill up with packaged pancakes, and on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday you must (I think it's a law) eat pancakes for dinner. These are not like US pancakes but more resemble what we would call crepes, rolled up in sugar and drizzled with lemon.

On Ash Wednesday, the pancakes disappear and are replaced with Hot Cross Buns. These are not unfamiliar to Americans; I knew all about hot cross buns, having heard about them as a child. The only difference was, in the US, I never actually saw a hot cross bun. In the UK they are unavoidable.

During Lent, the Brits don't color Easter eggs. This is a good thing, as the eggs here are brown and wouldn't take on a nice aquamarine hue the way a proper, American white egg does. If you tried dying brown eggs, I expect they would all turn the color of mud.

Like Shrove Tuesday, Maundy Thursday passes practically unnoticed in the US. In the UK, this is the day the Queen hands out the Maundy Money. Little sacks of Maundy Money are distributed personally by the Queen to the deserving poor (how does one go about gaining the title of 'Deserving Poor' and is it an honor or an insult?). The coins in the bag, as well as the number of bags distributed, equals the age of the monarch. The coins are given in lieu of washing their feet; make up your own joke about that.

Good Friday is an actual holiday here. Most businesses are closed, though lately the retail community has caught on that there are a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands that day and have opportunistically decided to remain open, denying their underpaid employees a final chance to enjoy more hot cross buns at home with their family.

On the Big Day, children arise and hunt for their Easter Egg—the previously mentioned, oversized chocolate egg. This may have been hidden in the garden or around the house. There will likely be supporting confections, but The Egg is the centerpiece. There is no basket, no plastic Astroturf and no gigantic chocolate bunny.

The church services won't be hugely different but in the practice of dressing up for Easter, the Americans win hands down. There is nothing in the UK (or the rest of the world, for that matter) to compare to the NYC Easter Parade and the requisite Easter Bonnets. Hats off (or. more appropriately, on) to you, America.

The traditional Easter Feast in the UK is Lamb or turkey, though pork or ham may also be on the menu.  Lamb is not a very popular food option in the US, and everyone is sick to death of turkey by Easter so ham has been the meal of choice every since I remember.

Easter Monday, both in the UK and US, is the traditional time for rolling hard-boiled eggs around. In the US, this appears to be limited to the White house lawn, whereas in the UK, as far as I am aware, the Queen does not allow egg-rolling in her garden. Egg rolling in the UK mostly takes place on hills, which the eggs are rolled down. This eliminates the midlands, and the southerners don't seem too bothered about it, so we rely on the people up north to continue the tradition.

And the final difference is, scarcely anyone over here is going to work today with an egg salad sandwich in their lunch box; we haven't colored any eggs and, more importantly, we have the day off.

Now if I can just find the cigars the Easter Bunny left me . . .