Easter in Ukraine, USA, Spain, Germany, Poland, Greece

1. Easter in different countries
Telavi #1 public school
X grade
Mariam Vakhvakhishvili

2. Easter is a joyful spring festival which celebrates the rebirth of Jesus.
Christians and many other people around the world celebrate Easter every year.
Easter traditions around the world can be a lot of fun, but they can also be rather
serious. In most countries some universal Easter traditions exist.
Let’s check out what happens around the world for Easter

3. Easter is the brightest, most majestic holiday in Ukraine,
and it is celebrated with a variety of traditions. The word
for ‘Easter’ in Ukrainian is ’’Velykden’’ which translates to
‘’Great Day’’, and it is one of the biggest holidays in the
country. The preparation for Easter starts one week
before the holiday.(a week called ‘’Holy Week’’)Everyone
awaits Easter day, as a festive mood blooms throughout
the country and families come together to celebrate with
food.
Ukraine

4. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are spent preparing food for Easter. Baking sweet egg
bread (Paska) and dyeing eggs (krashanky). They are some of the most treasured
holiday traditions. Paska is a delicious, sweet, festive bread that is rich in butter and
eggs, baked only for Easter. There are more than 40 recipes for Paska. It’s flavorings
usually include ginger, saffron, vanilla, citron and rum. In addition Ukrainians table is
always full of fish, meat and dairy dishes in particular, and it is usually decorated with
spring flowers like daffodils or tulips.

5. The celebration for Easter starts on Saturday night, when many Christians go for an overnight
church service. It is not easy task to stay in church all the night (Orthodox churches have no
seats), so most families go to church on Easter morning (before the sunrise) to be blessed by
the priest. People bring to church Easter baskets with lit candles, which are filled with Paska,
krashanky and other foods. According to local traditions, families begin their Easter meal with
Paska and the dyed krashanky eggs. Every kid’s favorite part of the morning is the game called
‘’egg battles’’, when two people rap their eggs together, and if someone’s eggshell breaks,
that person is out of the game.

6. As in many other countries, Easter in the USA is also celebrated with some beautiful
traditions, colorful eggs and the Easter bunny, of course. Americans celebrate Easter
very similar to most Europeans. Many churches hold special services on Easter Sunday.
The Easter bunny and the Easter egg hunt also play an important role, especially for
children. They receive candy and colored Easter eggs from the Easter bunny, which
were secretly hidden by their parents in the house or garden beforehand.
United States
When all the Easter eggs have been
collected, the "Easter Egg Roll" begins,
which is very common in the USA. In this
game, children all roll an egg down a hill
at the same time or push it through the
grass, hoping that their own egg will reach
the bottom first and thus win the game.

7. The traditional food is Easter Ham. This is a hearty ham on the bone, which is cooked
in the oven and then refined with a spicy marinade. Americans like to use a honey-
mustard marinade, but of course, you can choose according to your taste. As side dish
there are mostly potatoes and vegetables. Alternatively, the tender Easter Lamb is a
very popular dish at Easter too.

8. Argentinian Torta PascualinaLiterally translated as “Eastertime Tart,” Torta Pascualina, has been a traditional
Argentinian Easter dish since the sixteenth century, when the Italian immigrants
brought the recipe to Argentina with them. This spinach and ricotta pie has raw eggs
cracked into it, which cook as the pie bakes in the oven. When you serve it, every slice
has a cross-section of a cooked egg in it, making this pie the prettiest egg-focused
Easter celebration dish.

9. Another widespread Easter tradition in the US are the colorful Easter parades, with
each city having its own customs. The biggest and most famous one takes place on
Fifth Avenue in New York City. The parade begins at 10 a.m. and lasts until the late
afternoon. It is a cheerful hustle and bustle, where Americans dress in colorful
costumes with flower-decorated hats and stroll through the city together with brass
bands and Easter carriages. It is not unusual to meet visitors dressed as Easter bunnies
either!

10. Easter is one of the most popular holidays in
Germany. For many German families, Easter is
the first occasion to go outside to celebrate
after a long winter. The children hunt for
Easter eggs in the garden, while the adults go
for walks to enjoy the mild spring air. Germans
maintain many traditions and customs that
make Easter, the most important Christian
feast. Easter celebrations in Germany involve a
lot of chocolate, gatherings of family and
friends, delicious meals.
Germany

11. In Germany the celebration of Easter starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday, with
traditional dishes for each day. The Thursday before Easter is known as
"Gründonnerstag" or "Green Thursday." On this special day, it is part of tradition that
only green foods are eaten. Such as soups with celery, parsley, and leeks. On the
following day, Good Friday, known as "Karfreitag", the main meal is usually some kind
of fish dish. Then, it's Easter, "Ostern." Traditionally, the meat is roasted lamb, served
with asparagus and potatoes.

12. Like Christmas trees, Osterbaum, or Easter trees, are kept
in the home during the holiday season and some people may
even decorate the trees in their yards or public parks. One
of the most famous Easter trees in all of Germany is located
at one family's home in the eastern state of Thuringia. For
more than 50 years, the Kraft family in the town of
Saalfield has made a tradition of hanging thousands of
hand-decorated eggs on their tree, a sight that attracts
visitors from all over Germany every Easter.

14. The Easter Egg Hunt is a longstanding German Easter Sunday tradition, in which
German children search for hard-boiled colored eggs, chocolate bunnies, mini eggs or
nests. In some parts of Germany, children collect flowers in the forest on Friday and
build Easter nests in their gardens. On Easter Sunday, parents hide eggs or sweets in
the nests. Small children are told that the ‘Osterhase’ (Easter Bunny) hides the
colorful eggs.

15. Germany’s most popular Easter poem
“Outside of the Gate” by Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, describes the
joyful feelings people have, when the
cold winter days are gone and the first
rays of spring sunshine provide the
perfect setting for an Easter-walk
together with the family or close
friends.

16. Easter eggs symbolize new life and in Germany, eggs are often still hand-blown and
delicately decorated. Eggs were once traditionally dyed with natural materials like
tea, roots, and spices.

17. In Poland, a country where Roman-Catholic religious practices are still widely present, Easter happens to
be one of the most beautiful celebrations in the calendar. There are a lot of fun Easter traditions that
develop over centuries and quite a few serious customs that may be surprising for a foreigner.
Poland

18. White borscht soup is eaten on Easter Sunday morning or served for dinner after the
appetizers.

19. Chałka is served for breakfast or with a meal. It's especially great for ham
sandwiches—the sweet and salty combination is unbeatable.

20. The eggs, which dominate the Easter
table, symbolise life and rebirth.
Beautifully decorated, they have
adorned Polish tables at Easter for
centuries. Traditional patterns on
Easter eggs are prepared with hot
wax applied to the shell. Eggs are
then covered with paint, and finally
the wax is removed to reveal the
patterns that have been created. The
most common symbols on Easter eggs
include lambs, crosses, flowers and
other spring motifs.

21. Pouring water on one another is a Polish Easter tradition called Śmigus-dyngus. On
Easter Monday, boys try to drench other people with buckets of water, squirt guns or
anything they can get their hands on. Legend says girls who get soaked will marry
within the year

22. Easter time in Spain can be very
different from how you might be used to
celebrating it at home. There are no
Easter egg hunts or giant bunnies – and
not much chocolate either. Let’s see
some Easter traditions in Spain.
Spain

23. The Easter period in Spain is known as Semana Santa, or Holy Week which dates back
to the 16th century. Today, Semana Santa is still celebrated. Andalusian Semana
Santa starts on the Sunday before Easter and lasts until Easter Sunday itself. In Toledo,
Semana Santa celebrations are even longer, starting on the Thursday two weeks before
Semana Santa itself. Associations known as cofradías or ‘brotherhoods’ (whose
members take part in the processions) are a strong tradition in Spain, with many
dating back to the Middle Ages. Music is an important part in Semana Santa processions
– most of music are accompanied by live marching bands that play religious music.

26. The floats are an important part of the
religious process. They are huge, intricate
and elaborate pieces of artwork, which
feature statues of the Virgin Mary, Jesus on
the cross and important events such as The
Last Supper. During many of the processions,
the floats are carried on the heads of men
and women who hide underneath them.

27. Forget chocolate Easter eggs, the
Spanish have their own Easter treats.
Similar to French toast, Torrijas are
typically eaten around Easter time.
They consist of bread, dipped in milk
and egg, then fried, before being
sprinkled in sugar and drenched in
honey. Some of them also have a burnt
sugar layer on the top.

28. Easter cakes, or Monas de Pascua, are
typically found in the Catalunya and
Valencia regions. Traditionally they
consist of sweet bread rings with whole
eggs baked into the top and sprinkled
with candied pieces of fruit and sugar.
More modern versions of this cake can
also be found, filled with cream, covered
in chocolate, and topped with chicks and
chocolate Easter eggs.

29. Easter is the greatest Christian celebration in Greece. The country celebrates this
special holiday like nowhere else in the world. As a religious nation, Greek Orthodox
Easter is a week-long celebration that includes a series of festivities. All the traditions
are followed by the whole nation
Greece

30. Tsoureki is traditionally on Holy Thursday that people make the Easter brioche. This
sweet bread is usually braided with three pieces of dough, which represent the Holy
Trinity, and spiced with “mahleb”. It is served with a red hardboiled egg in the middle.
Nowadays, people simply buy the ”tsoureki” at the bakery as its preparation is time-
consuming.

31. The tradition of boiling and dyeing eggs in
the red color symbolizes the rebirth of life
and the blood of Christ.
Red eggs in “Tsoureki”

32. This special day sees the conclusion
of the Passion of Christ with Christ’s
burial. On this day, bells ring
multiple times throughout the day,
and people head to church early to
decorate the Epitaphios, a canopy
holding the holy icon depicting the
burial of the Christ, with
flowers. The Good Friday mass
takes place in the evening and is
followed by a solemn procession
around the block of the church in
big cities or around the village in
rural areas. People usually join the
procession, with a brown candle in
hand, and chant or listen to the
chanters singing the hymns in a
somber atmosphere.