Easter Traditions Around the World

Below are a few international Easter traditions around the world that have incorporated unique customs into the holiday:

An Australian Easter tradition

Australia’s largest annual event is the Sidney Royal Easter Show at Sydney Olympic Park that lasts for two weeks through Easter weekend. In keeping with a long tradition of agricultural shows that are popular throughout Australia, rural communities bring their highest quality livestock and produce to the big city to give urbanites a better idea of what rural life is all about. The Sidney Royal Easter Show also includes rodeo competition, rides, and other attractions and entertainment for the whole family. Other Easter festivals held throughout Australia, like the Bendigo Easter Festival in Victoria celebrated since 1870, are just as important for communities all over the country.

A European Easter

Germany has a custom all its own called the “Osterbaum” (Easter tree). Easter trees are usually made from pussy willow branches or other flower spring bushes that are taken indoors. Traditional decorations include painted wooden eggs; real eggs that have been hollowed out, colored, and decorated with beads, jewels, and lace; and garlands of ribbon. Living trees and bushes in German yards are also decorated as Easter trees.

Because they are forbidden to eat eggs during Lent, the Irish present decorated eggs to family members on Good Friday for consumption on Easter Sunday. On Holy Saturday, devout Irish Christians take a vow of silence and attend a special service called Easter Vigil where the Church is decorated in regal purple banners celebrating the arrival of Christ.

Easter in Scandinavia

It took Christianity another one thousand years to make its way from Europe to Scandinavia. Those thousand years of pagan history have created a tradition that is still practiced today. In order to symbolize that Scandinavian countries no longer practice the dark arts like witchcraft, huge bonfires are lit during Easter celebrations to show that witches are no longer welcome. In Sweden and Finland, this tradition also includes costumed children going through neighborhoods asking for treats in a similar tradition like Halloween.

South American Easter carnivals

While Rio de Janeiro holds the famous Rio Carnival every year before Ash Wednesday, other smaller towns and cities hold parades every day during the last week of Lent. While these smaller parades might lack the impressive costumes, floats, music and professional dancers of the larger city, people wear their best clothing and carry statues of Jesus through the streets.

There is dancing and feasting with traditional sweets called “besitos” (coconut cookies) and “pacoca” (crushed peanut and sugar pastry).

History, combined with modern traditions, makes international Easter traditions meaningful to families around the world. When cultures influence religious practices, people devise ways to make the holiday of Easter a time of remembrance and joy.