Easter

Easter, as well as being the principal event in the Christian calendar, always brings back memories, sacred and secular, of past years, especially thos in Cornwall over fifty years ago. It was the custom to walk to Lamorna and back with friends on Good Friday, either after church or instead of it. There were two routes, the main road and the beautiful coastal path via Mousehole, and the object for many, although not especially devotional, was to walk and talk on a quiet, restrained sort of day. I don't suppose anybody does it now, as in later years there were stories of drink, drugs and violence, but I suppose the growth in car ownership and the growing reluctance of many people to walk anywhere have had their effect. We always had fish, often a tin of salmon, on Good Friday, either for 'dinner' or 'tea'. The touring rugby teams from the London hospitals and Welsh clubs would come down and play on Easter Saturday and Easter Monday, but never on Good Friday, against the Pirates at the Mennaye Field. Easter Day itself always involved at least one service and sometimes more, but this was not unusual at a time when on a normal Sunday I attended morning and evening services as well as Sunday School in the afternoon. All these years later, I shall be going to just one service today, and we shall have a family meal here this evening, remembering 'absent friends', but my thoughts are increasingly turning to my charity walk tomorrow, of which more later in the week.