Celebrating Easter around the world

Easter is commonly associated with church services, passion plays, Easter bunnies, and the hunting of chocolate eggs.

While this is true for Namibians too, many consider it as a normal public holiday and a long weekend during which they can just forget about work and relax – and even spend time at the coast or in the North.

Swakopmund residents call the Easter long weekend the “small December holiday”, considering the large group of people visiting the coast. Interestingly enough, the Easter weekend is often also the start of the coast’s east weather conditions.

Erongo 24/7 surfed the net to find some other weird and wonderful ways countries and cultures celebrate their version of Easter.

In Antigua, streets are covered in colorful “carpets” throughout in preparation of a Good Friday procession. The long carpets are made from flowers, colored sawdust, fruits, vegetables, and sand.

In Bermuda, people show off and fly their homemade kites, often with bold, brightly-colored geometric designs. This tradition started when a local Sunday school teacher, explaining Christ’s ascension, launched a kite that looked like Jesus to help the students understand.

Czech boys tie ribbons to willow branch whips on Easter Monday and gently “whip” girls to wish them good luck and health.

Young girls in Finland dress up as Easter witches, wearing colorful clothing with freckles painted on their cheeks. The little witches go door to door with bunches of willow twigs decorated with colorful feathers and paper. A rhyming blessing is recited to drive away evil spirits, and they are often given a chocolate egg in return.

In the French town of Haux, a giant omelet that can feed up to 1 000 people is served up in the town’s main square.

In Hungary, boys playfully sprinkle perfume or perfumed water on girls after getting their permission to do so. Young men used to pour buckets of water over young women’s heads, but now they spray perfume, cologne, or just plain water, and ask for a kiss.

Italians in Florence celebrate “Scoppio del Carro” (explosion of the cart) in which a cart packed with fireworks is led through the streets of Florence by people in colorful ­15th-century costumes before stopping outside the church. The Archbishop of Florence lights a fuse during Easter mass that leads outside to the cart and sparks a lively fireworks display.

During the annual Great Easter Bunny Hunt in New Zealand, hundreds of hunters gather in the town of Alexandra to hunt rabbits.

Because it gets so hot in Papua New Guinea, which makes it difficult to keep Easter chocolate from melting, trees outside churches are decorated with packs of tobacco and cigarettes, which are given to congregants after church services on Easter Sunday.

Some people in the Philippines are nailed to crosses to honor Jesus’ crucifixion. Though this is frowned upon by churches, it is an annual tradition that attracts thousands of tourists.

In Spain’s medieval town of Verges, the traditional “death dance” is performed. Everyone dresses in skeleton costumes and parades through the streets. The procession ends with frightening skeletons carrying boxes of ashes.

The macabre dance begins at midnight and continues for three hours into the early morning. (Most of the information related to global celebrations is from the website womansday.com.)