This morning we went along to the Mattins Service at the Row Chapel (I've mentioned this chapel before - it was built in the 1400s to serve a row of nearby almshouses, which it still does).
In the seat behind us sat a lady in an Easter Bonnet (the lady to the right of the above photo). I complimented her on the bonnet, and she told us she made it herself. I told her it was the only Easter Bonnet I'd seen this Easter, and asked her if she made herself one every year? "Well, no," she said, "But when I was a young girl we all made, or at least trimmed, an Easter bonnet every year, and I do like to keep up the old customs, so I make one every two or three years". Once again, Peggy, I compliment you on it. It looked very festive.
I should confess, that I hadn't got my camera with me, but I'm glad to say that Wendy (of the Wendy Whitecat Blog) had hers, and sent me a copy of the above photo to use on my blog. Thank you Wendy - and I'll try and remember to always put my camera aboard whenever we leave the house in future.
7 comments:
That chapel looks like a comfortable sanctuary, Mike. If it's as cosy inside as it's handsome outside it must be a very welcoming resort.
Jude & Jess went for a day's hat-making course at Rothley Court last summer, had a great time and both came home with elegant head-gear they're proud to wear. Maybe Easter bonnets will make a come-back; until they do I wish power to the elbow of the great survivors who valiantly wave the traditions of yesteryear in the faces of mindless modernists.
Hello Crowbard. The Chapel is a little known gem. Inside it's a rat her nice mix of late medieval original and patching and repairs from every period since. It is, I think, the only Church in the Deanery in which the 1662 services are still in use regularly- so it's a popular place.
With ref to the Easter bonnet, for once in a way we are in complete agreement, and I couldn't hope to put it nearly as well meself. Thank you.
I'd forgotten about Easter bonnets.
Pity the custom seems to have died out.
Hello Pat - "Easter bonnets.......the custom seems to have died out". Save in Suffolk, Pat, save in Suffolk.
And in Sweden... I've got an Easter Bonnet on my hat shelf...made for me last year by a friend... It's shaped like a chicken, does that count?
Of course it does! I do admire originality in Easter Bonnets - or ladies' hats generally. Anyway the Easter chicken is part of the Easter Parade idea. Think Easter Eggs, etc.
I used to have an old crash-helmet which made a fine Easter-egg hat, with cut-outs of all the king's horses and all the king's men stuck round the edges with their arms reaching up to hold all the cracks together - I got ticked off one Easter because wearing it was promoting Christian beliefs in a multi-ethnic school. I referred my head-teacher to my CV and pointed out that the spring-tide egg was a pagan symbol and as a holder of a minority faith I expected moral support and acceptance. She was very good at stalking out; she did it again after my leaving presentation which ended in a set of flash-cards saying 'Best Of Luck Loads Of Courage Keep Smilling' with huge capitals and minute lower case letters! Lord, but she was an awful boss and a failing Head. The school was closed within a year of my leaving!
'Keep smiling' was one of her stock answers to every snarl-up she caused, so she couldn't complain I had ignored her!.
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