The Traveller's Magazine
Is it Easter Weekend already? Have you already stocked up on eggs for the festivities? From Latvia to Hungary and on to Greece, let’s see how Europe celebrates Easter!
In England, as in many other countries around the world, chocolate eggs are hidden in the gardens for children. There are hot cross buns and marshmallow chicks, creme eggs and lamb for supper. But not everyone celebrates the same, take a look at these three, very different, Easter traditions in Europe.
Latvia: swinging into spring
Latvian Rober Zile explains,
“Nowadays we colour eggs with onion skins, rye shoots and birch leaves. Then the battle of the eggs begins. The person with the egg shell that resists the longest will have the longest life.”
That’s not all though, on Easter Day everyone goes to play on the swings. Don’t ask us why but ancestoers believed it had something to do with fertility.
Flights to Riga
Hungary: showering the girls with water
On Easter Monday men and boys alike pay visits to all their female relatives, friends, neighbours and crushes to sprinkle cologne or water on them. Some even come with poems to read. The women, in turn, must treat the men to cakes and tea or hand-painted eggs. As for the girls, it’s an honour and the girl with the most “sprinklings” wins.
Flights to Budapest
Corfu: balancing pottery on windowsills
At the exact moment the bells being to toll, announcing the resurrection of Christ, Corfu locals put their pottery jugs up on the windowsills to be thrown down into the streets. Small detail: they are carefully filled to the brim with water or wine to make an even bigger noise. Just don’t be caught underneath walking through the streets! That’s how they do Easter in this corner of Greece…
Flights to Corfu
Happy Easter!
