Easter is a Christian festival to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Many countries around the world celebrate Easter, and every country has its own ways of doing it.  To find out more about Easter, and how it began, click here.

In Great Britain, American, Australia, Canada, and countries where English is the most common language spoken, Easter is celebrated by giving Easter eggs to friends and family, decorating eggs, rolling eggs down hills, and being visited by the Easter bunny.

America has another tradition of Egg knocking.  People play the game in pairs, and each pair knocks the tips of their eggs together.  The tip that breaks off first loses, and the loser has to give that egg to the winner.  This is played with lots of people, until two people, or one pair is left.  Imagine how many eggs one person could win!

In Bermuda, kites are flown!  Everyone in Bermuda even if they are as old as your Dad or Granny makes kites and flies them at Easter.  This represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, church bells are silent until Easter Morning, when easter eggs appear.  The bells are silent as they are “flying to Rome”, which represents Jesus Christ’s execution at the hands of the Roman Empire.  They return on Easter day bring Easter eggs, which represents his resurrection.

Also in the Netherlands and Northern Germany, Easter fires are lit on Easter Day.

In Norway, as well as decorating eggs, many people stay in mountain cabins and go cross country skiing.   They also celebrate Easter by watching detective television programmes, and magazines print detective stories where the reader can guess who the murderer was.  Milk cartons show a new detective story every year.  A detective story is a story that is about the police investigating a crime.  Every Easter, all the shops close for five days, except shops that sell food which open for one day.

In Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, many children dress as witches and knock on neighbours houses collecting chocolate.  This is not for free however, as the children have to give decorated pussy willows.  This tradition is a mixture of two traditions.  Children also decorate eggs.

Food is a big part of Easter in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, as normally a Smorgasbord, which is a meal which is made of lots of food is served.  This is often made from herrings, salmon, potatoes and egg.  Would you like a Smorgasbord?

In the Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Slovenia and Slovakia also decorate eggs for Easter.  A few Eastern European countries also have other traditions too.  Such as:

Being smacked!  With a whip!  In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the men often smack the women with a whip or pour cold water over them.  They do not hurt the woman, but instead it makes her laugh.  This is said to keep the woman looking beautiful and healthy.

Sometimes, the man does it to show he likes the woman, and in return the woman gives the man a chocolate egg.   In some parts of Slovakia, a woman can get her own back by pouring a bucket of cold water on any man she man wants to.

In Croatia and Slovenia, a basket of food is brought to the church to be blessed.

In Hungary, Transylvania, Slovakia, Kárpátalja, and Northern Serbia – Vojvodina, perfumed water is sprinkled in exchange for chocolate eggs the day after Easter.

How do you celebrate Easter?

photo credit: futureatlas.com

Print PDF

The story of Saint George and the Dragon.

Long ago, in the country of Libya, there was a city called Siliene.  One day, a huge and powerful Dragon made its nest in a spring, which is where the people of Siliene used to go to fetch water.  With the Dragon being in the spring, the people could only get water if they could get the Dragon to move.  Now Dragons have a huge appetite, which means they eat a lot.  So to get the Dragon to move, the people of Siliene would offer the Dragon a sheep.  When the Dragon moved to eat the sheep, the people would hurriedly get water and leave, in case the Dragon was still hungry.

If the people could not find a sheep, they would feed the Dragon a maiden.  Maiden, is an old word for a woman!  To decide which poor woman was chosen, the women would draw straws, which means each woman would choose a straw and whoever had the shortest straw, had to go and be the Dragon’s lunch!  One day, the princess drew the shortest straw, and she was marched off to be fed to the huge, hungry Dragon.

Just as she was about to be eaten, along came Saint George riding on a horse, and fought the Dragon and killed it.  The story says that he protected himself by making movements with his hand called the sign of the cross.

Things to know about legends and myths.

Legends and myths are stories that have been retold for hundreds of years.  Over time, they have changed and altered, so how we tell the story today may well have changed to how the story was told when it was first created.  Though many legends are believed to be about true people and true events, sometimes the people and the events were pretend, or made-up.  Sometimes they were based on true events, but changed slightly to make them more exciting, or to make something appear slightly different to the way they actually were.  Often they have a moral tale, which is a tale that tries to show right and wrong.

The Crusades.

Around nine hundred years ago, there were a series of wars called the Crusades.  The wars happened due to people believing that if you were not the same religion as their religion then you were wrong.  Times were a lot stricter than they are now, and many people believed in magic and witches.  For many people, religion was very important, and for someone not to be the same religion, or not to use the same church, was a terrible thing.

Christian soldiers from all over the Christian world, marched into a part of the world called the Middle East, to fight Muslim soldiers.  Muslim soldiers were known as Moors.  The Christians believed that Jerusalem which they believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and was in the Holy Land, belonged to them.  Muslim Soldiers had captured this land sometime before. Christian soldiers wanted to drive out the Muslim soldiers from the Holy land, and reclaim it.

When Christian soldiers returned from fighting in the Middle East, the story of Saint George began to spread.

Saint George, is the patron saint of these countries.

Belgium

Brazil

Bulgaria

Canada

England

Georgia

India

Italy

Lebanon

Malta

Ossetia

Palestine

Portugal

Serbia

Spain

United States of America, where he is the patron saint of the Boy Scouts of America.

A patron saint is a person that who is thought of as a great person by the Christian religion, and is seen as a protector of a land or nation.  All the countries above belive that St George is their protector and was a great person.  There are many statues and paintings of Saint George in many cities around the world.  Moscow, in Russia probably has the most.  The George Cross, is the flag of England.

Who was Saint George?

Like many legends and myths, nobody is really sure who St George actually was.  He lived a long time ago and probably fought in the Crusades.  It is believed that though he fought for the Christians, he was probably born into a Muslim nation and was Muslim by birth, and was probably from Turkey.  Every year in the countries that have St George as their patron saint, have a day or celebration in his honour.  In England, this day is knows as St George’s day.

Wikipedia

photo credit: Jason Bache

photo credit: Matt From London

photo credit: donald judge

Print PDF

For many of us Easter is a time when the Easter Bunny arrives and hides Easter eggs in our house.  Very often, our families buy Easter eggs for us, and we all have a lovely time munching on big chocolate eggs.  Sometimes these eggs are so big, they are as big as our heads!

Christian belief

Easter, did not start when the Easter Bunny came along with a basket full of eggs and clues.  Easter is a Christian festival.  This means that within the Christian religion or faith, there is a festival called Easter.

People who belong to the Christian faith, are called Christians, and many Christians believe that a man called Jesus Christ was the son of God.  Jesus Christ’s beliefs on how people should be and behave were not shared by the Roman Empire.  An empire is when land and people are ruled over by another person or country.  The Roman Empire began in Rome, which is now the capital city of Italy.  It conquered many lands through fighting.  After the land was taken over, it became part of the Roman Empire, and the land and the people would have to do as the Roman Empire wanted, and have the same beliefs.  As the Roman Empire did not like Jesus Christ’s beliefs, which were now shared by many people in many lands, they executed him by nailing him to a wooden cross and leaving him to die.

However, many Christians believe that he was brought back to life by God, and this is what the Easter festival celebrates.  Very often, the time when Jesus Christ was brought back to life is known as the resurrection.  This has all been written down in the New Testament section of the Bible.

Easter Bunny

As we know the Easter Bunny brings us lots of chocolate if we have been good.  He was first seen in Germany in the 1600s, and like Father Christmas or Santa Claus, gave out presents of chocolate eggs to children that have been good.  So make sure that you are.

In the 1800s, Easter Bunny went to America as well as Germany, and now he goes all over the world giving out chocolate eggs to all the children that have been good.

Easter Eggs

When an egg hatches, whatever is inside the egg is born.  This new life is what an Easter egg represents.  So we give each other chocolate eggs to celebrate the belief of the Christian faith that Jesus Christ received a new life from God when he was resurrected..

photo credit: Pål Berge

photo credit: db*photography

photo credit: langalex

photo credit: emilywjones

Print PDF