Easter affords us the chance to begin again

THE opening lines from Kerry poet Brendan Kennelly’s stirring poem urging us to never give up, whatever troubles afflict us, have a particular resonance at Easter – a time synonymous with growth and rebirth. “Begin again to the summoning birds/to the sight of the light at the window.”

Easter is all the Christian churches’ oldest and most important feast, drawn from older pre-Christian spring festivals. Many people prefer Easter to Christmas because it is less pressurised and, even if the weather is not much better, the lengthening days boost morale.

Older generations will remember the 40 days’ intense fasting of Lent, requiring abstinence from meat and other products. Lenten penance intensified in Holy Week’s devotions, and ended with huge Easter celebrations.

Times change and customs are altered. But Easter still has something special to offer people irrespective of their race, religion or politics.

Even though the weather remains wintry, there are daffodils, buds, and lambs, to remind us of a beckoning turn in the year. These signs tell us, as Kennelly does so powerfully in his poem, that we may indeed begin again.

The poet sums this up powerfully: “Though we live in a world that dreams of ending/that always seems about to give in/something that will not acknowledge conclusion/ insists that we forever begin.”

A very happy Easter to one and all.