Shamelessly ripped from Deutsche Welle
Although mainly a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, Easter also marks the beginning of spring. The Germans, of course, have a whole range of customs and traditions to celebrate the change of seasons in proper fashion.
Eggs and bunnies are two of the oldest symbols of Easter in Germany and every spring shops boom with eggs and bunnies made of chocolate, cardboard or flowers in different sizes and wrappings.
The tradition for using eggs and bunnies for Easter originates from pagan worshipping where they were symbols of fertility and new birth and traditionally used for celebrations of the coming of the spring.
The Germans have a number of egg games which the children play over the holidays. One tradition is to blow eggs and paint them in multiple colours and patterns on Good Friday. The eggs are then put in a basket for the Easter bunny -- Osterhase-- to hide around the house on the night leading up to Easter Sunday. On the morning of Easter Sunday, the children go hunting for the eggs and often find that the Easter bunny has also left chocolate eggs and Easter presents for them to find.
It is also a custom that friends exchange the painted eggs as gifts or that young people in love paint eggs for their sweetheart.
One thing that living in the UK has exposed me to is the various cultures and traditions of our European neighbours, for example Germany. I wrote an earlier entry regarding Advent Sunday illustrating how I got to know more about the German traditions of celebrating Christmas. Now I am not knowledgeable in these traditions, these are simply my observations.
Tina and her mum were baking heavily over Easter while I was in London for the entire day. On Easter Sunday, just as I left for London very early in the morning, I managed to see a whole batch of cookies, shaped like Easter Bunnies, in the lounge. I was so impressed with their work, that I managed to take a couple of photos. I have not seen anything done like this in New Zealand, so I was most impressed and intrigued.
Now I presumed that these were going to be given out on Easter Sunday. In fact, they were given out to children at an Easter party that day. Unfortunately I never got to try one. Not even a piece of the bunny's ear, nor the tip of its tail, nor a crumb. Oh well, there is always next year!
But I did get a nice surprise in the wee hours of Easter Sunday morning when I got home from London. I found a boxed-up Belgian chocolate Easter Bunny on my bed. Just after I took the above photos, I left a thank you note on the kitchen door, which read:
Although mainly a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, Easter also marks the beginning of spring. The Germans, of course, have a whole range of customs and traditions to celebrate the change of seasons in proper fashion.
Eggs and bunnies are two of the oldest symbols of Easter in Germany and every spring shops boom with eggs and bunnies made of chocolate, cardboard or flowers in different sizes and wrappings.
The tradition for using eggs and bunnies for Easter originates from pagan worshipping where they were symbols of fertility and new birth and traditionally used for celebrations of the coming of the spring.
The Germans have a number of egg games which the children play over the holidays. One tradition is to blow eggs and paint them in multiple colours and patterns on Good Friday. The eggs are then put in a basket for the Easter bunny -- Osterhase-- to hide around the house on the night leading up to Easter Sunday. On the morning of Easter Sunday, the children go hunting for the eggs and often find that the Easter bunny has also left chocolate eggs and Easter presents for them to find.
It is also a custom that friends exchange the painted eggs as gifts or that young people in love paint eggs for their sweetheart.
One thing that living in the UK has exposed me to is the various cultures and traditions of our European neighbours, for example Germany. I wrote an earlier entry regarding Advent Sunday illustrating how I got to know more about the German traditions of celebrating Christmas. Now I am not knowledgeable in these traditions, these are simply my observations.
Tina and her mum were baking heavily over Easter while I was in London for the entire day. On Easter Sunday, just as I left for London very early in the morning, I managed to see a whole batch of cookies, shaped like Easter Bunnies, in the lounge. I was so impressed with their work, that I managed to take a couple of photos. I have not seen anything done like this in New Zealand, so I was most impressed and intrigued.
Now I presumed that these were going to be given out on Easter Sunday. In fact, they were given out to children at an Easter party that day. Unfortunately I never got to try one. Not even a piece of the bunny's ear, nor the tip of its tail, nor a crumb. Oh well, there is always next year!But I did get a nice surprise in the wee hours of Easter Sunday morning when I got home from London. I found a boxed-up Belgian chocolate Easter Bunny on my bed. Just after I took the above photos, I left a thank you note on the kitchen door, which read:
Vielen Dank für den OsterhasenOr, Thank you for the Easter Bunny, in English. Of course my German was not good enough to come up with that, so I added:
P.S. Shamelessly ripped from Google Translate!
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