After forty days of fasting and penitence during the season of Lent, Easter is a time to rejoice celebrated with feasts, church service and wearing bright clothes in pastel colours. Easter, which falls on 31st March 2024 this year, marks the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. All around the world, people celebrate the day with decorated chocolate eggs in a basket, jellybeans and tracking the Easter bunny. However, many cultures have their unique customs and traditions for the festival. Just like Christmas, Easter also has roots in both Christianity and ancient pagan culture. Though it is mostly considered a religious holiday, many of our modern traditions are rooted in ancient pagan celebrations of the spring equinox.
Celebrating Easter in South of Europe
Spain and France are renowned for their extensive celebrations of religious festivals due to their deep-rooted cultural and historical significance. Both countries have a strong Catholic tradition, with Christianity deeply ingrained in their societies for centuries. As a result, religious festivals, including Easter, are celebrated with great fervour and enthusiasm.
The Giant Omelette Festival in France
The Fête de l’Omelette Géante or the Giant Omelette Festival in Bessières, France is a grand celebration of Easter with feasts, Easter Egg hunts, parades, and performances with a spectacular grand finale where they cook a colossal 15,000 egg omelette which can feed more than 2000 people.
More than 100 volunteers all dressed in yellow and white, gather around a long table and crack the eggs into large bowls. Over a bonfire in the centre of the town square, an 850kg, 13ft frying pan is held up with the help of a forklift truck. The chefs known as the Knights of the Giant Omelette pour 70 litres of duck fat into the pan to warm it up. The eggs are whisked with hand-held paddle mixers in large aluminium stock pots along with chopped chives, salt, and pepper as well as the mild chilli pepper piment d’Espelette.
The beaten eggs are poured into the pan and stirred with large wooden paddles to prevent them from sticking and burning. The omelette takes around half an hour to cook after which it is served to everyone visiting the festival along with a slice of sourdough bread.
Semana Santa Celebrations in Spain
The celebrations during Semana Santa can vary greatly depending on the region of Spain. In Andalusia, which is located in the south of Spain, Semana Santa is particularly renowned for its elaborate processions. In cities like Seville, Malaga, and Granada, the processions can be very elaborate, with large floats depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ, and penitents dressed in traditional robes and hoods. These processions can last for hours and are attended by large crowds of locals and tourists alike.
In other parts of Spain, such as Catalonia in the northeast, the celebrations during Holy Week tend to be more low-key. While there are still processions and other religious ceremonies, they may be less elaborate than in other regions. Instead, families often gather together to enjoy traditional Easter dishes and spend time with each other.
Global easter food traditions
Easter is celebrated by millions worldwide and brings a delightful array of culinary customs and traditions that have been passed down through generations. Across diverse cultures and regions, food plays a central role in Easter festivities, symbolizing renewal, abundance, and the spirit of togetherness. In many countries, the Easter table is adorned with a stunning array of dishes that showcase the seasonal bounty and culinary creativity of each region.
Easter Eggs and the Easter Bunny
Possibly the most recognizable symbols associated with Easter are the Easter Eggs and the Easter Bunny. Eggs are painted in bright colours to be used for the popular Easter egg hunt, where they are hidden for children to find and collect. The modern custom of dyed eggs and decorated chocolate eggs comes from a tradition dating back thousands of years, long before the time of Jesus Christ.
Many ancient cultures, including the Greeks and Egyptians, saw eggs as a sign of fertility and new life. They exchanged eggs as gifts during their springtime festival. Ancient Babylonians believed an egg fell from heaven into the Euphrates River, and hatched into the goddess of fertility, Ishtar which sounds similar to Easter. As a coincidence, Anglo-Saxons celebrated a festival on the spring equinox dedicated to their goddess of fertility called Eostre.
Christian missionaries started the custom of hiding dyed or painted eggs for children to find and bringing them back to the missionaries as a tool for increasing the children’s interest in religious stories and church activities.
Rabbits and hares are associated with spring as it's the season when they give birth, and you can find a lot of baby bunnies in the field. According to an old German tale, an old woman who loved children would hide brightly coloured eggs in her garden as Easter treats. One year, while the children searched for them, they noticed a hare hopping past and believed that the animal had left the eggs.
Easter Ham
Easter is celebrated with a feast for dinner and every dinner table in America has a portion of Ham as the centerpiece. Ham symbolizes good luck in many cultures making it a fitting meal option for all kinds of celebrations. The reason ham is the prime highlight of the Easter dinner is that pigs are typically slaughtered in the late fall or winter, and it takes several months to cure and smoke the pork to make the ham ready to eat just as the spring begins.
Hot Cross Buns
The treat made famous by the nursery rhyme, Hot Cross Buns are sweet and sticky buns made with a dough leavened with yeast and speckled with dried fruit, candied peel, and spices. A sweet flour paste is piped on top of the bun in the shape of a cross that represents Jesus Christ being crucified on a cross. The recipe dates back to ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece, where they served sweetened bread as symbols of honour toward their goddesses. They became popular at Good Friday in England when bakers were forbidden to sell spiced or sweet bread except on special holidays. It was a popular belief that Hot Cross buns baked on Good Friday were holy and could cure any disease and were gifted to sailors as a good luck charm on their voyages. While a popular treat worldwide on Good Friday, Hot Cross buns are an important part of the Easter dinner in New Zealand and Australia where it is the season of fall during Easter.
