Holy Saturday - Nutters Dance

COUNTDOWN TO CREME EGG ... ONE DAY!

Traditional Holy Saturday Event: The Bacup Nutters Dance traditionally takes place on this day in the small Pennine town of Bacup. Each year a team of folk-dancers with blackened faces dance trough the town from boundary to boundary. A form of Morris dancing, the blackened faces may either reflect a need for the dancers to disguise their faces from evil spirits, or have a mining connection. The tradition of this dance is thought to date back to 1857. Visit www.coconutters.co.uk

It is the Saturday before Easter, the last day of Lent and is the day when Christ's body lay in his tomb. In the early church Holy Saturday was a day of fasting and preparation for the Easter Vigil. Holy Saturday is also often incorrectly called Easter Saturday, a term that correctly refers to the following Saturday after Easter. Easter Vigil, dating back to at least the Roman times, takes place on Holy Saturday. The Easter Vigil is a service held in many Christian churches as the official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. The Easter Vigil is celebrated by the use of a wax candle which is inscribed with a cross. The letters alpha and omega are inscribed at the top and bottom and the four numbers representing the current year are inscribed above and below the cross arms. Five grains representing the wounds of Christ are sometimes pushed into the soft wax.