Easter Weekend in London

As you may or may not know, it’s Easter next weekend and for many people in the UK, including those at the London School of English, it means a few days off work.

We have bank holidays on Good Friday (29th March) and Easter Monday (1st April) so it’s a 4 day weekend and the school is closed except for a few individual tuition classes.

Easter is a Christian holiday which commemorates the death and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is one of the main Christian festivals of the year, but for people less religious it is often viewed as a nice break from their daily routine. People often take the opportunity to visit family or friends in other parts of the country or if they stay at home, spend some time in the garden or doing some DIY around the house.

There always seems to be a lot going on at Easter and next weekend is no exception. Not only is there the FA Cup quarter final replay between Chelsea and Manchester United (1^st April), but also there is the Oxford v’s Cambridge Boat Race along the River Thames on Sunday (31^st March 4.30pm). This will be the 159^th time the two universities have competed in the race, with Cambridge winning 81 times compared to Oxford with 76 wins. On few occasions there hasn’t been a result, but the race still draws many crowds to the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake.

If the boat race is not you cup of tea, you could try the alternative Goat Race in which 2 goats wearing the Oxford and Cambridge colours race around a city farm. This race takes place at the same time as the real boat race. There’s also a free performance of ‘The Passion of Jesus’, a play about his death in Trafalgar square on Good Friday (29^th March) as well as The Easter Film Hop which is screening popular films on giant screens  over the weekend. The films are shown with loud music, dancing and drinking and the audience receive their audio through headphones. Whatever your fancy I’m sure London will have something to offer over the Easter weekend

Personally, my favourite thing about Easter has to be the food and when I say food, I mean Chocolate Easter eggs. It’s common for people to spend all weekend giving, receiving and eating chocolate eggs and me being a bit of a chocoholic, I have to say that I love it. People often have big family meals and cook all sorts of delicious dishes and the most popular are lamb and fish. Overall, Easter is a happy time of the year for a lot of people although it’s nowhere near as big as the Christmas holiday.

By Ben

Glossary

to commemorate the death of somebody (phr.) - to keep alive and remember the memory of someone's death.

the resurrection  (n.) – returning to life after being dead.

to do some DIY (col.) – to construct and repairing things in your home yourself, without any expert help.

a lot going on (phr.) - many events happening.

no exception (phr.) - not excluded from the general rule or pattern.

it draws many crowds to the River Thames (phr.)- many people are attracted to the River Thames.

not you cup of tea (idm.) – used to describe something you don’t like very much which doesn’t suit your taste.

fancy (n.) – a feeling of liking or attraction.

a chocoholic (n.) - a person who loves and eats a lot of chocolate.

nowhere near (phr.)- far from, used to emphasize the difference.