Customs at Collections

Easter Week

Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, the last before Easter, commemorating Jesus riding into Jerusalem on his donkey. In Herefordshire four churches distribute Pax Cakes (biscuits) with the legend ‘Peace and Good Neighbourhood’. On Maundy Thursday the Queen visits one of Britain’s Anglican Cathedrals to give ‘alms’ to one male and one female senior citizen for every year of her age.

Good Friday, the holiest day in the ecclesiastical calendar, is appropriately represented by a Roman Catholic procession from Westminster Cathedral, and Hot Cross Buns, enjoyed by every denomination - indeed so much so that we can now enjoy them every day of the year. The buns feature in less holy happenings as they are handed out at the behest of Joshua Butterworth in the graveyard of St Bartholomew the Great in central London, or further east, when one is hung up in a dockland pub to await the return of ‘The Widow’s Son’. Holiness is discarded altogether by the marbles players of Tinsley Green, the Pace Eggers of the Calder Valley and the mob footballers in Workington.

Easter Saturday is the day of the unique Britannia Coconut Dancers in Bacup, and hymn singers in Market Harborough where, in 1786 William Hubbard died leaving a guinea to pay for the clergy and choir of St Mary in Arden church to sing hymns over his grave on Easter Eve. The church is now closed but the new parish is happy to oblige even though there are seldom many faithful to hear them.

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Pax Cakes and Palm Sunday Cross, Sellack, Herefordshire, England, 1983

Procession of the Wooden Ass on Palm Sunday which represents Christ riding into Jerusalem (There are many versions of this picture but this is from ‘Old England’, published c1860)

Distribution of Pax Cakes on Palm Sunday, St Catherines’s church, Hoarwithy, Herefordshire

Ecumenical Palm Sunday service at Manor House, London

The Queen, attended by the Lord High Almoner, distributing the Maundy Money to local pensioners at the Royal Maundy Service in Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, 1984

The ceremonial party, including HM The Queen and the Yeomen of the Guard, after the Royal Maundy Service at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, in 1984

One of the ‘Children of the Royal Almonry’, in fact a chosen local, with his nosegay at the Royal Maundy Service, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1984

A proud ‘Recipient’ of the Royal Maundy at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, England, on Maundy Thursday in 1984

The four silver coins of a Royal Maundy Money presentation set for 1906 in a red leather case (4,3,2, and 1 ‘old’ pennies, still specially minted each year but worth a lot more to coin collectors - though surely recipients would want to keep them!)

Hot Cross Buns on sale at Easter, Muswell Hill, London, 1982

Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns in a Muswell Hill Bakery, London, England, 1970s (The bakery was then run by Cypriots who explaind that coloured eggs were an essential part of Easter there)

Easter Eggs in a Muswell Hill Bakery, London, England, 1970s (The bakery was then run by Cypriots who explaind that coloured eggs were an essential part of Easter there)

Hot Cross Buns coming out of the ovens in time for Good Friday (The buns were once a hallowed Good Friday tradition but now you can buy them any time - and very nice too!)

‘Hot Cross Buns!’ from ‘The New Cries of London’, with ‘characteristic engravings’ by Isaac Taylor, published by Darton & Harvey, London, 1803

A new ‘Widow’s Bun’ being added, by a serving sailor, to the collection of hot cross buns in The Widow’s Son pub in Bromley-by-Bow, East London, to await the return of the widow’s missing sailor son, on Good Friday 1986

Many years worth of ‘Widows Buns’ hanging in The Widow’s Son pub in Bromley-by-Bow, East London, Good Friday 1987

At the Good Friday sermon preached beside Trinity Bridge at Crowland, Lincolnshire, England

The Butterworth Charity: the vicar takes a service while standing on the tombstone of Joshua Butterworth before distributing hot-cross buns. St Bartholomew the Great at Smithfield, London on Good Friday morning. 1982

A tense moment at the British Marbles Championship,Tinsley Green, West Sussex, 1983

At the British Marbles Championship,Tinsley Green, West Sussex, 1983

At the British Marbles Championships at The Greyhound, Tinsley Green, West Sussex, 1983 (Marbles is popular in Sussex and there are pub leagues and contests - this is serious business!)

‘Toss Pot’ and friends in the Midgley Pace Egg Play in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, England, on Good Friday 1965

Midgley Pace Egg Play being performed in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, England, on Good Friday 1967

Midgley Pace Eggers in Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, on Good Friday 1965

Hector is slain by St George - Midgley Pace Eggers in Todmorden, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, on Good Friday 1965

Midgley Pace Eggers in Midgley where their play originated, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, on Good Friday 1965

Uppies and Doonies Football menacing the allotments in, Workington, Cumbria, England, 1984

‘Uppies and Downies’ in Workington, Cumbria, take place three times each year, on Good Friday, Easter Tuesday and the following Saturday. This is the start of the ‘Tuesday Ball’ in 1984

Good Friday procession in Victoria Street, near Westminster Cathedral, London, England

Brighouse Pace Egg Play being performed by members of the Brighouse Children’s Theatre on Easter Saturday 1967, West Yorkshire, England (The tradition died out in the early 1990s but may have been revived)

Brighouse Pace Egg Play being performed by members of Brighouse Children’s Theatre on Easter Saturday 1967, West Yorkshire, England (The tradition died out in the early 1990s but may have been revived)

Britannia Coconut Dancers, Bacup, Lancashire, on Easter Saturday 1967

A garland dance by the Britannia Coconut Dancers, Bacup, Lancashire, England, 1965

Britannia Coconut Dancers on a very wet Easter Saturday in Bacup, Lancashire, England, 1966

The Britannia Coconut Dancers in Bacup, Lancashire, on the wet Easter Saturday of 1965

Hymn singing over Hubbard’s Grave on Easter Eve, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, 1984 (St Mary in Arden church is a ruin but the parish church gladly undertake this duty)