At Easter Morris dancers, who are not in the least fashionable except in spring, suddenly find themselves in demand. These troupes of dancers are almost exclusively male, rarely seen outside of small villages and are normally associated with a particular public house. Many pubs in England will have a darts team or a quiz team but there are only a few that can boast their own troupe of Morris dancers. As with playing darts, the availability of beer is an important part of this hobby. The amazing thing about Morris dancers is not that there are so few of them, it is that they have survived at all: grown men dressed in silly costumes, skipping around waving handkerchiefs and pigs' bladders to the accompaniment of ancient folk tunes have limited appeal to most of modern society as a source of entertainment. However, they have survived and have spread to places as distant as Canada and New Zealand.

If you want to fully enjoy all the old English Easter traditions, the best place to be is in a quiet village far from any of the big cities. The village church will be beautifully decorated with fresh flowers. The village Easter Bunny will hide Easter eggs for the local children to find during the traditional Easter egg hunt. The Morris dancers will leap and prance at the slightest encouragement. The village bakery will offer fragrant hot cross buns warm from the oven and Simnel cakes with home made marzipan. Easter Sunday dinner will be roast lamb with mint sauce and all the traditional trimmings. Chocolate will be guilt-free for a whole weekend.

Apart from the weather, which will almost certainly include showers, the experience of Easter in a quiet English village couldn't be more idyllic. It is only in a friendly village at this time of year that you can witness anything approaching a return to a more innocent time. There are not many places I can think of where an adult can dress up in a rabbit costume and hand out chocolate to children without having to worry about getting arrested, and men dressed all in white can skip and wave handkerchiefs at each other without attracting the wrong sort of attention. The English village is definitely the place to be for Easter. It is also the best place to enjoy May Day celebrations, but that's another story.

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