Lambs. Easter traditions. Skipping!

Suddenly the fields around here are filling up with lambs. For a while the fields have been empty of animals. Presumably the sheep were in the lambing sheds. Then the day before yesterday I spotted the first lamb of his year (first for me anyway) with its mother in one of the fields next to my running route. This morning they were everywhere. It must be Spring!

And if course, the lambs always appear for Easter. They clearly don’t know that some people regard eating lamb as part of the Easter tradition.  It was my Italian friend who pointed that out to me. In my family it was always hot cross buns and chocolate eggs. My mother was quite traditional about this and usually baked her own hot cross buns. It was the smell that woke us on Good Friday morning. In my religious teens I would go to church with my father and go home to hot cross buns - no eating before taking holy communion! And presumably my mother stayed home with the smaller children sorting out the hot cross buns.

It’s one of the reasons why it seems odd to me to see hot cross buns all year round nowadays. This does not stop me buying them however. I do draw the line though at chocolate orange flavoured hot cross buns and other such aberrations that I have noticed for the first time this year. 

Another supposed tradition that I read about this morning is skipping on Good Friday. Who even knew that such a thing existed? But according to English Heritage, who would like to revive the tradition, that is the case.  “For centuries in some parts of England, people would get together on Good Friday – to skip. Men, women and children would mark the start of the Easter weekend by jumping over long lengths of fishing rope or washing lines, sometimes aiming to jump for the entirety of what became known as “long rope day” or “skipping day”.

It seems that “festive skipping” could be at least four centuries old but by the middle of the 20th century had become associated with fishing communities who believed that skipping on good Friday would bring them luck. It might be even older: “One leading folklorist speculated in the 1950s that the then lingering association of skipping with bronze-age barrows on the South Downs suggested the activity was “the far-off descendant of the sports and games played at burials and … possibly at barrow funerals”.” Another theory is that the rope has links to a legend that Judas hanged himself after betraying Jesus. Grim stuff!

Apparently in Scarborough skipping day was Shrove Tuesday, which makes more sense in some ways. Skipping is a rather joyful activity and surely should not be associated with the crucifixion of the believers’ saviour. I have no memories of skipping being part of Easter but every girls’ playground at primary schools in the 1950s always had “long rope skipping” as a regular activity. I was never any good at “running in”, possibly a little too afraid of getting tangled in the rope, and so was quite happy to be one of the “turners”. I did spend a good deal of time skipping on my own with my individual skipping rope. Does anyone call that “short rope skipping?” I wonder. 

One of the researchers into old traditions said, “The rhymes that would have undoubtedly accompanied these Easter games are largely forgotten too, which is such a shame as oral tradition is so important in our understanding of social history.” 

The rhymes that used to be chanted in the playgrounds of my early childhood would probably have today’s feminists bristling about how many of them centred around finding a boyfriend or husband. For example:

“There’s a party on the hill, 

Will you come?

Bring your own bread and butter 

And a bun.

(Insert girl’s name) will be there,

Kissing (insert boy’s name) on a chair. 
O U T spells out.”

At which point the girl named ran out and another ran in. 

Or there’s this:

“On the mountain stands a lady.

Who she is we do not know.

All  she wants is gold and silver.

All she wants is a nice young man.

So run in my (insert name) dear,

A, B, C, D, E, etc (until a suitably embarrassing initial letter was reached).

Those were the days!

Here are a couple of photos from our sunny day walks earlier this week.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!