You Probably Haven't Heard of These Easter Traditions From Around the World
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When Easter rolls around each year, we’re often reminded of our favorite Easter traditions. Every spring, Christians and others across the country celebrate the holiday by hosting Easter egg hunts, adorning the house with fun bunny-themed decor, heading to church for a morning prayer service, and gathering with family to enjoy a big brunch.
But there are so many other ways Easter is celebrated around the world. In fact, depending on your religion and where you live, your Easter traditions may look quite different. While we often assume that everyone participates in fun easter traditions like tracking the Easter bunny or decorating Easter eggs, there’s so much more that takes place during Lent and the Holy week leading up to Easter Sunday.
Getting a better understanding of some of the ways Easter is celebrated around the world can not only help us better learn about the foundations of the holiday itself, but it can also help us uncover some new and exciting Easter traditions that we may want to incorporate into our family’s annual celebrations. From the Ukrainian tradition of using wax to decorate eggs, to the very American love of everything Peeps this time of year, there are so many different ways to give your Easter celebrations a refresh.
Getting a Sugary Treat from the Easter Bunny
Love them or hate them, marshmallow Peeps have become an Easter tradition in many households. The sugar-coated snacks come in a variety of shapes (and flavors!), but many families still stick with the classic bunnies and chicks on Easter morning.
These treats are so synonymous with Easter that they've even become popular decorations as well, inspiring everything from holiday centerpieces to plush stuffed animals.
Eating Ham and Deviled Eggs
The Easter Bunny isn't the only one with a thing for eggs. Many people throughout the United States sit down around a dinner table that's laden with holiday favorites like ham and deviled eggs, according to the Farmer's Almanac.
Ham became a popular dinner choice years ago largely by default, since the pigs that went to slaughter in the fall would've had plenty of time to cure over those long winter months, making them ready for eating just as spring rolled around.
Similarly, deviled eggs are a popular choice because of the way eggs are used symbolically throughout the holiday as a symbol of rebirth.
RELATED: 28 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Make with Leftover Easter Eggs
Serving Lamb
Next to ham, lamb appears to be one of the more popular Easter Sunday entrees.
The reasoning has to do with the fact that Jesus is traditionally referred to as the "lamb of God," according to the Age Times. This makes lamb the perfect dish to both honor his sacrifice and ensure that he is represented at the table when you and your loved ones gather to celebrate.
Attend a Foot Washing Service
Some churches still practice the symbolic washing of the feet, something that Jesus was said to have done for his disciples during Passover.
The tradition has died down over the years, but there are churches where this is still an important part of the holy days leading up to the celebration of Jesus' resurrection, and they reenact this poignant moment during their Holy Thursday services.
Wearing Easter Bonnets
Another Easter tradition in the U.S. is the donning of the Easter bonnet. This fancy hat became a popular addition to Sunday church attire because of how it represents a commitment to renewal when paired with new Easter clothes.
These head coverings are loosely tied with the end of Lent, which is when they would be purchased assumably after a period of frugal financing where such luxuries were typically not purchased.
They're also a great Easter craft for kids who want to DIY their way to a new holiday hat. In fact, at the height of their popularity in the 1990s, department stores would often sell kits for children who would then enter their hats into a contest.
Easter Parades
You don't have to don a bonnet to celebrate New York City's annual Easter parade — although it sure can make the event feel a bit more festive. Instead, all you have to do is show up early Easter morning to cheer on those participating in the stroll through the city.
This event is largely a non-religious one, so anyone (yes, even your four-legged friends) is welcome to come out and watch the holiday processional.
Dining on Hot Cross Buns
In New Zealand and parts of Australia, hot cross buns are more than just a tune you have to learn as a kid; they're an Easter favorite. The island countries enjoy noshing on these dense treats on Easter, which occurs during their meteorological fall.
Once you know that Easter comes right before their winter, it makes more sense that they'd be drawn to this bit of comfort food over the holiday.
Dine Out
Just because so many of the traditions on this list involve cooking, it doesn't mean you have to spend your Easter weekend chained to the stove.
Instead, many people opt to dine out on the holiday. This not only allows them to get more face time with the people they want to gather with, it also makes cleanup a breeze!
It's so popular, in fact, that Delish has put together a list of 37 restaurants that will be open Easter Sunday.
Hiding Jelly Beans In Plastic Eggs
Not everyone celebrates Easter by dyeing eggs. Instead, some families like to use hollow plastic eggs that can be filled with small surprises.
And while some of these eggs come with a big payout — like toys, chocolate coins, and even cold-hard cash — most of the time you can find them stuffed with delicious jelly beans instead.
No matter what they're stuffed with, hunting for eggs is hugely popular, with one survey saying that it's one of the most widely popular Easter activities.
Dyeing Easter Eggs Red
In Greece, those who celebrate Easter through the Orthodox church forego the typical mix of colors when it comes time to dye eggs, instead focusing on a singular shade: red.
The crimson-hued eggs are doubly symbolic since they use the eggs to represent rebirth and the color red for Jesus' blood, marking the triumphant return of the son of God.
People can get very creative with their red eggs, creating different shades, intricate designs, and more.
Decorate Eggs Using Wax
There are so many unique egg decorating traditions from around the world, including the Ukrainian practice of decorating eggs with melted wax.
Known as Pysanky eggs, these hand-drawn designs produce stunning results using a wax-resist (batik) method. The centuries old tradition is still practiced today in Ukraine and other eastern European countries, according to My Modern Met.
Starting a Bonfire
In some parts of Europe, people will celebrate Easter by striking a match. In Northwestern European communities it's common to kick off a two-day celebration that begins on Sunday by starting a bonfire.
These fires are aptly named Easter Fires, and they were originally set to help chase the darkness of winter away. Over the years they've become a fun way for community members to come together and celebrate the coming spring.
We have to imagine that they've kept their popularity over the years thanks to being the first big gathering following weeks of winter solitude.
Going Vegan
While many places around the world celebrate Easter by loading up the dinner table with all the tastes of the season, they do something a little different in Ethiopia and practice a period of fasting similar to Lent in the Western church.
Christians in the region celebrate "Fasika," which is the Amharic word for Easter, and refers to the 55-day period of time leading up to Easter Sunday. During this time, all meat and animal products are off the menu until after Sunday service when Faskia ends with a rousing celebration full of food, dancing, and family.
Eating supper on Easter is actually a bigger deal than Christmas dinner for these Christians, which is why they spend so much time gearing up for the big day.
RELATED: 45 Delicious Lenten Recipes That'll Make You Forget Meat
Put On Your Easter Clothes
You've likely heard the phase "Sunday best" before, which refers to the nicer outfits one typically dons when they're heading to church. On Easter, many people forego their traditional Sunday clothes in favor of something special they purchased specifically for the holiday.
In fact, using Easter as an excuse to go on a mini shopping spree is big business, with people spending an estimated $3.5 billion dollars on the clothes they'll wear this Sunday.
Celebrating Easter Monday
In some places like South Africa, there's an additional holiday that follows the Sunday celebrations known as Easter Monday. The Monday after Easter got its official recognition in the 1990s when the government decided to grant citizens an additional day off with their friends and family so that they could have some extra time to recover from all the fun they had during the weekend.
We love having an extra reason to celebrate, and we're sure that South African residents love getting an extra day off to spend with their nearest and dearest.
Flying Kites
Celebrating Easter is a weekend affair for those who live on the British island of Bermuda. Festivities begin with the Good Friday KiteFest, according to the island's travel site Go to Bermuda.
You can watch people fly their homemade kites at Horseshoe Bay Beach, which often feature bold, brightly-colored, geometric designs. The kites are mostly hexagonal or octagonal and use a cross in part of the structure. According to legend, a local Sunday school teacher inspired this fun tradition after they launched a kite that looked like Jesus to help the students understand the story of Christ.
If kites aren't your speed, visitors to the KiteFest can also enjoy a mix of codfish and dessert before heading to Easter services which are held in sunrise services on beaches across the island.
Creating Colorful Outdoor Carpets
Ahead of Holy Week in southern Guatemala's Antigua, the town covers the streets in in colorful carpets in preparation for its Good Friday procession, according to Condé Nast Traveler.
The long carpets are made from flowers, colored sawdust, fruits, vegetables, and sand. Each carpet is often covered in scenes that are important to the artists who make them, ranging from religion to Mayan traditions to Guatemalan history. Some of these pieces can stretch as long as half a mile, and artists use stencils to assemble them quickly since they have just 24 hours to create their works of art the day before the Good Friday procession.
Send a Card
People gift more than just baskets and flowers this time of year, they also like to send their friends and family Easter cards in the mail.
Sometimes these cards can contain quotes from the scripture, while other times they're just a nice way letting those you can't see on the holiday know that you're thinking of them.
RELATED: 50 Most Popular Bible Verses and Significant Scriptures
Eating Chocolate Easter Bilbies
Rabbits get a bad rap in Australia, where the cute little loppy-eared animals are considered more of a pest than a pet, according to National Geographic. This is why in 1991, Rabbit-Free Australia launched a campaign to replace the Easter bunny with the Easter bilby, a rabbit-eared bandicoot.
It would appear that the change did help the rabbit's image a bit, since many companies now make chocolate bilbies for Easter, according to HuffPost, with proceeds benefiting the endangered animals.
Gathering for Fireworks Displays
In Florence, Italy, locals celebrate a 350-year-old Easter tradition known as Scoppio del Carro, or "explosion of the cart" that dates all the way back to the First Crusade, according to Visit Florence.
An ornate cart is loaded with fireworks and then led through the streets by people in colorful 15th century costumes. Once the cart reaches the Duomo, the Archbishop of Florence lights a fuse from inside the church during Easter mass, sparking a lively fireworks display.
Some Mexican traditions also involve fireworks, like the ones that take place on Holy Saturday. The Judas Burning is celebrated by taking giant papier-mâché figures of Judas Iscariot and stuffing them with fireworks so that they can be blown up in local plazas.
Dressing in Costumes
Dressing up as Easter witches is a fun Easter tradition that young children of Finland take part in. The kids wear colorful clothing with painted freckles on their cheeks, usually on Palm Sunday in eastern Finland and Holy Saturday in western Finland. The little witches go door-to-door with willow twigs decorated with colorful feathers and crepe paper. Then they recite a rhyming blessing meant to drive away evil spirits in exchange for a chocolate egg.
On Holy Thursday in the Medieval town of Verges, Spain, the traditional "dansa de la mort," or "death dance," is performed. Everyone dresses like skeletons as they reenact scenes from the Passion. The procession ends with frightening skeletons carrying boxes of ashes. The macabre dance begins at midnight and continues for three hours into the early morning.
In Prizzi, Sicily, "the Abballu de daivuli is a representation of devils from locals wearing terrifying masks of zinc and dressed in red robes," according to The Telegraph. Those dressed in costume pester as many "souls" as they can (which really means making them pay for drinks) before the afternoon when the Virgin Mary and the risen Christ save the day by sending the devils away with angels.
Participating in the Great Easter Bunny Hunt
Rabbits continue to find themselves unwelcomed around the world. Just like in Australia, New Zealand has also found a new way to get around their bad bunny problem. Unfortunately for the furry friends, it's not as tame as eating chocolate bilbies.
They hold a Great Easter Bunny Hunt in Alexandra, a town in the Central Otago district, to hunt their floppy-eared foes. The tradition has a specific reason behind it, though. The goal is to cut down the rabbit population, which is an introduced species and negatively affects the biodiversity of the environment. Rabbits are considered pests and plague farms in the region, according to The Guardian.
Track the Easter Bunny
It's nothing like the setup that Santa gets on Christmas Eve, but curious kiddos can get track the Easter Bunny online before they head to bed on Saturday night.
There are a few different websites dedicated to tracking the bunny's whereabouts, but this site seems to have some solid intel on where the bunny will be heading next!
Get a Photo With the Easter Bunny
Easter is full of a number of perfect photo opps, like the kind you'll find at your local mall or portrait studio. While most kids love snuggling up next to the Easter Bunny and having their picture taken, there are a few that decidedly do not, so if you're planning on testing out this tradition you may want to figure out whether your kiddo will be on board. Otherwise, your new Easter tradition could quickly turn into a holiday fail!
Eating a Giant Omelet
Don't forget a fork and your appetite if you happen to be in the southern French town of Haux on Easter Monday. Each year, a giant omelet is served up in the town's main square, according to Atlas Obscura. And when we say giant, we mean giant: The omelet uses more than 15,000 eggs and feeds up to 1,000 people.
Legend has it, when Napoleon and his army were traveling through the south of France, they stopped in a small town and ate omelets. Napoleon liked his so much that he ordered the townspeople to gather their eggs and make a giant omelet for his army the next day.
Host an Easter Egg Roll
We know you're not normally supposed to play with your food, but around Easter we can forgive a little bit of gameplay when it comes to those Easter eggs.
Although, that wasn't always the case. In 1876, the U.S. Congress passed a law that forbade people from rolling their eggs on the property surrounding Capitol Hill because it had begun to destroy the grass.
Fortunately for D.C. natives, then President Rutherford B. Hayes wasn't having any part of that rule, and he issued an order allowing children to roll their eggs at the White House. According to the National Park Service, this is a tradition that lives on even today.
Throwing Water
On the morning of Holy Saturday, the traditional "pot throwing"takes place on the Greek island of Corfu. People throw pots, pans, and other earthenware often filled with water out of their windows where they crash down to the street below. Some say the custom derives from the Venetians, who on New Year's Day used to throw out all of their old items. Others believe the throwing of the pots welcomes spring, symbolizing the new crops that will be gathered in the new pots.
In Poland, pouring water on one another is an Easter tradition called Śmigus-dyngus, a.k.a. Wet Monday. People gather on Easter Monday to try and drench each other with buckets of water, squirt guns, or anything they can get their hands on. Legend says girls who get soaked on Wet Monday will marry within the year.
"Sprinkling," a popular Easter tradition in Hungary, is observed on Easter Monday, also known as "Ducking Monday." Boys playfully sprinkle perfume or perfumed water on girls after getting their permission to do so and sometimes even ask for a kiss. People used to believe that water had a cleaning, healing, and fertility-inducing effect.
Decorating Willow Branch Whips
In a particularly unique tradition, Czech boys tie ribbons to willow branch whips on Easter Monday and gently "whip" girls to wish them good luck and health. The practice isn't well received by all, with many Czech women disagreeing with the enduring Easter custom. Unfortunately for them, many believe it's an important piece of folklore and culture.
Reading Crime Novels
Those who live in Norway like to spend their Easter cozying up to a good book, according to Visit Norway. Many people use the holiday to hunker down in a cabin, ski, and read crime novels (or watch crime shows on television).
The tradition is said to have started in 1923 when a book publisher promoted its new crime novel on the front pages of newspapers. The ads resembled news so much that people didn't know it was a publicity stunt, so it received massive attention. The rest, they say, is history. It also helps that in Norway, there's plenty of time to relax and read, thanks to the length of the Easter holiday season.
Decorating Easter Trees With Tobacco
Papua New Guinea has found a creative replacement for chocolate Easter eggs, which wouldn't last long in the heat. They use trees and branches near churches as hooks to hang tobacco and cigarettes, which are then given to congregants after church services on Easter Sunday.
Attending Reenactments of the Crucifixion
The Philippines is a mostly Catholic country, so it makes sense that its inhabitants take Easter very seriously. Each year on Good Friday, a handful of people in San Pedro Cutud are nailed to crosses to honor Jesus' crucifixion. Though the Catholic Church has frowned upon these practices, it's an annual tradition that brings in thousands of tourists.
They're not the only ones, in Mexico, most of the more elaborate Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations include dramatic reenactments of the capture, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus. It's considered a great honor to take part in the productions. In more devout regions, such as Taxco, the reenactments include penitentes — individuals "who show their penitence and prove their faith by inflicting physical pain on their bodies by whipping themselves or carrying large religious objects on their backs," according to Journey Mexico, a local travel company.
Decorate and Gift Easter Lilies
Whether you're looking for the perfect hostess gift, or you want to add a little something special to your home's decor ahead of the holiday, Easter Lilies make a stunning and symbolic choice.
The flower has become a popular one for the holiday because, amongst other things, it's believed to symbolize rebirth and new beginnings.
RELATED: How to Take Care of Your Easter Lily
Joining a Religious Procession
In Vatican City, the Pope commemorates the Way of the Cross, beginning at the Colosseum on Good Friday. People attending the procession hold candles and make their way around the amphitheater and up to Palatine Hill, stopping 14 times along the way to represent the Stations of the Cross.
Taking place in the city where it is believed Jesus was crucified, Christians in Jerusalem, Israel celebrate Good Friday by walking the same path Jesus did on the day he was nailed to the cross. Taking note of his pain that fateful day, some of those who participate carry a cross with them in remembrance. On Easter Sunday, many pilgrims attend a church service at Garden Tomb — the area it is believed Jesus was buried.
Some regions of Mexico prefer more low-key celebrations than the ones mentioned above, like a silent procession through town or visiting 12 churches in 12 days.
Have Your Baby Baptized
Baptisms are a rite of passage for many different faiths around the world. The practice is said to mark the start of one's journey with God, and it's often a joyful moment for everyone involved.
It should come as no surprise then that some people try to time their child's baptism around the holiday, which means so much to members of the Christian faith.
RELATED: 30 Beautiful Baptism Quotes to Share on Your Baby's Special Day
Bring Flowers to Those Who Can't Be With You
Anytime we have a tradition that involves gathering together in celebration, the absence of those who cannot be there alongside us always becomes more apparent. That's why holidays like Easter, Christmas, and Thanksgiving can either start or end with a trip to the cemetery to visit those we won't see at the table during Easter dinner.
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