Easter eggs and rabbits

 

Easter eggs and rabbits . . . or hares?

Why does Easter fall on a different date every year? Easter is a moveable feast because it is decided by the lunisolar calendar, which aligns the moon’s phases with the sun’s position in the sky. All clear? Jolly good!😉

The date of Easter Sunday is dependent on the first full moon after the spring equinox, which this year, 2024, was on Wednesday 20^th March. The first full moon after this date is Monday 25^th March and the first Sunday after that is 31^st March. 

However, if the first full moon after the vernal equinox were to fall on a Sunday, Easter Sunday would be celebrated on the following Sunday. The Jewish holiday of Passover also follows the lunisolar calendar, but Islam follows a purely lunar calendar, so that holidays like Ramadan occur at different times and seasons of the year.

Eggs are a symbol of renewal and Easter in the Christian church celebrates the resurrection of Christ. That connection is quite clear, but why rabbits? Traditionally, it was hares that were associated with the resurrection, but over time they were displaced by rabbits.

                                                Hare on a mug

When farming was not as intensive and mechanised as it now is, ground nesting birds like lapwings were more common and numerous. When hares seemed to ‘disappear’ into their forms in the fields, people coming upon eggs laid by lapwings and the like, would think the hare had laid the eggs and so the association between hares, later rabbits, and eggs was made.

The brown hare (Lepus europaeus) is one of the largest hares, but it is not native to Britain. Like the rabbit and the edible dormouse (Glis glis) it was introduced by the Romans as a source of food. The Romans ruled Britain for more than 350 years and had a lasting influence on life on this island.

Britain’s only native hare is the Mountain hare (Lepus timidus) which is also known as the blue hare, the white hare and the snow hare, among other names. It has been in existence for at least 130,000 years. The Irish hare (Lepus timidus hibernicus) is a subspecies and is found only in Ireland. It is 30,000 years old.

The Mountain hare is greyish-brown, called blue, and can be seen in Scotland and the North of England. In winter, its coat turns white to allow it to camouflage itself in the snow. It is most noticeable in spring, when any snow may have melted but its coat colour has not reverted. Irish hares do not usually turn white in winter but retain their reddish-brown coats.

Hares are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981.

Hare coursing remains a popular ‘sport’, one for which greyhounds, lurchers and other gaze hounds are used. The Hunting Act of 2004 made it illegal to hunt hares with dogs, followed by the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 making it a criminal offence to use a dog to search for a hare. Police officers can stop and search vehicles if they suspect the act has been breached. 

Hare on the other side of a mug 

It is also illegal to trespass on land with the intention of coursing hares, attend or assist a hare coursing event, or allow your land to be used for hare coursing. Despite all the legislation and the threat of the imposition of fines and prison sentences, illegal hare coursing continues across the country.

There are superstitions attached to hares, as to most living things. The hare is considered a creature of magic and mystery, the Celts associating both it and the rabbit with the full moon, night and the supernatural. It was believed to be a messenger of misfortune. Sailors and fishermen would not mention it by name and would not set sail if they saw one for fear of bad luck, for a hare was thought to cause storms. If a farmer saw a drove of hares in March, he would be sure his farm would not prosper that year. Conversely, others believed they would have good luck if they saw a hare.

                                                Moon gazing hare

William Cowper (1731 – 1880) was an English poet and writer of many hymns for the Church of England. He suffered great depression and many nervous breakdowns, but found solace through adopting three leverets, all males, that he called Puss, Bess and Tiney. His letter to ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’ in 1784 gives an account of his experience as a keeper of pet hares.

SkyWatch Friday Late afternoon walk

A late afternoon walk turning to dusk gave us misty rose-tinted skies and a buttery full moon climbing the sky.

Click here for more wonderful skies.

SkyWatch Friday - January 2011 clouds

The first full moon of 2011 . . .

 . . . sailing through the clouds

Emerging from clouds this aircraft is on its way to the USA

Thank you to the SkyWatch team who organise this weekly meme. 

Click here to see more skies around the world.

March Full Moon 2010

Moonlight

The stars around the fair moon fade
Against the night,
When gazing full she fills the glade
And spreads the seas with silvery light.

Sappho (c.610 – 570 BC)

Translated by H. De Vere Stacpoole

 There was a full moon last night or so I believe. We couldn't actually see it as it was overcast and raining so these photographs are from March 2006. I love the golden glow and it is apt that one of the names for this month's moon is the Lantern Moon.
Another of the names for the March Full Moon is the Sap Moon which seems appropriate for a month in which dormant plants are waking up and sending out leaves and tendrils and getting on with life. Even on a blustery, dull day such as today, the fresh green leaves and the daffodils which have finally put in an appearance brighten the view and gladden my heart. The birds are busier than ever, flying in in pairs, trios and gangs. Yesterday I saw goldfinches flirting in and out of the holly tree and the woodpeckers are drumming vigorously, pointing out decaying trees. The starlings, as ever, squabble and screech and long-tailed tits skitter in like tiny, prettily painted shuttlecocks.
This full moon is also called the Crow Moon.

There are always crows to be seen in and around the garden – after all I live in Crowthorne! – and though they are the rapscallions of the bird world, I very much enjoy their antics. They are remarkably big birds but somehow manage to balance on the bird feeder to peck energetically at the fat cake.

They will also perch on the arches and bow solemnly to Jenna-the-Labrador and call to her. Although she's the same colour as them I don't really think they regard her as a four-legged crow but it is amusing to watch. She just gazes back at them. I think Gus will answer them – he's rather more vocal than his sister and, of course, still only a pup. This morning a pair of magpies, also corvids, courted gravely on the bird table. Occasionally, jays and jackdaws visit but they are shyer relations and rarely stay long.
The final name I have for the moon is the Lenten Moon which really needs no further explanation.
As we approach Easter I wish you all a peaceful weekend, whatever your beliefs or lack of them.

'Shalom'

White in the moon the long road lies

November full moon in Berkshire, UK - 2nd November 2009

The following poem is from'A Shropshire Lad' by A. E. Housman 1859-1936

XXXVI

White in the moon the long road lies,

The moon stands blank above;

White in the moon the long road lies

That leads me from my love.

Still hangs the hedge without a gust,

Still, still the shadows stay:

My feet upon the moonlit dust

Pursue the ceaseless way.

The world is round, so travellers tell,

And straight though reach the track,

Trudge on, trudge on, 'twill all be well,

The way will guide one back.

But ere the circle homeward hies

Far, far must it remove:

White in the moon the long road lies

That leads me from my love.

The November full moon, like that of October, is called the Hunter's Moon. It is also known as the Frosty Moon, the Beaver Moon or the Freezing Moon. Certainly in November we can expect to experience frost and sharp cold weather.

I found the following information on 'Keith's Moon Page'. (I cannot add any hyperlinks - don't know why!!)

Celebrating The Chinese Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival dates back about 3000 years. It emerged from the moon worship of the Shang Dynasty and is reputed to celebrate Chang Er who flew to the moon and has lived there ever since. The Moon Festival honours the legend of Chang Er and is about harvest and family reunions; it is usually celebrated in late September or early October.

As with all festivals food and wine play an important part and moon cakes are made and consumed by the light of the moon. They are circular and made of flour and brown sugar and filled with a variety of sweet ingredients, from white sugar paste and brown date paste much favoured in the North of China to ham, walnuts and apricots among other things in Southern China.

Moon Biscuits are another traditional treat. They are shaped like a crescent moon and have whole hazel nuts to represent the full moon that is to come.

Recipe for Moon Biscuits

250g/9oz wholemeal flour

75g/3oz soft light brown sugar

175g/6oz butter or margarine Large handful of hazel nuts

Method:

Preheat oven to 300F/150C/gas mark 2

Beat butter/margarine with sugar until blended
Add flour and mix
Knead dough on a floured surface
Add hazel nuts and flatten dough to thickness of about 1⅜cm/½"
Cut crescent moon shapes
Bake biscuits on a baking sheet until light golden brown.

Americans enjoy MoonPie originating with the Chattanooga Bakery which, it is believed, produced them for coal miners in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Slowly, silently, now the moon . . .

This is the October full moon from 2006. October full moon is known as the Harvest Moon, the Hunter's Moon or the Falling Leaves Moon.

Silver

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws and silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Walter de la Mare

I learnt these words as a schoolgirl but can only ever recall the first two lines. I like the poem better than I did when I was young but perhaps that is because I was tasked then to learn it without first discussing it.

For many years I disliked the moon, found it cold and somehow frightening, too remote, in no measure romantic. In recent times I have learnt to appreciate its distant beauty, to wonder at the mysteries it might hold and eventually unfold. It is almost unbelievable that men have set foot on its surface – how extraordinary that mere humans have found a way to explore such far-flung satellites and still find that there is yet more to discover.

Now I gaze at the moon in its regular phases, try to capture it in photographs and marvel at the varying hues at various times of the year or in diverse weather conditions.