Hope you all have a blessed Easter Weekend.

Here are some wonderful Irish Easter Customs you may want to start with your family and friends taken from a good Web site called the Celtic Attic.

Also, check out the home page of the Diocese of Pittsburgh for some nice family activities too such as some very special Masses and blessings for your children's Easter baskets.

Here is what the Celtic Attic says.

In Ireland, people dance in the streets on Easter Sunday. The dancers compete for the prize of a cake.

In Ireland Easter is a very sacred time of fasting and prayer. On Easter Saturday at church hundreds of small candles are lit off the Paschal candle that has been blessed by the priest. On Easter Sunday a quiet meal is eaten at home. Traditional Easter meal of leek soup and roasted spring lamb.

Little Easter houses are built in some parts of England as well. These are filled with coloured eggs. The eggs are rolled down a hill in a competition before they are eaten.

Irish Easter Customs

• Clean house thoroughly Inside and out-whitewash applied.
• Obtain New clothes.
• Good Friday-do no work on the land just in the house.
• Fast More than is Required on Good Friday.
• Good Friday- Plant a small amount of crop seed to bring blessing on it all.
• Shed no blood on Good Friday, work no wood, hammer no nail .
• Maintain quiet on good Friday from Noon till three P.M.
• Visit church-take off shoes-good Friday. Visit holy wells and graveyards.
• Do not fish with nets or lines on Good Friday no fishing boat puts out to sea alternatively gather bia tragha-shore food-seaweed and shellfish for the Main meal.
• Cut your hair on good Friday to prevent headaches in the year to come-trim finger and toe nails.
• Water from the holy well will have curative properties on Good Friday.
• A child born on Good Friday and baptized on Easter Sunday had gift of healing. (if a boy he should go into the ministry) die on good Friday go right the heaven.
• Eggs laid on Good Friday-Mark with cross and each eat one on Easter Sunday. Eggs Hatching on that day will produce healthy chicks.

Easter Saturday

• Have Holy water blessed.
• Drink three sips of holy water each for health. Sprinkle on everything for good luck.
• Bring cinders from the Paschal fire to be blessed.

Easter Sunday

• Butchers have mock funeral for a herring symbolizing end to abstinence.-whip the herring, have a procession involving the herring.
• Go to church and then herring procession.
• Go up at sunrise to view the sun dancing with joy.
• View the reflection of the sun in a pail of water and move it so the sun appears to dance.
• Do something with eggs. Give them, color them
• Have a Cludog or cluideog ritual-children collect and cook eggs and other food in a structure which they make on the edge of the farm-roasted eggs.
• Brightly dressed Tobies go from place to place to demand the eggs of Easter Singing, dancing dressed in bright colored rags.
• Keep shells of Easter eggs for the May bush. 9.Roll eggs to race them.-may be Presbyterian custom.
• Have feast on Easter-Kill a cow if you can-
• Take down the Spoilin meith na hlnide-little piece of meat pinned up at lent and burn it giving house a rich smell
• Have a Cake Dance. Cake being the prize for best dancer. Easter cake dance-a pruthog.
• Go to a "Sunday's" well-have a bonfire.

Irish Pancake Recipe:

Basic Batter Ingredients:
100g flour Pinch salt
1 egg 150ml milk
Oil to fry

Method:
Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour and beat in the egg using the back of a wooden spoon.
Slowly add the milk and beat in gradually to avoid lumps. Beat for a few minutes to entrap air. Leave in the fridge to chill.
Heat a drop of oil on the frying pan, ensure the pan gets really hot. Pour on a little batter to coat the base of the pan. Cook for approx. 2 minutes.
Toss the pancake and cook for about 1 minute or until golden brown.
The pancakes can be served with lemon, icing sugar, fruit or savoury items.

Easter Dinner

The Easter Sunday dinner is similar to the Christmas meal. It usually consists of a turkey or lamb, along with potatoes and vegetables. Desert can be anything, but usually children stuff their faces with their chocolate Easter eggs!