Five eccentric Easter traditions from around the world

Like my family, your’s probably has its own eccentric easter traditions, doesn’t it?

In our family, easter is pretty much the same every year:

• Same movie every year for many, many years in the row
• We always paint eggs
• The same Easter Bunny (I’ve never once spotted him or her). But he/she always left yummy easter eggs

That’s what Easter traditions mean to me and now to my children.

I’d love to know how you celebrate easter. Please put your story on the comments section.

Celebrations and customs vary from country to country. Some are eccentric, interesting and tasty.

GERMANY

A decorated easter tree with more than 9000 Easter eggs in Saalfeld, Eastern Germany. Though this tradition could remind us of the pagan ideas of sacrificing animals on trees, the egg is connected to the ideas of rebirth and resurrection associated with Easter. How magnificent!

SPAIN

On Holy Thursday in the Medieval town of Verges, the traditional Christmas “death dance” is performed. Everyone dresses in skeleton costumes and parades through the streets. The procession ends with frightening skeletons carrying boxes of ashes. The macabre dance begins at midnight and continues for three hours into the early morning.

NORWAY

Easter is such a popular time for Norwegians to read crime novels that publishers actually come out with special “Easter thrillers” known as Paaskekrimmen. The tradition started in 1923 when a book publisher promoted its new crime novel on the front pages of newspapers.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

There’s not much use for chocolate in the hot and humid jungles of Papua New Guinea, so Easter trees at the front of churches are decorated with sticks of tobacco and cigarettes instead. These are handed out after the service.

FINLAND

One of the easter traditions in Finland is that children dress up as witches and wander the streets with broomsticks in the hunt for treats.The tradition came from the belief that witches would fly to Germany and cavort with Satan. Bonfires are meant to scare the witches who fly around on brooms between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

GREECE

On the morning of Holy Saturday, the people of Corfu throw pots, pans and other earthenware out of their windows, smashing them on the street. They believe the throwing of the pots welcomes spring and the new crops that will be gathered in the new pots.

Next Easter, consider getting a teepee and decorating it in your own easter traditions.

Happy Easter from Celia.