There are many ancient Easter traditions still taking place. Right across Europe, Easter customs are wonderfully intriguing, varied, and colorful.
To Christian believers, this festival marks the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Of course church services, chocolate eggs and family gatherings are common, but so are rip-roaring celebrations that date back to pagan times.
So here are some of our favorites!
In Italy, no Easter is complete without a serving of delicious Colomba di Pasqua.
Literally translating as “Easter Dove”, Colomba cake is a yeasted sweet dough with eggs and butter. After it rises, the dough is shaped into a flying dove, topped with almond paste, pearl sugar and almonds. Then it’s baked to perfection.
In parts of The Netherlands Easter fires, called Paasvuren, are the most spectacular highlight of the celebrations. Huge bonfires are lit on Easter Sunday at sunset. Probably originating in pre-Christian times, the fires were a symbol of the battle between spring and winter – with the inevitable victory of spring.
Traditionally in France, it isn’t the Easter Bunny who brings treats for the children; it’s the flying bells. French Catholic tradition states that on Good Friday, all of the church bells in France sprout wings and fly down to the Vatican to be blessed by the pope. When the bells return to France they deliver treats to well-behaved children, including chocolate eggs. And in the small town of Bessières they make a giant omelet, using 15,000 eggs, a four-meter pan, and 40 cooks!
In some Dalmatian regions of Croatia, a week before Easter or on Holy Saturday there is a tradition for young girls to wash their face in the morning with water enriched with petals of different spring flowers that are harvested in the field or in front of the houses. This was a way to honour water, flowers, youth, and spring. On Easter Sunday families sit around the table to have their traditional Easter breakfast. The tables are filled with food that has been previously blessed in the churches that morning, including bread, ham, cheese, chives, salt, Easter eggs, and sweet pastries.
In England, they still love a sweet and sticky Hot Cross Bun! A cross made from flour paste decorates each dough bun. The spices in hot cross buns are said to represent the spices that were used to embalm Christ after his death.
What was remarkable about the buns was that they were baked on Good Friday. It’s said that imbued them with various magical properties. Consequently many people believed that they would never go mouldy, or that they could be used to treat a range of medical complaints.
Meanwhile in Scotland and the north of England, Pace-egging is an ancient custom still carried out. The eggs were boiled in onion skins, because it gave the shells a golden, mottled effect. Today they are often painted. Traditionally, children would compete to see who could roll their egg the farthest down a Paiss-brae (hill), or other grassy slopes. A warning to all… crush your empty Pace-egg shells, for they are popular with witches who use them as boats.
In Wales there is a resurgence among Welsh language speakers in the 200-year-old custom of clapio wyau, or egg-clapping. Children knocked on farmers’ doors, recited a Welsh rhyme, and used a wooden clapping instrument to clap for hen eggs for their mother’s pantry as part of the Easter celebrations.
But perhaps the award for the oddest custom goes to Ireland. Surprisingly, the local butchers would carry out a mock funeral in honour of a dead herring. A “herring procession” then marched to the local church. Thus this symbolized the long-awaited end of Lenten abstinence and a constant (and no doubt dull) diet of fish!
