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While German Easter habits don’t stray greatly from American customs, for example easter egg hunting and consuming too much bunny-shaped chocolate, the rest of the world has some exciting, unique traditions worth knowing. Did you know eggs represent the renewal of life and that’s how they got the job of Easter representatives?
Bermuda
Flying a kite. The origin of this tradition is attributed to a local Sunday school teacher, who wanted to explain the idea of Easter to his students by flying a kite meant to represent Jesus’s ascend to heaven. Nowadays, it comes with a huge Good Friday festival all over Bermuda that attracts locals and visitors from across the globe alike with brightly coloured kites and delicious food.
Sweden
Similar to American children on Halloween, Easter is all about dressing up in several areas of Sweden and some parts of Finland.
Kids dress up as old witches and paint freckles on their faces based on folklore that witches used to meet up in Blåkulla and dance with the devil on the Thursday before Easter. Nowadays, they just go from door to door asking for candy offering to bless people’s houses in return.
Australia
In an effort to draw attention to non-native animals such as foxes and rabbits threatening native species, Australia got rid of the Easter bunny and its chocolate companions in 1991. Instead, they introduced the “Easter Bilby” because bilbies are endangered and need the extra love.
New Zealand
Their Kiwi neighbors took a different approach to their struggle with an overpopulation of rabbits so their Easter tradition is less sweet and includes hunting them with rifles. The bunnies, that is. Not the Australians.
France
A personal favorite of them all is the village of Haux, France. Each year, the town tosses roughly 4,500 eggs into a huge pan and makes an enormous omelet for everyone who shows up, which tends to be around 1,000 people.
Greece
The Greek color of Easter is red and while American easter eggs come in all colors, theirs are all red. Red is both the color of life and represents the blood of Christ.
Hungary
The original rite of ‘sprinkling’ included buckets of water being poured over the heads of girls of marriageable age. According to the story, Roman soldiers wanted to silence the women of Jerusalem who were proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus, so they poured water on them. Nowadays, this tradition has largely died out and was replaced by spraying perfume on them. Girls will wear pretty dresses and wait for the unannounced visitors with home-baked goods and painted eggs.
United Kingdom
Brits have a culinary tradition named hot cross buns. Spiced buns are decorated with a cross made from flour paste, which represents the cross Jesus died on.
