So That Was Easter?

So, here I am on a bank holiday Monday, wondering whatever happened to Easter. Yes, I know that this is Easter Monday and that yesterday was Easter Day, but what I'm getting at is the fact that, this year, it didn't feel like Easter. Maybe it was the fact that Easter was late this year, so late that it is in danger of bumping into the May Day bank holiday. Or perhaps it's this unseasonably (but very welcome) good weather we've been having, making it feel more like Summer than Spring. I don't know. One of the things absent this Easter seems to have been religion. Now, I'm not a religious person - quite the opposite, in fact - but Easter is meant to be a religious festival. Usually, in the weeks leading up to Easter the media is full of re-tellings of the crucifixion, re-enactments and reinterpretations of the Passion are everywhere. This year, such events seem to have been absent from our airwaves, newspapers and TV screens. Indeed, it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that a crucifixion-related movies turned up on TV in the form of Barabbas. Hardly a classic.

Back in the day, no Easter could pass without The Greatest Story Ever Told turning up on our TV screens. Where was it this year? The closest we got was Channel Five's screening of King of Kings this afternoon. The Jesus film nobody really remembers. Although we should - it has some magnificently eccentric casting. Robert Ryan as John the Baptist? Rip Torn as Judas (surely amongst the worst people to have hanging out with a guy who can turn water into wine)? Harry Guardino as Barabbas (he was Dirty Harry's boss a couple of times)? Frank Thring as Herod (mostly forgotten now, he was once a sought after star character actor, who ended his days appearing in an episode of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo)? Best of all - Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus (to quote Stewie from Family Guy: "You might remember him as the actor replaced by William Shatner in Star Trek - apparently, he was good enough to die for our sins, but not to romance green-skinned women."). But getting back to the original thrust of this post - why didn't it feel like Easter this year? Well, on top of all the other factors, I can't help but feel that Easter weekend has been seriously overshadowed by the Royal Wedding weekend, which immediately follows it. It's clear that the media have focused their attention fully on this event, to the detriment of Easter. Which is a pity, as I prefer Easter to Royal Weddings. Or any weddings, for that matter. At least at Easter I get to eat chocolate.