Chances are if you grew up in the United States you’ll have Easter memories of getting all dressed up in a fancy new outfit for the Easter service at church, moms doing their daughters hair and wearing hats, dying Easter eggs and going Easter egg hunting and eating lots of candy.
The Easter egg roll in Washington, DC, at the White House has been going on for over 130 years. Kids are given an Easter egg and a wooden spoon and they race to see who can get it across the finish line first.
American traditions like these make for wonderful Easter memories.
Wherever there is Christianity there are Easter celebrations. Here are some traditional Easter celebrations from around the world that might be new to you.
Let’s start out with a controversial one from The Philippines: Some devout Catholics practice self-crucifixion and self-flagellation on Easter thinking that it helps purify them and cleanse the sins of the world. The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t like this at all and have tried to discourage it without success.
Multicolored eggs are known around the world at Easter, but in Greece you will only find red eggs. Greeks consider red the color of life and it also represents the blood of Christ.
If you’re a woman in the Czech Republic or Slovenia you might want to stay indoors on Easter Monday because men roam around with decorated willow switches trying to find women to lightly whip. It’s not meant to hurt, but to encourage health and beauty. I don’t think that would fly in the United States.
In Russia, the Easter meal is always accompanied by butter molded into the shape of a lamb. Meeting a lamb has always been considered lucky in Russia going back centuries. The devil can transform himself into any creature except the lamb because of its religious symbolism.
In an attempt to create awareness of the endangered Bilby population, Australians eat chocolate Bilbys instead of chocolate bunnies. Bilbys are a rabbit sized marsupial and the sales of the chocolates help to save the species.
Chocolate isn’t much use in the steamy 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.
In Finland, Easter is almost like Halloween. The children dress up as witches and search the streets for treats.
Be careful where you walk in Poland on Smigus-dyngus (Easter Monday). You may be assailed with buckets, balloons and pistols filled with water. Wear waterproof clothing or be prepared to get soaked. It’s believed the tradition dates back to fertility rituals, but today the holiday is just an excuse for the young and young-at-heart to join in a countrywide water fight.
The Easter Festival in Antigua, Guatemala, is the largest Easter celebration in the world. It’s a week-long celebration during which the community commemorates the passion and crucifixion of Jesus by conducting somber processional marches, carrying floats with large sculptures of Jesus and Mary. Sand and colored sawdust are painstakingly designed and laid in the streets in intricate patterns for the march to proceed over. On Easter Sunday, the city joyously celebrates the resurrection of Jesus with fireworks and the solemnity of the Lenten season is over.
Easter on the island of Bermuda is a colorful affair. People all over the island head out to fly vibrantly decorated homemade kites creating a beautiful display. In addition, traditional foods like codfish cakes and hot cross buns are consumed to mark the holiday, usually after attending a sunrise Easter service on the water. Don’t plan to skip out on the hot cross buns because Bermudians have a superstition that if you don’t eat a hot cross bun on Good Friday your house will burn down. Enjoy your Easter traditions and happy Easter
Enjoy your Easter traditions and happy Easter to all from The Reporter Gang. — K.W.C.
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