For me, Easter's a holiday I've always spent with family and friends decorating eggs, hiding and hunting them, indulging in chocolate bunnies and egg-shaped snickers bars, and eating an Easter feast. We all have our own traditions, I'm sure, and mine have been scattered here and there since I don't have any family in Denver. Last year was my first single-girl Easter away from home, but there wasn't lack of family...my sister was here visiting! Instead of dinner, we went to a delicious brunch. This year I'm heading to dinner at a friend's parents house, where last night I helped color eggs. These customs are Easter to me. Not being religious, Easter doesn't mean going to Vigil or Mass or giving something up for Lent.
After digging a little, I found that Easter customs are quite similar around the world.
Central and Eastern Europeans decorate eggs too! Not only do they color eggs, but in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, they have a tradition in which men spank women in the morning on Easter Monday in order to keep their health and beauty throughout the year. It's also meant to exhibit their attraction to a woman, but isn't meant to be painful. The spanked woman gives a colored egg as a sign of her thanks. I feel bad for the women who meticulously decorated eggs in hopes of being spanked only to feel offended at the end of the day! Anyway, women can get revenge in the afternoon by throwing cold water on men. I'd say in this tradition, the women get the better end of the deal! Poland used to have a similar tradition (Dyngus Day), but it's turned into an all day water fight.
In The Netherlands, Belgium and France, custom is based on the Easter Bells. In the days just before Easter, the church bells are silent as a sign of mourning. This led to a tradition that says the bells fly out of their steeples to Rome and come back Easter Sunday with colored eggs and chocolate bunnies.
In Norway, murder mysteries have become an Easter tradition. Even milk cartons change for Easter to provide a mystery story on the side. Crime and detective stories are shown on TV and printed in newspapers and magazines. Quite the interesting and weird customs! Stores and businesses close for five days, with only grocery stores re-opening the Saturday before Easter. This time off is spent in the mountains skiing and painting eggs. I like where their heads are at...mystery shows and mountain vacations sound perfect to me!
Even stranger is what's going on in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. They paint eggs as we all do, but the kids dress up as witches and collect candy door-to-door (Halloween mix up?!) in exchange for decorated pussy willows. I died laughing when I read that! Really? Painted eggs, witches, candy collecting, and decorated pussy willows?! So random. I guess it's a combination of the tradition of blessing houses with willows and their Easter witch tradition.
In the English-speaking world, as you likely know, we decorate eggs and have Easter egg hunts the Saturday before Easter. On Easter Sunday, the kids wake up to baskets filled with small gifts, jelly beans, chocolate bunnies and eggs, and Peeps (sick!). Also on Easter Sunday, decorated eggs have been mysteriously hidden throughout the house and yard by the Easter Bunny. To calm the sugar highs of the day, an Easter feast is shared with family in the afternoon or evening. In Scotland, Northern England, and Ireland, they roll the decorated eggs down steep hills to race them. In Louisiana, they have an egg-knocking competition for the hardest egg (look it up). The Cajuns hold that the winner eats the eggs of the loser in each round. It's the opposite of beer pong! In Bermuda, they fly kites to symbolize Christ's ascent and eat fish cakes.
So, what's the deal with decorating hard-boiled eggs and gifting Easter baskets anyway? This has always been a question of mine because Easter traditions seem so strange. What do bunnies, chicks, painted eggs, candy, and baskets, not to mention all that encompasses an Easter Bunny have to do with Jesus anyway? Well, I finally sat on my lazy ass and looked it up...voila!...mystery solved, somewhat. I'm about to kick some knowledge to you. The egg is a symbol of rebirth or new life as it relates to Jesus or Earth in Springtime. Eggs were apparently forbidden from Catholics during Lent, explaining their abundance at Easter. They were once painted red to symbolize the blood of Christ and the hard shell is a symbol of the sealed Tomb of Christ. Easter baskets are merely to represent a bird's nest as a place to display the decorated eggs. Now the part that makes the least sense. The Easter Bunny originated in Germany and was brought to the US by German settlers. Hares are symbols of fertility and typically give birth to large litters in the Springtime, so German folklore from the 1500's depicted a hare delivering eggs at Easter. Yeah...a bow tie-wearing human size rabbit? I'm still somewhat disturbed.
I hope the Easter Bunny brought you eggs like these from all over the world to hunt, exchange for spankings, or roll down a hill...
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