The worse the combination of clothes, the better: In Sweden, girls dress up as Easter witches
Quelle: Getty Images/Johner RF/Anna Kern
Sweden: Halloween plus Walpurgis equals Easter
Fif the witches in this country only come to the Blocksberg on Walpurgis Night, the witches in Sweden already saddle their brooms towards Blåkulla on Maundy Thursday to celebrate the witches’ sabbath with the devil on this uninhabited Baltic Sea island. This popular belief led Swedish girls to dress as Holy Thursdays or Holy Saturdays Easter witches (Easter witch or Easter woman) dress up: long skirts, apron and headscarf – the worse the combination of clothing, the better, plus painted freckles and red cheeks. For boys, a hat and painted mustache are enough to qualify as Easter man (Easter man) to go through.
Dressed up like this, they go around the houses and beg for sweets. A Nordic version of Halloween, in which it’s not just about “trick or treating”, but the candy is paid for with self-painted Easter pictures and good wishes.
The tradition of dressing up began around 1850 in western Sweden. Over the decades, it has spread across the country and is maintained to this day.
Karlshamn in Blekinge in southern Sweden goes a step further, as the travel portal schwedenstube.de knows: For the “Blåkullahopp” competition, hundreds of children dressed up in costumes gather with their parents on Easter Saturday in the coastal town’s market square. Together they then march to a park, accompanied by music, where a big competition – with or without a broom – takes place. Wooden eggs are scattered around the destination, which the finders can exchange for sweets.
Greece: Holy Light as a lucky charm
For Orthodox Christians, Easter is the biggest church festival of the year, including in Greece. The customs surrounding the resurrection, spring, rebirth and the end of Lent are rich in symbolism.
Such a big festival needs to be well prepared, so it starts on Holy Tuesday. Then a sweet yeast wreath, the so-called “tsoureki”, is baked together with red colored Easter eggs. The eggs are a symbol of rebirth, the color represents the blood of Christ.
In Greece, a sweet yeast wreath is baked at Easter – complete with red-colored eggs
Quelle: Getty Images/Jupiterimages
On Saturday mornings, the “Magiritsa” is prepared, a special lamb offal soup used to break the fast. As a comparatively light dish, it is intended to prepare the organism after the 40-day fasting period for meat and fat, which is extremely popular among Greeks.
Shortly before midnight, people flock to the church with red eggs and a white candle. There the priest gives out the “Holy Light”. This candle is passed on for everyone to light their candles from. When the priest sings “Christ is Risen” (“Christos Anesti”), congratulations are exchanged. When they return home, most people use candle soot to draw the sign of the cross three times on the upper frame of their front door – this is said to bring good luck.
In the church, the priest gives out the “Holy Light” from which everyone can light their candles
Those: pa/NurPhoto/Maria Chourdari
Before this custom, however, there is another luck ritual in which the Easter eggs brought with you are used: In the “Tsoungrisma” they are beaten against each other in a happy competition. The one whose egg remains intact is said to be lucky all year round.
Easter is also celebrated in Greece on the first Sunday after the full moon of the spring equinox. The fact that this does not fall on the 9th of April this year, as it does here, but on the 16th of April, is because the Orthodox Churches do not use the Gregorian calendar to calculate the date of Easter, but rather the older Julian calendar.
Australia: Hares not allowed
Not cute Easter bunnies: the rabbits brought in by Europeans are a nuisance in Australia, eating everything bare, eroding the landscape and hated by the Aussies. So it’s not surprising that another animal has to deliver the Easter eggs: namely the Bilby, official name: Greater Bandicoot.
Bandicoots are nocturnal, digging up their food from the ground
Quelle: Getty Images/Martin Harvey
This cute marsupial offers more than any hopping bunny: long ears, beady eyes, whiskers, cuddly fur and a natural pouch – handy for Easter egg transport.
It has existed since the early 1990s at the instigation of Save the bilby Fund even as a chocolate version. For every Chocolate Bilby sold, a donation goes to this rescue fund to help protect real Bilbys, according to Australian Geographic magazine.
Austria: All my dishes are green, green, green
Maundy Thursday is such a thing: does the name come from the word “grînen” (Middle High German for whining or crying) because Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus after the last supper and there was a lot of crying as a result? Or is the color green responsible for the naming? The dictionary of origins states succinctly: “Origin unclear, probably after the widespread custom of eating green vegetables on this day.”
Austrians like to eat spinach on Maundy Thursday
Quelle: pa/HELMUT FOHRINGER/APA/picturedesk.com
And so do the Austrians. Our neighbors prefer spinach and fried eggs. A well-known frozen food manufacturer counted it: “Spinach on Maundy Thursday is a must for three out of ten Austrians. Another quarter doesn’t always stick to it, but most of the time they do. The people of Styria, Lower Austria and Burgenland are particularly fond of spinach, followed by the people of Carinthia.” Around half of the spinach he sells every year is sold over the counter before Easter.
And there is another special feature in the Alpine republic at Easter, which even made it onto the Unesco list of intangible cultural heritage in 2015: ratcheting. A rattling sound is produced by turning the wooden instruments of the same name.
What is that good for? Quite simply: According to legend, the church bells fly to Rome on Maundy Thursday after the Gloria of the Last Supper Mass and only ring again on Easter Sunday. During this period, the children take on the task of ringing the bells, run through the village several times a day and drive away evil spirits and demons with their rattling and clattering.
Because, as Unesco says about the custom that emerged in the 18th century: “The interweaving of a church-religious event with a folk-cultural-social practice is characteristic.” You just have to believe in it…
Ireland: Herring Burial and Giant Eggs
Why do the Irish bury a dead fish at Easter time? The explanation for this bizarre custom is simple: Just a few decades ago, the Catholic Church in Ireland had far more power than it does today. Life was regulated accordingly. For believing Christians, this also included abstaining from meat, sausage, milk and cheese during the 40-day Lent period before Easter. Alternatively, salted herring was on the menu day in and day out. There was enough of the fish; it was also affordable.
The great longing to break the fast was more than understandable – not only among butchers and cattle breeders. And so, to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, comes a very different kind of symbolic burial, namely that of the herring.
The custom of the “herring funeral” is said to have originated in the area around Cork: the local butchers attached a herring to a wooden pole and carried it through the streets, followed by the villagers. During the procession, the poor fish was verbally abused and finally thrown into the water. Even if the Irish are no longer so religious today, they still indulge in this custom in some places.
Blogger and Ireland expert Ina Brecheis also knows other special features: For example, you will rarely find brightly painted Easter eggs on the Emerald Isle. On the other hand, oversized chocolate eggs filled with small chocolate eggs or pralines are popular. For those with a sweet tooth who want to try their hand at making it, Tourism Ireland has a recipe on its website.
