Easter Traditions in America and Around the World

Easter is the official celebration of Jesus' resurrection in the Christian church, following Good Friday, which is the day we remember his crucifixion. In addition to celebrating Jesus' resurrection, there are quite a few Easter traditions that have developed over time families who celebrate this holiday enjoy participating in.

Easter's origins lie in Paganism. According to Wilstar, Pagans would celebrate the beginning of Spring by having a festival that acknowledged Eastre, their goddess of springtime and of offspring.

Unlike most holidays, Easter does not fall on a set date each year; rather Easter is a movable feast, according to Wikipedia, which occurs between March 22 and April 25 each year. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday that follows the full moon after the venal equinox, which was decided by the First Council of Nicea. Interestingly, though, before the Council of Nicea decided this, Easter was celebrated on different days of the week, such as Friday and Saturday as well as on some Sundays, according to Wilstar.

Many religious families attend a church service or Mass on Easter Sunday morning to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. However, while Easter is a religious holiday, many non-religious families also celebrate the traditions of Easter as well. For instance, many families, both religious and non-religious, have a big feast on Easter Sunday. Some families have a large family gathering on this holiday to celebrate this custom of Easter while others celebrate with only their immediate families, as ours did.

One of the traditions of Easter in English speaking countries, such as the United States, is to color eggs the week before Easter. This involves hard-boiling some eggs and dunking them into different Styrofoam cups full of food coloring. My sister and I always enjoyed this Easter custom growing up. We even had a coloring kit one year that came with a special pen with which you could write messages on the eggs.

Another one of the Easter customs here in the United States and other English speaking countries is to hide dyed hard- boiled eggs, colorful plastic eggs filled with candy, chocolate eggs, peeps (marshmallow bunnies or chicks), chocolate bunnies, and other tasty treats around the house or the backyard on Easter Sunday, telling the children that the Easter Bunny came last night to hide treats for them. Interestingly, the Easter Bunny also originated from the Pagan festival, Eastre, celebrating the beginning of Spring, according to Wilstar. Eastre was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, a bunny. Later, the Germans brought the notion of the Easter Bunny to America, but it was mostly ignored until after the Civil War ended. Even after my sister and I found out that the Easter Bunny was fictional, we still had our mother hide our treats around the house in order to keep this Easter tradition alive.

The customs of Easter vary in other parts of the world. For instance, in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, church bells are kept silent for at least one day before Easter to signify mourning. One Easter tradition in these countries says that the bells have flown off to Rome, which explains their silence. When they return, it is said that the bells bring hollow chocolates (such as bunnies and eggs) and colored eggs with them.

In Norway, some Easter customs include cross-country skiing, staying in cabins in the mountains, watching murder mysteries, and painting eggs. All of the television channels run murder mysteries and crime shows on Easter. Additionally, murder mystery novels are scheduled to be released and magazines plush mysteries where readers can try to figure out, "Whodunit" around this holiday.

One of the Easter traditions celebrated in Slovakia and the Czech Republic is for men to spank women with handmade whips on Easter Monday. The spanking whips, known as pomlazkas, are made from 8, 12, or 24 willow rods and are decorated with colored ribbons on the end. The spanking is done in order to give women health and beauty for the entire year, and is not meant to be hurtful. Women who are not spanked may become offended. In fact, in some regions of these countries, women may get revenge by dumping a bucket of cold water on any man the next afternoon. In return for being spanked, a woman may give the man who spanked her colored eggs and sometimes a little money to show her gratitude.

Easter holds both religious and non-religious customs, though the traditions of Easter may vary around the world. No matter how you choose to celebrate Easter, I hope you have a great one this year.

Sources:

Wilstar: Easter:
http://wilstar.com/holidays/easter.htm

Wikipedia: Easter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter#Religious_and_secular_Easter_traditions