Easter is coming and this Sunday kids all over America will look around their houses for baskets filled with chocolate and brightly colored eggs and pet baby chickens that will be abandoned in less than a month.
While we all know about American Easter traditions like the bunny and Easter Basket and Egg Hunt, different cultures celebrate Easter in different ways all around the world. Here’s just a sampling of how Easter is celebrated in different parts of the globe.
Easter Bilby (Australia)
The Easter Bilby is pretty much just the Australian version of the Easter Bunny. The bilby is actually endangered due to feral rabbits (which I guess are actually a pretty big problem in Australia?) and the whole concept of the Easter Bilby is used to bring awareness to this tiny holocaust led by rabbit nazis (and sell some chocolate while they’re at it).
The Dingus (central Europe)
I really can’t find a funnier way to describe this than the wikipedia article does so I’m just going to copy/past the description. “In Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic[5] traditionally, early in the morning boys awake girls by pouring a bucket of water on their head and striking them about the legs with long thin twigs or switches made from willow, birch or decorated tree branches”.
Happy Easter, bitch! Hope you like leg welts!
Easter Monday is basically pledge week at the Alpha Beta Czech house.
You can check the article for a full, lengthy and boring explanation on why that’s done but I can sum it up for you. Some weird Pagan rituals got mixed up with some weird Christian rituals and this is what happened. Speaking of weird Christian rituals –
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rome)
In Vatican City, people go to church every Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of the Son of God
also everybody wears bright round yellow hats.
They pay tribute and relive his suffering at the cross by sitting through an hour and a half Catholic mass. They then celebrate the joy of his resurrection by going to a fancy brunch.
There’s so many ways different cultures celebrate the holiday. One of my favorites is the tradition of the re-enactment of Wayne Gretky’s battle with the Wendigo but I’ll save that story for Canadian Easter in August. Happy Easter, everybody!