Easter is fast approaching, so we’ve decided to take you on a tour of how the rest of the world celebrates. We all have diverse traditions, and it’s always fun to explore new concepts!
Australia
In the UK, the easter bunny is as common as a yorkshire pudding with your roast dinner. But in Australia, this isn’t the case. Why the bunny hate you may ask? In Aus, they’re widely considered as pests for destroying farmers’ crops and land. Now companies make chocolate bilbies as a substitute- with all the proceeds made benefiting endangered animals!
Italy
In Florence, local tradition that’s been held for over 350 years is called ‘Scoppio del Carro’ or ‘Explosion of the cart’. It features a traditional cart packed with fireworks and is led through the streets of the city’s people dressed in colourful 15th century costumes. They then stop outside the Duomo (the Archbishop of Florence) where lights fuse and thus creates a lively firework display. The meaning behind this translates back to ensuring a good harvest for the following year.
Spain
On easter in the town of Verges, Spain, the traditional ‘death dance’ is performed. Everyone dresses in skeleton costumes and parades through the streets in celebration.The procession ends with rather scary skeletons carrying boxes of ashes. The ‘Macabre dance’ begins at midnight and continues in to the early hours of the morning. Rather morbid compared to what some of us are used to, eh?
Jerusalem, Israel
In the world renowned holy city, where it’s believed Jesus Christ was crucified, Christians celebrate Good Friday by walking the same path he did as he was about to be nailed to the cross. To represent the pain he went through, some people carry a cross with them in remeberance. Also, many pilgrims attend a church service at Garden Tomb- the area it’s believed that Jesus was laid to rest.
Hungary
The two most common traditions in Hungary are called ‘sprinkling’ and the rather familiar egg painting. Sprinkling occurs on Easter Monday or what’s known as ‘Ducking Monday’. Women are considered like flowers that will wither if they aren’t looked after, so the men will playfully sprinkle perfumed water on them in the form of a ‘sprinkle poem’. They use to pour buckets of water over young women’s heads, but now they spray perfume, cologne or just plain water and ask for a kiss. They also believe that water had a cleaning, healing and fertility-inducing effect.
Check out the links below for inspiration on creative easter ideas:
Best chcolate eggs to fill your basket
Thanks so much for reading this weeks’ blog post!
Don’t forget to follow and ‘like’ us on social @chesterstudents