This Easter holiday season once again invites you to Cape Town. The place ‘to see and be seen.’ And there is always a plethora of activities and events during our festive seasons from whichever – of our three luxury hotels – you choose to visit.
In the ‘slipstream’ of the Cape Cycle Tour, many of whose participants linger here, we have much to offer around your stay with us at The Cellars-Hohenort Hotel & Spa. We have on our menu, catered especially for children and the magical world which they are privileged to be part of. Our ‘Easter Egg Hunt’ is a child’s paradise. The gardens speak for themselves. The perfect setting with shades and hiding places for the Easter bunny to hide his eggs; all interspersed among the natural beauty of our flowers, ferns and fauna. Our special Easter Sunday lunch at R645 per person, including an Easter Egg Hunt, needs only affirmation of its consistent excellence. Traditions are important to many as are traditional values and beliefs all celebrated at this time of year.
Perhaps that is the importance of remembering the serendipitous confluence of traditional beliefs which Cape Town celebrates at this time of year. Pesach and Ramadan intersect with Easter. Cape Town has something for everyone. Handle’s Messiah, for instance, is performed each year. This year on Easter Sunday, the 9th of April, it will be performed at the Playhouse Opera. For Pesach too Cape Town has specific Seder retreats.
More proximally, The Marine Hotel offers their own renowned wonderland and ever popular traditional Easter Sunday Lunch, at R615 per person, while the whole demographic demeanor of Hermanus adds its own magical dimension to the occasion. The constancy of tradition with the forever unpredictable changing elegance of the sunrises and sunsets over the ocean offer a perfect coastal weekend away. Here, on the terrace, the lingering rays of the sun add something really special to the day. It’s like a spell has been cast.
The uniqueness of Hermanus is also reflected in its outdoor market. It’s labyrinthian design is the perfect place for children to expend some overcharged with excitement ‘battery life’. Individual stalls host exquisitely handcrafted local art, jewellery and crafts showcasing a wide variety and diversity of talent which one will find nowhere else in the world. A perfect complement to a weekend here.
The Plettenberg Hotel is remarkable in its location too. And to keep the mystery of the occasion consistent but not redundant, we offer a ‘gifted egg’ to our guests on this special occasion. Adding a special touch of class and ‘repurposing’ of the Easter egg’s significance as a symbol of rebirth and eternal life. Ours is a symbol of opportunity which you leave with.
From Pagan origins and rituals to contemporary celebrations, from Easter eggs to hot cross buns, and rabbits to chocolate, we can place this collection of continuities on a timeline beginning with Constantine’s adoption and appreciation of these original festivities into the Christian faith to which he converted in AD 312. He clearly decided there was something going on – perhaps something sustainable especially in the context of the times in which he lived. Transferring and absorbing practices and festivals could only strengthen his conversion and as bonus points re absorb and subtly transform these ideas into traditions which we appreciate in the 21st century. Kudos to Constantine. And as a visionary of what has become a media market economy, he got it right.
Ramadan begins on the 24th of March with it is a profound period of cleansing and fasting. Cleansing and fasting prominent in all three religions unify a universal need. Laylatul Qadr, the Night of Power – the Holiest Night during Ramadan is the considered the night on which the early versus of the Koran were revealed to the prophet Mohammed. Also, a night of supreme significance to open our minds. We are all one under heaven and so fortunate to have the ‘most beautiful city in the world’ featuring so many festive events.
All three faiths intersect. Constantine would commend our secular selection of celebrations.
