How The Germans Celebrate Easter Season

Do you know that Easter Bunny was originated in Germany and it symbolizes fertility? It was said that it was imported by Pennsylvania Dutch Settlers to America. Maybe it was Peter Minuit, who was a German and the founder of New Amsterdam (now New York) before it was sold to Stuyvesant.

Easter season in Germany is a celebration for young and old. It is a celebration for the end of winter and the coming of spring season and most of all the celebration for the resurrection of Christ.

Easter season starts here in Germany on Karfreitag ( Good Friday). Traditionally, the Germans only eat fish for their meals on that day. The shops, schools and offices are closed. On Good Saturday, the shops are open. The people who have still a lot to buy for the celebration can still do their shopping because the following two Easter days, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are holidays. It is a long weekend that most Germans go to other places or go to their neighbouring countries like Netherlands, Austria or Switzerland.

The Germans decorate their houses with Easter bunnies, yellow daffodils, baking Easter cakes, coloring and painting boiled eggs. Some gardens are decorated with colored empty eggs which are hanging on the branches. Families with small children are enjoying this very much.

Decorations:

• Decorating a tree in your garden:

You have to empty an egg by making holes at both ends by using a needle. Then carefully blow the inside of the egg and the content will go out the other end. Don´t forget to put a bowl to catch the content of the egg. Put a holder for hanging by using a small piece of toothpick with a thread (which should be in the middle) inserted into the hole. See to it that the toothpick is small enough to hold the empty egg or else it will be broken. You can paint it with different food coloring you like. You can even paint a landscape. When it´s dry, you can hang it in your tree.

• Coloring the boiled or empty eggs:

Note: Before you start with your work, cover your table with old newspapers so when you are finished, you can put it directly to the bin.

Put a stick for you to handle in one end of an empty egg so it´s easier for you to color or buy in the shop an egg coloring holder to hold the eggs while painting them. You can color your boiled eggs by buying a color paste to be put into hot or boiled water. Use different kettles for different colors. There are colored sticks to be used like pencils or Easter egg stickers in the shops to buy. These pencils and stickers are very handy and you will not be messing up the table.

On Easter Sunday, the children receive a nest made of straw. The kids start to look for the Easter eggs that the parents have hidden an hour or a day before the egg hunting party. The parents hide them everywhere. Inside and outside the house. Whenever the children find Easter eggs, they put them in their nest. Some Easter eggs are hidden inside the shoes that when the owner stepped in, the eggs are destroyed. When it´s a chocolate egg, then it will be melting under their feet.

Hunting the Easter eggs in the garden is more interesting for you, when you hide them under some plants and flowers, under the grass or under the ground. Sometimes the eggs are no longer there because the squirrel got them. When the hunting party is over, it´s time for coffee and cakes.

Chocolate Easter Eggs and Bunnies

The first chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies were made around 1800. Nowadays, there are lots of shops selling chocolate eggs, bunnies, Easter rabbits and chocolate lambs. You can choose from every taste and shape. All these edible sweets are used as gifts to our loving friends and families. Without these, Easter celebrations are unthinkable.

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