It’s more than likely that if you have a young child they will have made an Easter bonnet. It’s great fun and even adults love getting into the spirit of these fancy millinery confections but do you know what in reality they’re all about?
With Spring in the air at this time of the year people have always felt like celebrating the awakening of the land after winter. Roman women made wreaths of laurel and olive to wear and later the Christian calendar took up this theme of renewal, rebirth and hope with Easter coinciding with the Resurrection. Cheerfully coloured new clothes, representing a new beginning and purity, were worn. Shakespeare refers to this tradition when, in Romeo and Juliet, one character teases another saying ‘Did’st thou not fall out with a tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter?’ Later, not having new clothes for Easter became increasingly associated with bad luck, ‘At Easter let your clothes be new; Or else be sure you will it rue’. Eventually this tradition began to wane until having a new Easter Bonnet was all that was left of it.
And today the tradition has almost died out in Britain but in New York the Easter Parade is still a big date in the social calendar – maybe we should make a bit more effort – this lady seems pleased with hers!
