12 Unique Easter traditions
12 Unique Easter traditions from around the world
By Jessica Lima From BuzzFeed
Slovakia does WHAT on Easter?
Finns treat Easter like Halloween.
shalamov/shalamov
Kids roam around the streets dressed up in costume (usually witch costumes) asking for treats.
Australians have the “Easter Bilby” instead of the Easter Bunny.
MillefloreImages/MillefloreImages
The reasoning behind this is to bring awareness to the almost-extinct little creature.
In Greece, people paint their Easter eggs red.
Steve Outram/Steve Outram
Red is meant to symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ and rebirth.
In Poland, the master of the house isn’t allowed to participate in the making of the traditional Easter bread.
fotokris/fotokris
Or else it is believed that his mustache will turn gray and the dough will fail to rise.
In southwest France, people make a giant omelette on Easter Monday.
Flickr: 31399280@N03
It feeds over 1,000 people on Easter Monday every year.
Communities make beautiful carpets of sawdust and flowers that are usually a mile long.
Flickr: robertourrea7
These colorful and extremely detailed carpets take weeks of preparation leading up to Easter. Once it arrives, huge processions walk over the carpets as people make their way to the local church where mass is held.
Here Easter is a joyous affair celebrated by flying kites on Good Friday.
IPGGutenbergUKLtd/IPGGutenbergUKLtd
The kites are meant to represent the ascension of Christ into heaven.
Germans decorate trees with colorful hand-painted Easter eggs.
Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
Mr. Kraft (pictured above) has had a 50-year-long tradition of hanging over 9,000 eggs on an apple tree in his backyard with his wife Christa.
In Switzerland, people decorate wells and fountains leading up to Easter.
snowflock/snowflock
Decorating a well symbolizes the honoring of water, which is essential for life, and Easter, the feast of renewed life.
The tradition in Brazil is to make straw dolls of Judas
and bring them out to the streets to beat them up.
sedmak/sedmak
This is to symbolize the hate Brazilians have for the man that betrayed Jesus Christ.
In Scotland, people roll their brightly decorated Easter eggs down a steep hill.
tchara/tchara
The egg that gets the farthest without breaking wins!
And finally, in Slovakia, men whip women with a willow and splash them
with water.
SAMUEL KUBANI/AFP / Getty Images
All of this is supposed to symbolize youth, strength, and beauty for the upcoming spring season.