Easter traditions around the world

Like Christmas, Easter is a Christian holiday. There are many customs and Easter traditions around the world.

Celebrations are different from country to country, ranging from purely religious in some places to more akin to a community holiday or a spring arrival celebration elsewhere.

Spain

Known as “Semana Santa” in Spanish, the celebrations start with “Domingo de Ramos”, or Palm Sunday, and finish with “Lunes de Pascua”, or Easter Monday. In many cities (especially in Andalusia), several different religious brotherhoods parade through the streets commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus.

Greece

In the island of Corfu, “Pot Throwing” takes place on the morning of Holy Saturday. People throw pots, pans and other earthenware out of their windows, smashing them on the street.The tradition marks the beginning of spring and it’s supposed to symbolize the new crops that will be gathered in new pots.

Finland and Sweden

Kids dress up as witches and go from door to door to ask for sweets. The kids usually offer the adults decorated willow branches or drawings in return for the treats.

Norway

A curious Easter celebration takes place in Norway. “Passkekrim” involves a game of solving crimes and it has become tradition to get together as a family, watch or read crime mysteries and figure out who the killer was! During Easter even milk cartons feature mystery murder stories on their sides.

France

On Easter Monday, dozens of cooks make a giant omelette to celebrate Easter in the small village of Bessières in southwest France. That omelette will be cooked in a frying pan with a diameter of four metres and will require around 15,000 eggs to make.

Eastern Europe

Easter in Eastern Europe and East Central Europe is an enormously important holiday, whether those celebrating are Orthodox or Catholic. Easter is celebrated with special foods, Easter markets, Easter festivals and the world famous decorated Easter Eggs.

United States

Easter egg hunt is probably the most well known and most anticipated by children in the US and many other countries. From small families to the White House, the Easter egg hunt is a tradition that involve everybody.

Bermuda

On Easter Friday, the locals celebrate by flying home-made kites.The tradition has begun when a local teacher had difficulty explaining Christ’s ascension to Heaven to his Sunday school class. He made a kite and shaped it like a cross to illustrate the Ascension to the kids.

Australia

In many countries the rabbit is a symbol of the Easter celebrations. In Australia it is not a symbol anymore (poor bunny), because it is considered to be often responsible for agricultural destructions. But hey, the Australians came up with their own Easter animal — Bilby, a small marsupial with rabbit-like ears.

Brazil

One of the Easter tradition in Brazil is to make straw dolls of Judas, bring them out to the streets to beat them up.

Easter is right around the corner and if you’ve spent most of your Easter breaks snoozing till noon, stuffing yourself with lots of chocolate bunnies, eggs or watching your favourite show on TV, you can do something different this year!

Photo credits: Alexander Shalamov, Amarosy, Arivag, Deeadum, Famveldman, Sofya Puntusova.