Easter eggs: how different countries celebrate the date – 03/31/2023 – Food

As soon as Carnival is left behind, chocolate eggs start popping up in Brazilian supermarkets. Sweets are the first sign that Easter is coming, bringing together other typical traditions of the date, such as bacalhoada and colomba pascal. But this here in Brazil. In other countries around the world, Easter celebrations can be very different from ours.

A good part of these differences can be explained by the seasons. In the northern hemisphere, Easter coincides with the end of winter and the beginning of spring, a time that was celebrated long before Christ. With time and the expansion of Catholicism, the celebrations became a single party.

Centuries have passed, but eggs are perhaps the only unanimity of Easter around the world. They are such an ancient and widespread tradition that it is impossible to know for sure how they came to be. The oldest reports show that, even before Christ, the native populations of the Northern Hemisphere used to exchange eggs at the spring equinox to celebrate the end of the cold season. And why eggs? Because they symbolize life and rebirth. An ideal gift to celebrate the arrival of spring.

But it wasn’t until the 18th century that egg whites and yolks gave way to chocolate, thanks to the inventiveness of French pastry chefs. As expected, many people liked the idea, which ended up spreading quickly around the world. But it is worth noting: just like the jabuticada, the spoonful Easter egg is a 100% Brazilian delicacy.

And how does the rabbit, which doesn’t even lay eggs, enter into this story? It’s also hard to say. But given its reputation as a breeder (rabbits can give birth to up to 50 babies a year) and the fact that it is the first animal to come out of the den when winter ends, we can understand why the rabbit has become one of the main symbols of the Christian feast that celebrates, precisely, the rebirth.

In Sweden and Finland, Easter is very reminiscent of our Halloween —as strange as that may sound. Children dress up as witches and go from house to house offering willow branches (a symbol of protection) in exchange for sweets. It’s just that, in the past there, the celebration of the spring equinox always honored Ostara, the goddess of fertility and rebirth in Norse mythology, in which the figure of witches is very present.

In Germany, the date is celebrated by decorating the dry branches of trees with colored eggshells, in reverence for the coming spring — it is the Osterbaum, or Easter Tree. Another difference from the German celebration is that, over there, Easter extends for another day, until Monday, which is still a holiday. England, Canada, France, United Kingdom and more than a hundred countries also have this extra day of celebration.

Accustomed to breaking dishes, the Greeks on the island of Corfu have a similar tradition at Easter. On Saturday mornings, they go out onto their balconies with large clay pots filled with water and hurl them onto the street — which attracts thousands of tourists every year. Once again, what inspires the ritual is the Easter spirit of renewal and rebirth.

In Hungary and some other eastern European countries, a very common tradition is Hungarian watering, a ritual associated with fertility in which men literally shower women with buckets of scented water. In exchange, the boys receive chicken eggs carefully painted with different designs and colors from the girls.

The exception, in the case of the rabbit, are the countries of Oceania. In Australia and New Zealand, the animal, native to Europe, is considered a pest to the local ecosystem. That is why, over there, the animal that brings the Easter eggs is the Bilby, a native marsupial, from the kangaroo family, threatened with extinction.