Different countries, different Easter.

Even though easter is a religous feast, it is celebrated differently in different countries and cultures. In the following I summed up some Easter Traditions from Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and France. Happy Easter !

Coloured eggs in Germany

In Germany the Easter Tradition already starts on Ash Wednesday - the last day of carnival which is celebrated in a lot of parts in Germany. Religious and nonreligious Germans start the lenting season after the exhausting and excessive carnival season and give up eating sweets, drinking alcohol or being on Facebook until Easter Sunday. Not everyone does that and people become very creative when it comes to the things they give up until easter.

Some weeks before the Holy Week you will find decorated gardens with coloured plastic eggs, little bunnies and colourful flowers in Mrs. Müllers, Schmidts or Meyers front yard. The kids colour and paint cooked eggs but you can also buy coloured eggs in the supermarket.

On Easter Sunday the parents hide little baskets and sweets in the garden, telling the kids that the Easter Bunny left these there for them.

Some families also eat a cake in the form of a lamb on Easter Sunday which is normally white, but my mum had a desire on chocolate this year so she did a "black sheep" :P

Pancake Race in the UK

In the United Kingdom there exist several Traditions around the Easter Feast. The pancake race takes place on the pancake day which is every year on Shrove Tuesday, in February. This day is the last day before the lenting season starts. Check out this video of the London Pancake Race.

During the Easter Holidays, the british people eat "Hot Cross Buns". A sweet, round bread with a cross on top. But actually they sell it over the whole year in every supermarket and eat it also on funerals and on christmas. For believing Christians, the cross symbolises the crucifixion of Jesus . For heathens it symbolises the beginning of spring.

Something which only appears during easter, in the UK supermarkets, are the big chocolate eggs from every brand and in every style you can imagine. It is given to the kids on easter sunday.

Meanwhile british kids search for eggs in their gardens or in public parcs as well, maybe some German influence? ;)

No egg hunt in Spain

On Palm Sunday „Domingo de Ramos“ ( A week before Easter Sunday) spanish kids wait in front of the church with palm leaves in their hands ( sometimes the leaves are draped with sweets) to let them be blessed - traditionally the palms are given to the kids by their godparents. This tradition reminds on Jesus arrival in Jerusalem.

On Good Friday believing Christians in spain dress in black and eat fish instead of meat. During the holy weeks several processions take place in order to remind on the sufferings of Jesus.

The clothing reminded me on first sight on the Ku Klux Klan but these two things have defenitely nothing in common :P.

Unlike other countries, it is not common in Spain to search for eggs. Instead the children receive an Easter Bread, the so called: "Monas de pascua". In the middle of the bread there is a cooked egg inside and it is also given to the children by their godparents.

Flying bells in France

In France it's not the Easter bunny who brings the sweets and eggs, but the church bells. The parents tell their kids that from Holy Thursday on the church bells don't ring because they flew to Rome to get blessed in order to bring away all the sadness about Jesu's dead.

The bells then return on Easter Sunday and during their flight back, they drop sweets, which can be found in the gardens. Then they ring again to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

A typical french dish during the Easter Feast is: „Gigot d’agneau“. It's a lamb dish - check out the recipe here. Typical French Easter sweets are chocolate bells (what else? :P). And also seafood out of chocolate, which is linked to the tradition to eat fish instead of meat on Good Friday.

Where are you from and what Easter Traditions do you celebrate? Write it in the comments ;)

#culture