Weekend Rewind: Offbeat Easter

Jo Seager. Photo / NZ On Screen

NZ On Screen's Zara Potts focuses on a few offbeat Easter associations this long weekend.

It's Easter and, while for many, that means bingeing on chocolate or whingeing about the shops being closed, perhaps we should all take a moment and reflect on some of the traditions associated with the religious holiday.

Easter has many associations – eggs, rabbits, crosses and hymns – and our screen history has many titles that reflect this. Okay, so maybe they're not all spiritual in nature, but we thought we'd go out on a bit of a limb and find some links where possibly they don't exist.

Let's start with bunnies. While we can't find many TV shows or films about the Easter Bunny – we have got the next best thing: The White Rabbit, as performed by the late, great Peter Posa.

Watch The White Rabbit here:

And of course, what would Easter be without people eating their own body weight in chocolate and Hot Cross Buns? If you want to prepare the perfect Easter spread, we've got you covered. Well, Jo Seagar has anyway. Easy peasy!

Watch Jo Seagar's Easy Peasy Easter here:

Hymns are another staple of the Easter weekend. Even if you don't go to church, you can still enjoy a good hymn, especially if it's set to the glorious choreography of the late Douglas Wright.

Watch Gloria here:

You might not know this, but 80s band The Screaming MeeMees reportedly based their early song writing on hymns they'd learnt at Catholic school. Not traditionally a band associated with Easter, this video by the ska-punk band still has some religious elements scattered liberally throughout.

Watch See Me Go here:

If you were lucky enough to have been a kid in the 80s, you will no doubt remember this television ad for Cadbury's Creme Egg. The original egg was quite a lot bigger in those days and connoisseurs will also tell you that it also tasted different to today's version.

Watch Don't Get Caught here:

As you'd expect, crucifixes also feature pretty heavily in Easter symbology, and there's no shortage of bands who make use of the powerful imagery in their videos. Kiwi band Pluto, however, took it one step further, by including the symbol in a song title.

Watch Pluto's Long White Cross here: