How the World Celebrates Easter
All the candy and none of the pressure
Easter was always my favorite holiday growing up. Spring arrives, and the air warms up, but it’s still cool at night. Flowers are in bloom, and an imaginary rabbit leaves a giant candy basket at your doorstep.
What could be better?
As a child, Easter preparation included my mom and I taking a walk and collecting a few fallen branches. We’d bring them home and create our Easter tree. It was about two feet high, and we’d decorate it with a slew of rabbit and egg ornaments.
I’m pretty sure one of our decorations was a rabbit sitting on a bench.
So dope.
I loved this tradition.
This year I wanted to find out how other countries worldwide celebrate Easter. I found some great information as I was doing my research.
Let’s get into it.
Greece 🇬🇷
Easter is the most joyous celebration of the year. The people of Greece celebrate Orthodox Easter on Sunday. The preparation for Easter takes weeks.
After church, families go home to spend time together and feast. The dyed Easter eggs that decorate the table are used in a game. Everyone grabs an egg and tries to crack the other person’s egg. The person whose egg lasts the longest is assured good luck for the remainder of the year.
Australia 🇦🇺
Australia has Easter egg hunts and chocolate eggs like the United States, but they also have the Easter Bilby.
A bilby is a small, burrowing marsupial. It kind of looks like a cross between a mouse and a rabbit. The bilby population is now endangered. Some Australians thought it would be good to brand the Easter bunny as a bilby and bring awareness to this tiny animal.
More confectioners this year are creating chocolate bilbies instead of bunnies to help the cause.
My Australian friends confirmed this and confessed that the bunny is still way more popular.
Bermuda 🇧🇲
Homemade kites are flown on Good Friday in Bermuda. Legend has it that a teacher was trying to explain the resurrection and used a kite in the lesson.
Codfish cakes are also a tradition here.
Finland 🇫🇮
Little witches may knock on your door in Finland and Sweden. Like Halloween in the US, however, the children trade their artwork for candy.
The kids dress like witches to poke fun at historical fears about witches being out and about on Easter Sunday.
France 🇫🇷
Interested in a giant omelet with 15,000 eggs? In the town of Bessieres, France, there is a Giant Omelette Brotherhood, and the members make a huge omelet to celebrate Easter.
They silence the church bells starting on Thursday in other parts of France and don’t ring them again until Sunday.
“The legend goes that the bells would travel to Rome for a blessing from the Pope and then make their way back to French churches for Easter mass, leaving chocolate eggs in gardens along the way.” — Bilingualkidspot website
Whether you celebrate Easter or not, these are some great ways to throw a celebration. The next time you’re at the market, just grab 15,000 eggs.
