April 2021 Magazine

Celebrating Easter
around the world
the 1600s, the town vowed to perform a
Passion Play every decade if God would
spare the town. After the death rate
decreased following the performance, it’s
been a tradition there ever since.
On April 4th, many countries and
communities around the world will
celebrate Easter Sunday, a day which
serves as a reminder of the Christian
belief in the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ nearly 2000 years ago. The
date of Easter changes each year as it is
linked to various religious dates and the
phases of the moon. There are a number
of days which are significant around
Easter where Christians celebrate different
traditions; Palm Sunday – celebrated
as the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem
on a donkey and named after the palm
leaves that were said to have been laid
on the ground before him. Next comes
Good Friday, which marks the day that
Jesus was crucified and died, his body
being laid to rest in a cave belonging to
Joseph of Arimathea. Many Christian
communities commemorate Good Friday
by holding processions, often following
a cross or a coffin to represent Jesus’s
death. Easter Saturday is part of Easter
but does not hold a major religious
significance but on Easter Sunday,
Christians celebrate the resurrection of
Jesus by going to church, sending cards,
exchanging Easter eggs and meeting
friends and family. They believe that Jesus
was resurrected, and this signifies a new
beginning, new life and new hope for the
world. Easter Sunday is the traditional
day on which the Easter Bunny delivers
Easter eggs to children, another tradition
marking both the new life expected
in the coming spring (in the Northern
hemisphere) and the circle of life. Easter
Monday is then the fourth day in the
Easter weekend and in the UK, is a bank
holiday, as is Good Friday.
So how does the rest of the world
celebrate Easter? Read on to discover
some interesting and potentially
surprising Easter customs and traditions.
On Easter Sunday in Australia, children
receive chocolate Easter eggs and
chocolate ‘bilbies’ instead of the
traditional chocolate rabbit. Bilbies or
rabbit-eared bandicoots, are nocturnal
marsupials with long pointed ears like
rabbits, but are preferred in Australia
because rabbits are viewed as pests so
don’t have the same cute appeal that
they do in Western countries.
In Germany, Easter Sunday is known as
‘Family Day’ and it’s traditional to burn
your Christmas tree on an Easter fire
reminding Germans that winter is over
and spring is coming. A lot of Germans
also decorate an Easter tree either inside
or outside their house using real
hard-boiled eggs, painted in bright
colours.
In Russia during the 1800s, the tradition
of decorating eggs became fashionable
and a jeweller and goldsmith called Peter
Fabergé was commissioned to create
Easter egg masterpieces for the Tsar and
other Russian nobles. Some of the eggs
took a year to create because they were
so intricate and decorated with precious
metals and stones. Needless to say, they
also cost a pretty penny too!!
Eggs in Greece are painted red to
represent the blood of Jesus and when
friends meet up, they often tap their eggs
together saying “Christos anesti” which
means “Christ is risen”. Other countries
often practice egg tapping too and it
is sometimes called egg fighting, egg
pacquering or egg jarping! In Marksville,
Louisiana, USA, there is an official egg
tapping competition each year and the
winners have to prove their eggs are
genuine by eating them at the end of the
competition.
In the French town of Bessières, they use
their eggs differently, making an omelette
at Easter – but it includes about 15,000
eggs and is cooked in a pan which is over
4 metres in diameter. Other European
countries and the USA enjoy eating a
traditional hot cross bun made with dried
fruit and spices decorated with a white
cross to represent the crucifixion.
Another American tradition is the annual
Easter egg roll on the lawn of the White
House. It was first held in 1878 when
President Rutherford B Hayes organised
the event after meeting some children on
his daily walk. Nowadays, it’s the job of
the First Lady and is usually held on Easter
Monday.
A lot of European countries celebrate
Easter with a Passion Play, in which they
present the life and death of Jesus as a
play. This tradition dates back to medieval
times when the Catholic church used
the play format to educate people about
Christ in an accessible and entertaining
way. The plays are usually a promenade
performance in which the actors and
audience move from space to space
around a town. One particularly famous
version is held in Oberammergau,
Germany every ten years, with the next
presentation due in 2022. Legend has
it that during a plague at the start of
In Bermuda, the celebrations are higher,
quite literally - people fly colourful
homemade kites on Good Friday to
represent Jesus rising up from the grave
and eventually ascending into heaven 40
days after Easter - a time known as ‘the
ascension’.
If you’re up for something a little wilder
(and wetter), then in Hungary, Ukraine,
the Czech Republic or Poland, there is a
tradition called the ‘Watering of the girls’
or ‘Dousing Day’. Dressed in traditional
costumes, girls run down the street and
boys throw buckets of water over them in
a ‘cleansing’ and fertility ritual. They boys
are then ‘rewarded’ by being given Easter
eggs, flowers and coins by the girls but in
some countries, this tradition has evolved
into a massive community water fight!
And if that’s not enough, in Florence,
Italy, the town council pack a cart full of
fireworks and drag it through the streets
before setting them off outside the
cathedral in an event known as ‘Scoppio
del Carro” – literally the “explosion of the
cart!”
So whether you’ll be having an egg hunt,
an egg/water fight, a sombre Passion
Play, a giant omelette or flying a kite this
Easter weekend, let us know by sending
your pictures to hello@parenta.com and
whatever you do, have fun!
24 April 2021 | parenta.com
parenta.com | April 2021 25