Happy Easter to you, too! Though being Greek, my Easter isn't until May 5 this year. I don't ever recall there being this much of a difference between Western & Eastern Easter, but next year it's the same.

Enjoy the Hallelujah Chorus. It's one of my favorites. Hopefully, you're not also singing "And He Shall Purify".

A happy Easter from England, where is is still considered quite an OK expression; I don't understand why it should be frowned on in the US? I hope the singing went well. Were the 'songs' in fact hymns? Over here there seems to be a trend to fit new words to old hymns tunes, which always strikes me as unnecessary.
Do you go in for Easter Bonnets, Easter Eggs or maybe the old 'Germanic' baking traditions brought over by early immigrants?

It was a mix of traditional hymns and a couple of newfangled songs. The new bits are in a traditional vein, however. I don't know why it is frowned on; although I myself am a devout churchgoing Christian (a liberal one, imagine that) I certainly recognize the pagan origins of this ancient holiday. We do love our Easter Eggs and even have an elaborate one on the White House lawn in our nation's capital. And the baked goods at the church for coffee hour were quite spectacular, fashioned like bird's nests, chickens, etc. Plenty of Easter dinners, too.

Alas, the singing did not go that well. Despite our best efforts, the jazzy Alleluia piece our pastor wrote proved too complicated and we were not remotely together or in tune with each other. Live music, you have to love it! No do-overs.

Vee, "they" keep trying to tell us the U.S. is no longer a Christian nation, and we should more or less shut up already. Nevertheless, I'm a Christian so Happy Easter to all of you. And I did wear a hat to church this morning. Not many people do anymore, so I'm not sure if I am a trend setter or the last of the Mohicans.

I noticed this year the news programs gave brief explanations when there were Easter rituals mentioned. Although Australia is deemed as a Protestant Christian country with the Queen as Head of the Church, we are a multi-faith society in reality.
This means that we enthusiastically celebrate and enjoy all the holidays!
Happy Easter!

While I am not particularly religious, I cheerfully wished any number of people a Happy Easter this year. And my husband and I went to a sing-along performance of Handel's Messiah at a local church last week. Neither one of us can carry a tune so we mostly listened, but at the conductor's urging, everyone sang the Hallelujah Chorus, even me (though without volume so as not to pull everyone else off key). We enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Rosefolly

Finally, I am able to log in here. I could not get on this forum all last week.

I did not see any hot cross buns in our city, although I looked for them. However, I did see some Easter hatted folk walking the sidewalks here. In some cities, Easter parades are still held. It is traditionally a family time, with reunions, a four day holiday, here. When I was young, it was the custom to serve either a ham or lamb, with mint jelly for the feast.

Vee, I still wish people a Happy Easter, all the while knowing that we are a multi-cultural nation, increasingly. It is also the time of Passover for Jews, spring fests for Wiccans, etc. etc. I think the "political correctness" issue has been taken a bit too far in recent years....

I used to wear a hat on Easter, until I joined the choir. I can't wear a hat unless everyone wears a hat and there is some resistance to that idea. A shame, IHMO.

And now it's Happy April Fool's Day!