SEASONAL SYMBOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20217, 30 March 1929, Page 8

SEASONAL SYMBOLS.

EASTER IN AUCKLAND. £GGS AND. HOT-CROSS BUNS. FORMER NOT IN FAVOUR. PURCHASES IN THE SHOPS. Easter is not specially a gift season in these days. It must be confessed that the Easter egg is at a discount, and almost extinct, like the valentine. True, the Railway Department's holiday time-table booklet boasts a red and yellow cover with a locomotive rushing out of a gigantic broken egg-shell. Otherwise, the symbol seems almost to have been forgotten. Queen Street confectioners' windows on ,Thursday contained a few specimens of the silver paper-covered chocolate kind, but there -were none of the huge affairs that childhood memories recall. From the laden baskets carried homeward by scores of matrons round about four o clock, it seemed as though the ordinary all-the-,year-round hen egg was much more in (demand.

It was otherwise with that other symbolic edible, the hot-cross bun. Years come and go, old customs disappear, but few New Zealand households go without tuns —crossed or not—for tea on Good Friday. Auckland bakeries turned them out by the ten thousand this week, working overtime to meet the demand. There seems to be a doubt whether another institution, the " Easter suit," persists. Some even go so far as to say that St never has had any existence save as a pious hope in the mind of the tailor. True, the confirmed racegoer may need a really smart outfit' to match his wife's new dress on the lawn at Ellerslie, but that is about as far as requirements go. It is yery much a matter of temperature — whether Easter is early or late, whether autumn has made its cold breath 'felt ot not. Most people replenish their winter wardrobe more or less each year, but most of them try to keep a "summer mind"- until the Easter holiday is over. Thus there is usually a good demand for Euch clothes as sweaters and flannels for men and jumper suits for girls and women. Auckland shops did good business in them this week, and in all the things that folk like to take away upon &H excursion—magazines, gramophone records, tinned foods, camping equipment and the like. Drapers report moderately good sales of ladies' frocks for evening parties and the races. Generally speaking, the little fillip that trade gets 'at Easter has been stronger this year than last. Everyone has rather more money to spend, and with a record production year not yet ended the immediate outlOok is a happy one, which holiday spirits faithfully reflect.