In the Workshop over Easter

Witton Fell Hare takes shape in the workshop this Easter – I’m working over the long weekend which also coincides with the change to British Summer Time.  No time to lose, we lost an hour!

The Hare of course is long associated with this time of year and so it is fitting to be carving it now (in fact it is often depicted in the Spring segments in Labours of the Months – the medieval imagery depicting in twelve scenes the rural activities that commonly took place in the months of the year):

The Easter bunny is said to have been the bird which at one time drew the chariot of the Goddess of Spring and was turned into a hare. Every year however, at the coming of spring the hare remembers, and in commemoration of its original bird nature lays eggs as an offering to Spring which it has come symbolize.

But perhaps it is that Hares are indigenous to Britain and were sacred animals in pre-Christian times, (the rabbit was introduced into this country by the Normans). Both are prolific reproducers and so are associated with the birth and renewal of springtime, the season in which Easter falls.

Hare sculpture carved in Witton Fell Sandstone – work in progress