You may be licking your lips at the prospect of a delicious chocolate bunny or the wide variety of eggs and candies that may just end up hidden somewhere in your garden this Sunday, however not everyone around the world will be receiving a basket of goodies. All around the world countries put their own unique spin on popular holidays from Christmas through to Valentine’s and New Year’s, therefore we here at Sir Holiday wanted to see just how different the rest of the world was when it came to Easter. And there are quite a few unique things, let’s go exploring.
In Australia, they don’t even have bunnies. From the early 1990’s, there have been no Easter bunnies being feverishly unwrapped and munched on during the Easter festivities throughout Australia. Why, well a movement known as Rabbit-Free Australia managed to instead have Bilbys, which is a type of bandicoot with rabbit ears made into edible chocolate pieces for Easter instead. You might be wondering why Australians are hating on rabbits like this, well in their country rabbits are looked upon as a pestilence in the land and therefore, they don’t want to glorify a pestilence as a gift to their children for a key holiday during the year.
In Florence in Italy they are still practising a tradition that has existed for over 350 years. On Easter Sunday every year the townspeople, while all dressed up in costumes and revelry, head down towards the Duomo which is a church. The townspeople walk all the way behind a cart that has been decorated with tons of unique and elaborate designs. Inside the cart are hundreds of fireworks, during the Easter mass on the Sunday, the Archbishop of Florence will light a fuse that will work itself right to the cart and ultimately set all of the fireworks alight.
In Norway, things are slightly different, in fact I’m pretty certain that they got Halloween and Easter mixed up. According to Scandinavian folklore witches are prone to flying around on the days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and by people burning large bonfires the heat of the flames will keep the witches away from the townsfolk and their families. Another thing that is done is that children dress up with painted faces and scarves in order to look like witches and then go walking through the streets begging for chocolates and other Easter candy.
Moving on to Poland, in Poland people go crazy and try their best to get other members of their community soaked with water on Easter Sunday. Using everything from water guns to buckets the aim is to soak as many people as possible, there is a common belief that girls who get soaked will be married within one year. This Polish tradition stems from the Polish Prince Mieszko all the way back in 966 AD over the weekend of Easter.
Oh, and if you happen to be anywhere near Haux, France be prepared. They make an enormous omelette featuring 4 500 eggs, which will feed 1 000 people every single year over Easter. For all of your holiday information and more, visit Sir Holiday.
Duomo link:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/11/27/20/28/florence-1066314_960_720.jpg
Bilby link:
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