Easter egg hunts, church services and trips to the Suffolk coast ushered in the long weekend yesterday.

East Anglian Daily Times: Bikers gather outside The Kingfisher pub in Ipswich to deliver 300 Easter eggs to children that have been collected at the pub.Bikers gather outside The Kingfisher pub in Ipswich to deliver 300 Easter eggs to children that have been collected at the pub.

Despite not being blessed with outstanding weather, Good Friday saw plenty of people enjoying the first of a double bill of Bank Holidays.

In Felixstowe the traditional open-air church service marked the start of the Easter celebrations.

East Anglian Daily Times: An Easter Walk of Witness takes place in Bury St Edmunds. Picture: GREGG BROWNAn Easter Walk of Witness takes place in Bury St Edmunds. Picture: GREGG BROWN

Between 300 and 400 people are thought to have gathered in the town for a lively, musical service about the Easter message.

The event’s musical director, Any Rayner, said: “It was a great turnout. We were blessed with good weather which is always good for that service.

East Anglian Daily Times: An Easter Walk of Witness takes place in Bury St Edmunds. Picture: GREGG BROWNAn Easter Walk of Witness takes place in Bury St Edmunds. Picture: GREGG BROWN

“Obviously any open-air event in the UK has some degree of risk but especially at Easter it’s important as a church we are not sitting inside our own churches but standing in the middle of town and celebrating Easter is an important thing.”

The open-air service has been going for several decades, and it is followed up this weekend by a 6am service on the seafront on Sunday.

East Anglian Daily Times: Families enjoy some crabbing in Walberswick on Good Friday. Daniel and Tom Joiner. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWNFamilies enjoy some crabbing in Walberswick on Good Friday. Daniel and Tom Joiner. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN

In Bury St Edmunds, children set off on a trail around the picturesque setting of the Abbey Gardens in search of Easter eggs.

Each egg contained a letter to reveal a secret code word, with a prize for those who managed to get the right answer.

Starting from the rangers’ shop, the Easter challenge is taking place over the Bank Holiday weekend from 10am to 4pm.

It costs £1.50 per child and no advance booking is needed.

At the Kingfisher pub in Ipswich a group of bikers set off to the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice and Ipswich Hospital to deliver donated Easter eggs and toys to children.

More than 300 had been collected and pub manager Penny Youngs-Debnam said it was “absolutely wonderful to see”.

She added: “It went really well, there was a very big turnout. It was a group of people all drawn together who did something for the community.”

Hundreds of Christians gathered in Bury St Edmunds for the annual Walk of Witness, with people carrying a cross through the town from St Edmundsbury Cathedral to mark Jesus’s death.

The annual event involves Christians of various denominations, with the cross carried along Angel Hill, up Abbeygate Street and on to Charter Square in the Arc.