Wales Feed

Easter egg hunt

2010-04-01T08:28:05+00:00

The National Trust is offering Easter egg hunts at historic houses, castles and gardens across Wales - so you'll be able to combine your love of history and chocolate in one go.

The Easter egg hunts will take place from 2-5 April. Egg hunters will be able to follow maps around their local National Trust properties, visiting points and collecting clues as they go.

Decorated Easter eggs hanging in trees:

Here's a list of locations which you can visit with the family this Easter:

Bodnant Garden, Conwy 2-5 April 10am-3pm. Follow the trail around the Garden, track down the clues and solve the puzzle to win your tasty chocolate prize. Face painting for children on Sunday and Monday. Admission + £2

Erddig, Wrexham 2-5 April 11am-4pm .Fun for all the family with children's garden egg hunts. Admission + £2

Chirk Castle nr Wrexham 2-5 April 10am-5pm. Fun for all the family. Find the clues hidden in the garden and collect your prize. Admission + £2

Plas Newydd, Anglesey 4-5 April 11am-4pm. Easter Egg trail, family play area, story telling. Some charges may be applied for the trail.

Penrhyn Castle, Bangor 3 April 12-4pm. Easter Egg trail, family play area, storytelling. Admission + £1.

Ty Isaf, Beddgelert, Gwynedd 5 April 11am - 4pm. Come and join in the fun on our Easter trail. £1.50.

Plas yn Rhiw, Pwllheli, Gwynedd 3-4 April, 11 am - 4 pm. Easter egg hunts in the garden. Admission + £2.

Powis Castle & Garden, Welshpool 2 -5 April 11am-5.30pm. The annual Easter trail in the garden. Admission + £2.

Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion 4 April 11am-3pm. Easter egg trail. Admission + £1.50.

Dinefwr Park and Castle, Carmarthenshire 2-4 April 12-4pm. A weekend of extra special family fun. Explore the park on an easter egg trail, storytelling, facepainting, spring craft making sessions. Admission + £1.50.

Dolaucothi Gold Mines, Carmarthenshire 2-15 April. There's fun for everyone at Dolaucothi Goldmines this Easter. Hunt for Easter eggs and try your luck at gold panning - anything you find is yours to keep! Easter childrens' activities and Easter egg trails.

Aberdulais Falls, Neath 4-5 April 10am-5pm. Follow the trail, find the eggs, win a prize. Plus face-painting and other family fun. Admission + £2.00

Cilgerran Castle, Pembrokeshire 2-5 April 10am-4pm. Take part in a fun family Easter trail and explore the castle ruins and grounds. £1.50.

Colby Woodland Garden, Pembrokeshire 2-5 April 11am-3.30pm. Fun for all ages with our popular Easter trails in the woodland garden. Admission + £1.50.

Tudor Merchant's House, Tenby, Pembrokeshire 2-5 April 11am-4.30pm. Hunt the chick - find the toy easter chicks hidden around the house and win a delicious prize. Admission + £1.50.

Rhossili Visitor Centre and Shop, Gower 4 April 11am - 3pm. Magnificent moths Easter trail. Join in the family fun around Rhossili. Learn all about moths and win a chocolate Easter egg.

Happy egg hunting.

Gull

Easter weekend weather

2010-03-31T14:26:46+00:00

Dafydd Lewis took this picture in New Quay this morning. The combination of low pressure, a strong onshore wind and a high tide caused waves to crash over the harbour wall.

It's also been cold with a significant wind chill. Highest temperatures at St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan only 5 Celsius. Well below the average of 10 Celsius. Lake Vyrnwy in Powys was even colder with a high of 1 Celsius.

Tonight the strong wind will slowly ease. Tomorrow will be less cold with lighter winds. However, more showers and longer spells of rain, sleet and snow are expected. Most of the snow on higher ground, the hills and mountains above about 600 feet. It should become drier and brighter later in the day with some sunshine. Highs typically 7 to 9 Celsius.

On Good Friday more rain will be followed by brighter skies and heavy showers. Over the rest of the Easter weekend, sunshine and April showers sums it up. It will also be breezy at times and feeling chilly with top temperatures between 7 and 10 Celsius. The weather will improve on Sunday but more wind and rain is expected on Bank Holiday Monday.

So a chilly start to April this year but despite the rain and wintry showers, have a happy and peaceful Easter.

Derek

Hare-raising tales for Easter

2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

It was in 325 AD that the Emperor Constantine convened a meeting of Christian bishops in Nicaea (known as The First Council of Nicaea) and amongst other things agreed a date for Easter which would be observed by all Christians.

As a result, Easter became a moveable feast with no fixed date but would always fall on the first Sunday after a full moon following the March equinox.

This year Easter Sunday falls on 20 April after a particularly busy celestial week, with a spectacular lunar eclipse over the Americas, the International Space Station orbiting Britain, and Mars making its closest approach to Earth in six years.

Celebrated by many different religions and cultures, the British interpretation of the word Easter is said to have come from the Anglo-Saxon word Eastre, Eostre or Eoaster.

The name is said to refer to Eostur-monath, a month in the Germanic calendar when feasts were held in honour of the Pagan goddess, Eostre.

This and other Pagan rituals such as Hallowee'n were cleverly merged with Christian festivals by Emperor Constantine in order to keep both the Pagan and Christian faiths happy and maintain his popularity.

One thing that isn't so clear is why we associate Easter with rabbits and eggs.

Chicken and chicks by JBR.

The general consensus is that rabbits come from Pagan symbolism, representing fertility and new growth which accompanies the spring equinox.

Rabbits are excellent at reproducing, but the eggs are a little trickier as rabbits clearly don't lay eggs, not in Wales anyway.

Rabbits do, however, bear a striking resemblance to those mad March hares which, unlike rabbits, give birth above ground and not in burrows.

The young hares, known as leverets, lay hidden in the long grass found along field boundaries to avoid detection from predators such as buzzards and foxes.

Lying motionless and perfectly camouflaged, the young leverets can often be found sharing the same space as lapwings which adopt a similar technique for their own eggs and young.

It's therefore possible that people assumed that hares laid eggs, as both creatures are found in the same habitat during the Easter period.

A hare hiding in long grass by Anthony.

Interestingly, the first references to the Easter bunny originate from around 1620 in the Alsace region on the French/German border where half of all French beer is brewed.

After a few pints of beer, a hare, laying an egg, might not seem quite so implausible.

Eggs also have a long association with fertility and rebirth. The Egyptians and later the Greeks believed that the fiery Phoenix was reborn from a single, scorched egg.

Whatever their history, Easter eggs have been popular for centuries. In 1307 Edward I’s household accounts included an entry that listed: 18 pence for 459 eggs to be boiled and dyed or covered with gold leaf and distributed to the royal household.

Raven eating eggs by Kim Louise.

As for chocolate Easter eggs, one theory suggests that the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I passed a law allowing hot cross buns (associated with Catholicism) only to be sold during Easter and Christmas holidays.

Due to the buns' popularity throughout Europe, chocolate-makers decided to cash in on the seasonal Easter trade and created solid chocolate eggs.

However, others believe that chocolate eggs are a much more recent invention than that and date from the 19th century with John Cadbury producing his first solid chocolate eggs in 1842.

Have a great Easter weekend and if you wish to remain sane, don't mix beer from the Alsace region with your chocolate eggs and bunnies.