Tag Archives: Easter

We’re fast approaching Easter in the UK and a week after it will be Orthodox Easter and this year I get to celebrate both, being in the UK for their Easter weekend before flying back to Cyprus for theirs.
I love Easter, for me it truly signals the end of winter and spring and the start of the countdown to the heady days of summer. Whilst for many, it’s just a time to consume tonnes of hollow chocolate objects and have an excuse for another family dinner, for the more religious it marks the most important festival in the religious calendar.
I’ve often wondered, especially since living in Cyprus, why the Cypriots don’t really do Christmas and save all the celebrations for Eastertide until I looked up a theological essay on the subject.
As far as I can see, the birth of Jesus is relatively unimportant in its significance to the development of Christianity and I can understand why Epiphany is more important as being the first time he is acknowledged as King by the wise men. But it’s Easter and its implication in the ideology of eternal life that is the main festival because it’s when Jesus shows us that it is possible to be raised from death, if only as a soul, and to take our rightful place in heaven. The whole dogma of Christianity hangs on that one event and is summed up succinctly by the Easter morning Greek greeting of ‘Χριστός Ανέστη’ and the reply ‘Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη’, Christ is risen and the reply, truly he is risen.
On a far more light-hearted note, it’s this time of year when I laugh at the friends who have decided upon a ‘bikini diet’ to prepare themselves for their summer holidays. It usually starts when the clocks go forward only to be rudely interrupted when Easter pops up and they’ve just got to gorge themselves on the chocolate eggs and accompanying individual chocolates not to mention those fondant filled eggs that shall remain nameless.
So what should we get for those people who we know desperately want to look svelte in their swimsuit and not bulgy in a bikini? Nothing fits the bill better than a bouquet of flowers and especially at Easter when spring flowers abound and if you want to go for the traditional, you can send white lilies signifying purity and new birth. As always I find the best flowers come from Cosmea Gardens.  Feel free to use coupon “savethiseaster” on checkout and save 10% with a minimum order of 50Eur excluding shipping. It expires the 16th of April. I’ve never had cause to complain about the quality and condition of the blooms they’ve delivered and their flowers last for weeks; a benefit of them using only the freshest cut flowers in their arrangements. They might be a little more expensive than some but when a gift is important for the message it sends, a couple of euros extra is well worth it for the quality. So this Easter, if you need to send a gift to a horizontally challenged friend or relative, be a thoughtful person and send them flowers that will add considerably to their impressions of you and not their waistline!

Easter is the key festival in the Christian church. Without Easter we wouldn’t have Christianity but looking through the Easter cards in my local card shop made me think about how ‘Easter’ was celebrated before Christianity, for it was the celebration for the pagan goddess Eostre that gave Easter its name.

Eostre was goddess of the dawn and came to signify new birth and hence the ‘rebirth’ of Jesus after the crucifixion. The Easter rabbit, chicks and Easter eggs all come from elements representing Eostre or from pagan ceremonies celebrating her.

It seems strange to me that we should still use these pagan symbols at a Christian religious feast and some, like flowers and especially white lilies are used in churches at Easter just as newly opening white flowers were used to praise Eostre.

Paganism or otherwise, flowers are a great present for Easter – and a lot less fattening than those other pagan gifts – Easter eggs. Choose white flowers for the purity and innocence of new birth and perhaps send some flowers to someone with whom you want a new start.

My wife is joining me in Cyprus tomorrow for what will be a new start for her and for us. When I meet her at the airport, I’ll be giving her a welcoming bouquet of flowers from Cosmea Gardens. Think about someone with whom you can make a fresh start and order some too in time for Easter!

Easter’s on it’s way – you only have to look in the stores to see acres of Easter eggs, cuddly chicks and rabbits and the party food ready for the family dinner on Easter Day. A recent survey in the UK found that over 70% of people thought Easter was only on Easter Sunday, 65% had heard of Good Friday but didn’t know its significance, thinking that it was only the name of a bank holiday!

Pooh Bear Finds An Easter Egg

In reading the story of Holy Week to the children in my class I was suddenly struck by the significant part plants played in the story. On Palm Sunday, palm branches were pulled down from the trees that lined the route of Jesus and laid with cloaks across his path. At the Passover, bread, made from wheat, was blessed and consumed. Following the meal Jesus and the disciples were surrounded by olive, acacia, juniper and pine trees in the Garden of Gethsemane together with rock roses.

The cross has a variety of legends attached to it but the one I like is that it was made from Dogwood, which 2000 years ago grew as a strong tree. After its use for the cross, God changed it into a small spindly, twisted shrub so its wood could never be used for a cross again. The flowers of the Dogwood are also symbolic. They have four petals set in a cross shape and red stamens that represent his crown. The clustered red berries symbolise his blood.

The crown of thorns was made from the stems of Euphorbia Milii which bears the common name Christ plant or Christ thorn

Jesus was given a drink of vinegar in which hyssop had been soaked when on the cross.

Then finally Jesus appears on Easter morning as a gardener.

Now I don’t recommend you doing an arrangement for Easter based on these plants from the Easter story. Many florists insist that the colours of Easter arrangements must be yellow – probably so it matches with the Easter chicks!! I prefer to go with tradition and make an arrangement using Easter lilies. Be careful here because many flowers have the soubriquet of Easter Lily. The true Easter Lily is Lilium Longiflorum and is pure white with a beautiful scent. If you want to vary the flowers but keep the same theme, mix them with White Arum lilies – Zantedeschia Aethiopica and back them with glossy dark green foliage.

For Easter, whether buying flowers for your home or sending an arrangement to friends or loved ones, Cosmea Gardens are offering 10% off any order of 30 euros or more, just use the code APRILFOOLSDAY. The offer is available until the 7th April.