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?

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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..

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Traditionally, an Easter egg hunt consists of a child searching around the house for  their chocolate eggs.  This is a lot of fun and is a nice way to start Easter day.  There are ways however, to make it more fun and to keep it alive if your children are a little older.

Easter Egg Hunt Clues

Instead of just randomly placing the eggs around the house, why not leave a clue to where the next egg is hidden?  So if the next egg is hidden by the television, why not say the next egg is near the device where you watch your favorite programme.  How hard or cryptic you make the clues is up to you, the key thing is to make the Easter egg hunt fun!  Don’t make them too hard, and give plenty of encouragement.

Here are some clues to get you started.

The next egg is where your toys are kept…

There might be an egg where bread goes in and toast comes out…

An egg could be where you have breakfast…

There could be an egg where use a mouse…

An egg could be opposite the stairs…

Have you looked near the flowers?  Some might be buried in the garden…

An egg could be by the plant by the window…

When creating a clue, it is sometimes nice to draw a small picture such as an egg, or Easter Bunny’s paw print.  Try and get the clues to flow.

Easter Egg Hunt – Google

If your children are at a point where the clues are solved to easily and seems to be a little dull, try this.

Instead of leaving clues to specific objects, leave the name of an inventor which has to be Googled.  The object the inventor invented, is where the next egg is hidden.  So for example John Logi Baired invented the television, so your children find his name as a clue, they Google it, and then find the next egg hidden by the television.  Amazing.

As finding the inventors of objects can be difficult, here are a few to get you started.

John Logi Baired – Television.

Alexander Graham Bell – Telephone.

Percy Spencer – Microwave Oven.

Sir John Harrington – Flushing Toilet.

Charles Babbage – Computer( Not strictly true as there were many inventions that led to computing as we know it today, Mr Babbage’s Difference Engine was arguably one of the first computers to be invented.  The point is that if you type his name into Google, he is deeply associated with computing.)

George Nissen – Trampoline

Easter Egg Hunt – Pirate Map.

‘X’ mark’s the spot for this one.  You draw a map of the house and if you are feeling ambitious and if you have one, the  garden too.  You mark ‘X’s where the eggs are hidden.  If you are happy to dig up bits of your garden, then you can bury the eggs in the ground.  We would advise that you put the eggs in a plastic container, rather than just in their wrappings.  It has been known that creatures other than humans have enjoyed a good egg.

When creating the map, draw areas of the house as reference points on the map.  So the stairs can be cliffs and a rug could be the sea.  A table makes a good island and so on.  This can be great fun if your children are at the age where they love pirates, and love dressing up.  Every time they find some ‘treasure’, make them say ‘agrhhhhhhhhhhhh’, in  a pirate voice.  Great fun!

If you have any ideas for an Easter Egg Hunt and want to share them, please feel free.

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