Good Friday, my favourite bank holiday
IT’S hard to explain how a day of mourning for Christianity – the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross – has become the day I look forward to most in the year.
But my love of Good Friday is not about religion.
Better than Christmas, Easter and even my children’s birthdays, Good Friday is for me a day of family time, joy and anticipation that just gets better every year.
There is nothing quite like a Friday Bank Holiday – a four-day week followed by a four-day weekend – to raise the spirits. I love that no matter how you spend this bonus Friday, there are still another three days of weekend to look forward to.
By Easter Monday, the weekend has been going on for what seems like forever and I’m generally no longer making the most of it.
But Good Friday is full of the excitement and anticipation of what’s to come – not least the run of spring Bank Holidays that follow through the rest of the season.
It’s always sunny on Good Friday. OK, that’s not strictly true, but if you stay outside long enough, the sun will always peek out from the clouds at some point. It’s spring – you can’t expect miracles – but I’ve never spent the day indoors and I’ve always found some rays of sunshine.
And that joy of spring and anticipation of the summer yet to come make the day even more special. The hedgerows are full of yellow and white and purple flowers, green shoots are starting to burst from every tree, lazy bumblebees are buzzing around, lambs frolicking in the fields and birds singing their little hearts out in the trees.
Any day off work to spend with the family outdoors in glorious spring is something to be celebrated.
As a child, Good Friday was all about the hot cross buns. Mum would buy them from the local bakery and warm them up in the oven for breakfast.
And they were such a treat. As an adult, they remain one of my favourite foods. Home made, bakery baked, M&S apple filled, or Sainsbury’s finest, they’re acceptable as a breakfast dish, perfect for a snack at any time of the day and there is no such thing as a bad hot cross bun.
I also love that the only expectation about Good Friday is that one little bun. You don’t need to buy presents or send cards or organise egg hunts or hang decorations. Good Friday is sorted with a pack of hot cross buns from the supermarket and a cup of tea.
But my real love of Good Friday was cemented in Cornwall. There are myriad traditions and rituals around Easter in Cornwall that have been carried out for centuries.
‘Goody Friday’ as it’s often known, is a day for walking and eating. Hundreds of people will take to the coast paths today and in Penzance, the walk to Lamorna Cove was always packed with families and people of all ages carrying out their traditional ‘Good Friday pilgrimage’.
In St Ives, the Good Friday gathering was around Consols Pond where families would sail model boats – a tradition started in the 1900s by fishermen and their families.
And in the far west of Cornwall, the ancient tradition of Dolly Dunking on Good Friday was revived a few years ago. Children gather around Fenton Bebibell to dip dolls in its holy water.
My favourite Good Friday trip was to go cockling at the Helford River. Taking advantage of the low tides, hordes of us would congregate on a shingle beach to rake up cockles and periwinkles in the shallow estuary.
We weren’t really there for the slimy sea creatures but more for the barbecue and the socialising with friends – something which feels like a distant memory now.
But this Good Friday has a special significance. It’s a day of hope, that this will be the last Good Friday with the shadow of the pandemic hanging over it, and freedom, prompted by the first hesitant stages of reopening.
Whatever we manage to do in our limited groups, even just to share a hot cross bun with family, Good Friday for me will still be the best holiday day of the year.
That joy of spring and anticipation of summer yet to come make the day even more special