Figure 1.--Eggs also play a prominent role in a Dutch Easter. I'm not sure if the Uubrella has any significance, except that it rains a lot in the Netherlands. |
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Easter is of course an important event in Eutopean countries and in America. It is perhaps the single most important day in the Christain calendar. We have not yet collected much information on Easter traditions in different countries, although we have begun to work on the subject. Some of the differences come from the different denomimations, especially Catholic, Orthodox, and Protesrant. There are, however many purely national differences as well. It is interesting to note how the same religious tradition has developed so many national different national traditions. The same is true of Christmas , the other major Christian celebration. Many Easter customs around the world are not religious.
There are many similarities in the countries of Larin America. We do not yet have information about individual countries. The celebrations are quite different from those in American and the northern European countries. Latin Americans have not traditionally had Easter eggs, parades, and bunnies. The entire Holy Week (the week before Easter) is an important religious festival in the Hispanic countries of Latin America. Priests on Palm Sunday, bless palm fronds in the churches. Churches are gayly decorated with fruit
and green plants. There are many religous processions with the Holy Mother and other sainrs brought out of the church to be carried around the city or town. Passion plays are held to tell the Easter story, a tradotion from the European Medieval era. Religious Larin Americans mourn on Good Friday and then celebrate the resurrection on
Easter Saturday. After church there is often a spirited celebration with whistles, church bells, bands, and of course fireworks. In some countries rough games or a tradition with a straw figure costumed like Judas who betrayed Jesus to the Roman soldiers. The Judas figure is hanged or burned. Celebrations often include throwing water and sometimes worse on all passerbys. Sometimes the water pressure in coty pipes drop, so much water is being thrown.
Brazil which represents half of South America is the largest Catholic country in the world. Holy Week - Semana Santa is observed throughout Brazil with the same colorful processions and rituals that are common in other largely Catholic countries. Easter is a little different in Brzil than Europe and America. The famous and splashy Rio Carnival precedes Easter. The Carnival takes place during the days, preceding 'Ash Wednesday', the first of 40 days of the Lent season. The riotous excesses of Carinival sets the syage for the reflctive Easter celebration. Easter developed in Christianity as a kind spring festival, the annual renewal of like which fit in with the story of Jesus' crusifiction and resurection. Rather than Spring, Brazil in the southern hemisphere celebrates the holiday in autumn, because of its geographical location. And as the Equator crosses across the coujntry, the seasonal pattern is not as pronounced as in the northern hemisphere. Some of the best known Easter events in Brazil include: the Procissão do Fogaréu in Goiás Velho, GO, the Passion Play in Nova Jerusalém, and the Recife Passion Play. Many seek out traditional Holy Week Catholicism, including historic cities where processions are staged on stone-paved or cobblestone streets and the Mass is conducted in beautiful old churches. There is also a secular aspect to Easter in Brazil. Brazil is largely Catholic, but this includes huge numbers who are culturaly Catholic, but do not practive their faith. Many Brazilians use the Easter holiday to go to the beach or other popular vacation spots. Schools usually have a week long holiday. Others make it a family event, seeking to be with their families.
Religious celebrations vary widely in American, depending on the family's national and religious background. Palm fronds are blessed in some churches. Americans traditionally have an Easter "parade." Prople in towns and cities used to walk to church in their newest clothes. It became traditional to buy new spring clothes, including a new suit. Of course no parade was more famous than the parade down 5th Avenue in New York. New York was and continues to be the fashion hub of the United States. Men used to dress formally and women and girls traditionally had a brand new Easter bonnet. An example of a family all dressed up for Easter is a Pennsylvania family in 1966. Brightly colored eggs are important part of the celebration for the children. In some areas they are given out on Easter morning. Many families have a good time decorating the eggs. Commonly the eggs are then hidden--but not very well so they can easily bevfound. The children have an enjoyable time hunting for them. Egg-rolling is another Easter pastime. Beginning with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, an egg-rolling contest has been held each year on the White House lawn in Washington. Today pastic eggs are making inroads against real eggs. There are also loads of candy for easter, the two favorites are chocolate eggs and bunnies.
We note Croarian Kindergarten children prepating an Easter skit in 1959. Croatia at the time was part of Communust Yugoslavia. hus Easter was more of a seculasr spring festival as Christmas was a secular winter/New Years festival.
We have very little information on Easter in England. Easter egg rolls are also apparently popular in Britain. We do not notice nearly as many Easter postcards from Britain as we do from many coninental European countries. This may be an indicatorof the popularity of the holiday. We note a photograph of an English family that looks like an Easter portrait, but apparely was taken in the summer.
Easter is called Pâques in France. It is one of te most impoprtant holiday celebrations for French children. As in America and many other European countries, the religious message of Easter is increasingly being drowned out by te commercialization of the holiday. The children as in many otgher country receive colorfully decorated eggs. The French begin their Easter season several weeks before Easter actually begins. Shop windows are gayly decorated in a festive collection of white and dark chocolate rabbits, chickens, bells and fish. Much of this occurs in other countries, but bells and fish are an important part of the French Easter tradition.
We do not have much information on German Easter traditions. We note many more images of Christas than Easter from Germany. Germany was both Protestant and Catholic. Protestants were dominate in the north and Catholics in the south. Thus Germany has both Protestant and Catholic Easter traditions. Easter egg rolls were also popular in Germany. The Easter rabbit is a popular symbol in Germany. Germans tell the children that the Easter rabbit brings the eggs and hides them in houses. German immigrants brought this tradition with them to America.
A HBC reader tells us that Easter is a very important holliday in Greece. While Easter is a Christian celebration, many Greeks continue to adhere to beautiful old symbols, rituals and customs of mostly pagan origins. Many Greek Easter traditions in fact have origins which
significantly predate Christianity. originated long before the beginning of the Christian era. The early Church in fact grafted Christian holidays on existing pagan celebrations in a conscious effort to gain acceptance for the rising new Church. As with Christmas which is connected to pre-Christian winter festivals, Easter is connected with pagan rituals that associated with the end of winter and beginning of spring. Thus the Christain celebration of Jesus rising from the dead is celebrated when new life and growth springs from the earth--powerfukl symbolism for the agricultural societies of the day. The origin of the term "Easter" is not fully unferstood. Some believes that it originated with Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of springtime. Easter is also associated with the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach. The "Happy Easter" gretting in Greek is Kaló Páscha. The term "Pascha" in Greek and "Pascua" in Spanish , meaning "Easter", has evolved from the name of the Jewish festival of Passover, as are the names for Easter in other Latin-based foreign languages. Eastern Orthodox Christains regard Easter as the most important religious festival followed by Christmas. "HBC readers will want to know about some customs and what boys do. Well, a lot become altar boys for the holiday." Greek Orthodox Christians do not always celebrate Easter on the same date as the Roman Catholic and Protestant Christains. The reason is the differet calendars that are used. As would be expected, Greek Christains share many of the symbols of Easter with other Christians, but their are some differences and destinctive features of the Greek Orthodox Easter celebrations.
Decorated Easter eggs in Italy are brought to church to be blessed.
Easter as in other European countries is a mix of Christian and pagan traditions. The Baltics were on of the last areas of Europe yo be Christianized as part of the Northern Crusades. The Livonian Crusade led to the Christionazation of Latvia and Estonia (13th century). The Christian Church commonly eased the transition from paganism to Christianity by incorporating pagan ceremonies into Christisn celebrations. For Christians, Easter celebrates the resurrectioin of Christ. This fit nicely into pagan traditions which celebrated the Spring equinox - a kind of resurrection of the natural world. iEaster is known as 'Lieldienas,' meaning Big Days and originally the name of the ancient pagan spring equinox celebrations. The pagan celebrations involved the arrival of spring and return of the sun. Ancient rituals were meant to assist the land wake up from its winter sleep and ensure the fertility of the land and bless it. Basically a wonderful fit for Christain Easter. Latvians celebrate both Good Friday and Easter Sunday. An imprtant part of Easter celebrations was eggs, both coloring and various activities with them. Before modern dyes, onion skins were used. The egg was seen as a symbol of the sun, which in pagan times has been looked upon as a fertility symbol. A popular tradition was family egg fights. The objective is to hold an egg while others hit the top. The person who has a whole egg without a cracked shell after the fight is the winner and will live a long life. Nearly five decades of Soviet rule and atheist camapigns significantl eroded Christian beliefs. This affected the religious celebration of Easter. Some of the non-religious aspects of Easter have continued.
Easter eggs also play a prominent role in Dutch Easters.
Orthodox Easter (Православная Пасха) commemorates the resurrection of Jesus. A a religious holiday, it is not a state holiday with employees given a day off. It has no set calenar date. It is held on the first Sunday after the date of the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21. It is usually in April, but occassionally falls at the end of March. In 2004. Easter was a major holiday in Tasarist times. The two principal holidays during the Tsarust era were Christmas and Easter. The holiday of course was not celebrated during the Soviet era. At the peak of the atheism campaign, it as well as the Church itself were actively supressed. Since the fall of Communism, Easter has again become a popular holiday as their has been a renewed interest in religion. A reader writes, "Your dates for Easter are incorrect. The Orthodox church effectively still works on the old (Julian, I believe) calendar, so Orthodox Easter is usually 4-5 weeks after Easter in the west." We are mnot sure hjow popular Easter now is in modetn Russia. Nowhere is the Easter egg more important than in Russia, the Ukraine and other Slavic countries. Like many Christain traditions, the Easter egg was supressed by+ the Soviets, but even Stalin was unavle to stamp out the readition. Easter eggs in these countries are wonferful works of folk art. The women draw beautiful designs in many colors on the eggs. They are painted by hand and are suchbtrasures that many are saved and passed down to future generations. The wonderfully decorated eggs are brought to church to be blessed.
Easter celebration because of the importance of the Orthodox Church are very important in Serbia. Easter for Orthodox like Western Christians is the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Orthodox Good Friday or Veliki petak, Orthodox Easter or Vaskrs, and Orthodox Easter Monday or Vaskrsni ponedeljak are all national holidays. The dates vary and are calculated by the Serbian Orthodox Church using Orthodox Computus. They are usually celebrated in April. Orthodox Christians observe a 46-day Lenten fast. This is a little different than Roman (Western) Christians for whom Sundays are exempt meaning 40 days. Serbs abstained from meat and meat oproducrts as well as eggs and dairy products also. Thus they eat vgetarian sarma and other special Lent dishes. A reader has provided us information on Lazarus Saturday. This is the Serbian Orthodox celebrations for the Saturday before Easter. Easter Day is the opportunity to break the long Lenten fast with sumptuous feasts. great quantities of food.
Easter Sunday church services are followed by families having the baskets of hard-boiled eggs they have colored and brought to church blessed by the parish priest. Serbs commonly color the eggs red which is seen as a symbol of a range of ideas--happiness, joy, rebirth and the blood of Christ. Families engage in an exchange of the eggs they have colored. They say to each other, "Hristos Voskrese" (Christ is risen) and respomd "Voistinu Voskrese" (Indeed He is risen). Then after Church, the festivities and eating commence.
Easter is the predominant and most popular springtime feast celebrated by the Ukrainian and Russian People. Holy week, beginning with Palm Sunday, is a time of great activity in Ukrainian and Russian homes, including spring cleaning and baking Easter bread. Easter is a feast of joy and gladness that unites all Ukrainian people in common celebration. It is the most busy and cheerful holiday for Ukrainians and Russians after Christmas. Easter is the time of springtime festivals, a time to welcome back the Tulips, the Crocuses and the Daffodils. A time for people to celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Christ. And a time of Easter cakes and colored eggs!
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