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Hello, Grunger. I saw the Sainsburys/Asda article but ignored it - I'd probably had enough of supermarkets by then!

Today's Feedback column in today's Times had a piece about Easter - the terminology and stuff about hot cross buns and Easter vestments. I'd had enough of Easter too, so only skimmed the article!

Thanks malone. I haven't seen it yet but I'm sure it will be riveting. Jigjag will be disappointed that it's the last day of his 4-week "Easter Holiday".
2 school weeks, Holy week and Easter Week! .....or whatever you want to call them.

Hello, Grunger, until last week 'Easter' really just denoted Easter Sunday for me. I knew there were various other components, such as Good Friday, but I work on a 'need to know' basis, and I really didn't need (or want ) to know any more than that. Still, I've found parts of the discussion quite interesting - on a theoretical level only!

I write anent the recent discussion about "Easter".

I'm not quite sure of the point of joining in a discussion under the heading of "Pedants Utd" if you wish to throw pedantry out of the window, either because you know nothing about it, or because apparently you can't be bothered with it.

Lent commences on Ash Wednesday & runs for over 6 weeks. The 4th Sunday in Lent, commonly known as "Refreshment" or "Mothering" Sunday is also known as Laetare Sunday (from the first word of the introit for the day in the Missal - see also Quasimodo Sunday) & is one of the two Sundays in the year when the vestments and hangings should be Rose Pink. The following Sunday Lent transforms into Passiontide which embraces Palm Sunday and the following week, Holy Week. Holy Week intensifies with the "Triduum Sacrum" of Maundy, or Holy, Thursday, Good Friday, & Holy Saturday
Easter itself cannot commence before 1800 on Holy Saturday. Easter Saturday, therefore, is the Saturday after Easter Sunday, not the one before it.

Improper usage of these terms can be very confusing to those who are using them correctly - it really takes little effort to get them right.

I remain, yours liturgically & etc,

Bear, I don't think anyone here wants to throw 'pedantry out of the window', for any reason. Our discussions, on many subjects, wander hither and thither.

As I said earlier, 'Easter' previously meant simply Easter Sunday to me. I found it interesting that some PU members were irritated by references to Easter Saturday - apparently Sainsbury's, the weather forecasters and various newspapers TV listings all had it wrong. I certainly don't agree with the principal of 'well, if everyone says that/uses those terms, then that's what they must be' - my inner pedant doesn't like that. I do, however, also think that the majority of people don't know the correct words, timings etc - and don't feel any need or want to change that. I feel it's a bit like science or botany or any other specialised subject - those who care (passionately or otherwise) will get annoyed when errors are made.

Brendan, I've never understood how anyone could eat eel - let alone jellied eel. I'm shivering (with horror) just thinking about it! Is that the dish that comes with a horrible green 'liquor', sauce, whatever?

Talking of Easter, who can tell me when Good Friday fell on a Tuesday? It really did happen but it's an old question and the answer is rather easy to find on the internet these days.

Orson, how interesting! I'm not going to do any online research (aka cheating) but will wait for you, Jigjag or some other learned person to tell me.

Good Friday once fell on Easter Monday.
It might have been at Doncaster!

Hi Malone, you may well shiver, it looks and smells yukky! That said, the stall where it was sold, Tubby Isaacs, is/was world famous (sort of) - you might enjoy these old photos:-

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/06/13/so-long-tubby-isaacs-jellied-eel-stall/

The 'green sauce' you mention is indeed called 'liquor', but it's served with pie and mash, another East End 'delicacy' - it's actually not bad, again, sort of!