The agony of de kite ­— anyone whose ever tried to make or fly a traditional Bermuda kite has felt it.

“Isn’t wrecking kites part of Good Friday,” said Hubert Watlington. “I love Easter and especially Good Friday, the beginning of spring and kites. Every year I make kites, fly them and wreck them,” he said. “I have a photo of my brother James’ kite which shows it flying with some of the panels blown out. It kept going for a bit longer while mine had already crashed and burned. You can see the ‘joy’ in his stance as this big kite crashes into Jews Bay.”

Maybe the moral lesson behind Bermuda kite building is humility.

The Bermuda Boys Brigade First Bermuda Company recently organised a special kite-making session to introduce all the joy and frustration to another generation.

“It was the first time making a kite for a lot of the boys, and some of the parents,” said Brigade leader David Semos. “Many of the Bermudians had had Bermuda kites before, but always had someone make it for them.”

A lot of the bonding during the kite making session came from a sense of shared frustration.

“The most challenging part was probably cutting out the paper,” Mr Semos said. “For most of the adults who had made kites before, it was a long time ago. That’s because it’s a lot of work to make a Bermuda kite.

“You have to remember things like putting the dark paper on last. You have to get the paper tight. To get good at making a Bermuda kite you have to practice, practice, practice.”

The work was challenging, but the children were enthusiastic and excited.

Terry Norsworthy made a kite with his ten-year-old son, John, during the activity.

“It was not the first time I have made a Bermuda kite, and the frame and strings were already done for us,” he said. “However it has been a few years since I attempted one, and I still had the challenge of cutting the tissue paper to the right size with blunt scissors and sticky fingers covered with glue.

“It was my son’s first attempt though and it was a bit of a challenge to maintain the level of concentration required. The tissue paper was completed with only one accident with a finger going through it, mine, but we managed to repair it with a patch, and have kept some paper for future patches if required. I still have to connect the string correctly, which is an art in itself. I will probably be attempting that tonight. Hopefully she will fly on Friday!”

Mr Semos said everyone had a great time.

Some first-time kite-makers make a kite to completion but then feel an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction. They might feel that it doesn’t quite look like the winning kite at the Agricultural Exhibition last year. The colours don’t quite match.

“Last year, was the first time that I ever ‘truly’ flew a kite,” said Regina Q Simmons. “While I’ve owned many kites as a child, my idea of flying a kite was laying the kite on the ground, grabbing the string and then taking off running as fast as I could with the kite chasing behind me. The kite stayed up as long as I continued to run so of course that was not for very long.”

She said last year she set out to make a real Bermuda kite for her young sons.

“We spent an entire Saturday afternoon at the Phoenix Store watching a kite making expert teach us how to do it,” she said. “We had no idea how much work making a kite entailed, but we were determined. We cut all the decorative tissue paper to size and glued them on.”

Unfortunately, she said the kite looked like a “hot mess” when they finished. Still they were going to fly it, until an uncle showed up with the king of all kites.

“Good Friday came and Uncle Thomas showed up at the house with his fancy handmade Bermuda kite with blue and white Chelsea Football Club stickers on it,” said Ms Simmons. “Thomas is a Liverpool fan so this was a big deal. I was told that he stayed up all night making these kites for his nephews so of course they had to be flown. The kite we had made became a quick afterthought and still has not seen the light of day.”