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| Daffodils in the Writtle College gardens |
Easter around the world
The Easter weekend is nearly here! Around the world different cultures, countries and communities celebrate Easter in different ways. Although a lot of our students go home for the Easter break, some of our international and UK students stay on campus. In the UK Easter is seen as the end of winter and the end of Lent, traditionally a time of fasting in the Christian calendar. The Friday before Easter Sunday and the Monday after are bank holidays in the UK and schools close for two weeks.
Easter Eggs
Easter eggs are a very old tradition going back before Christianity. Eggs are a symbol of spring and new life and exchanging and eating Easter eggs is a popular custom in many countries. In the UK before they were replaced by chocolate Easter eggs real eggs were used. The eggs were hard-boiled and dyed in various colours and patterns. The traditionally bright colours represented spring and light.
Hot Cross Buns
Hot cross buns were first baked in England to be served on Good Friday. These small, lightly sweet yeast buns contain raisins or currants and sometimes chopped candied fruit. Before baking, a cross is slashed in the top of the bun. After baking, a confectioners' sugar icing is used to fill the cross. Now hot cross buns are available across the Easter period.
Egg rolling
Egg rolling involves participants launching their specially prepared hard-boiled eggs down a grassy hill. The tradition goes back hundreds of years and survives in towns all over the UK. In some areas it is known as "pace-egging". Customs differ from place to place. The winner's egg may be the one that rolls the farthest or is rolled between two pegs. According to an old Lancashire legend, the broken eggshells should be carefully crushed or they will be stolen and used as boats by witches.
Easter celebrations around the world:
Germany: Germans like to decorate trees with hollowed-out, painted eggs for Easter.
Spain: There are hundreds of processions involving participants dressed in white robes during Holy Week – Semana Santa in Spanish. Religious statues are carried by religious fraternities. Seville puts on one of the most spectacular processions of masked penitents and lavish floats in the world.
Greece: Easter is the most important religious holiday in the Greek Orthodox calendar. Shops line their windows with brightly-coloured wrappings from Easter candles and chocolate eggs. Greek families sit down to a meal of whole roasted lamb or kid goat on Easter Sunday.
Italy: In Rome Holy Week events include a ceremony in which the Pope washes the feet of 12 men at a service commemorating Christ's gesture to his apostles. On Good Friday the Pope takes part in the traditional night-time Stations of the Cross procession at the Colosseum, which symbolises Christ's journey to his crucifixion. Tens of thousands of people will gather in St Peter's Square on Easter Sunday when the Pope will conduct Mass. He also delivers his traditional message of hope and peace, known as the "Urbi et Orbi".
Czech Republic: Easter Monday is marked by an unusual ritual in which boys whip girls around the legs with braided whips. The whipping is supposed to bestow health and youth for the rest of the year and is also seen as a measure of how popular a girl is – the more whips the better.
Colombia: Instead of tucking into chocolate eggs, Colombians like to eat iguana, turtle and the world's largest rodent for their traditional Easter dinner. Colombians travel for hours on intercity buses to spend the holiday with family and prepare special meals, bringing exotic animals from far-flung provinces to their relatives in big cities. Among the unusual seasonal treats are turtle egg omelettes, iguana soup, cayman stew, fried yucca and capybara, the world's biggest rodent.
This is a roundup of just some of the Easter traditions around the world. Wherever you are this spring break have a Happy Easter!
Sources: The Telegraph, The Huffington Post, LEO Network
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