Easter Traditions Around the World

Short answer

• Easter traditions around the world share a common core and a remarkable local variety. Easter is the Christian festival that commemorates, in Christian belief, the Resurrection of Jesus, and its date moves each year because it is set by a lunar calculation fixed by the Council of Nicaea in 325. Around that shared framework, each place has added its own customs: processions in Spain and Guatemala, pot smashing in Corfu, water fights in Poland, Easter witches in Sweden and Finland, crime novels in Norway, kite flying in Bermuda, a giant omelette in France, and a chocolate bilby in Australia. Eggs appear almost everywhere, as symbols of new life and spring, but little else is shared.

What Easter Is, and Why Its Date Moves

Easter is a principal festival of the Christian church, celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus on the third day after his Crucifixion, according to Christian belief. The earliest recorded observance dates from the 2nd century. The festival is preceded by Lent, a season of preparation, and by Holy Week, which runs from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and includes Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

The date of Easter moves because it is calculated, not fixed. In 325, the Council of Nicaea decreed that Easter should fall on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox, taken as March 21. That rule means Easter can fall on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25, which is why school holidays, travel prices, and festival dates shift with it each year.

There is one more complication worth knowing. Eastern Orthodox churches use a slightly different calculation, based on the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar used in the West. The two calendars are currently 13 days apart, so Orthodox Easter usually occurs later than Western Easter, and in some years the two coincide. Orthodox tradition also holds that Easter must not fall before or at the same time as Passover. In Ethiopia, where the Ethiopian Orthodox Church follows its own calendar, the Easter festival known as Fasika often falls on a different date again.

The English word Easter itself has an uncertain origin. The older explanation, from the scholar Bede, linked it to a goddess named Eostre. That view is now disputed, and the current consensus reported by Encyclopaedia Britannica derives the word from the Christian designation of Easter week as in albis, understood as the plural of alba, meaning dawn, which became eostarum in Old High German. Easter is not a federal holiday in the United States, but it is an official public holiday in several countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and many European nations.

Spain: Seville and the Grandeur of Semana Santa

In Spain, Holy Week is called Semana Santa, and its most famous celebration takes place in Seville, in Andalusia. From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, the streets fill with processions organized by religious brotherhoods known as hermandades or cofradias. Over 60 brotherhoods take part in Seville, each carrying pasos, large platforms bearing lifelike wooden sculptures of scenes from the Passion or images of the Virgin Mary. Some of the sculptures are centuries old and are regarded as artistic masterpieces. The pasos are carried by costaleros, bearers hidden beneath the platform, so that the float appears to move on its own, and the processions are preceded by members in penitential robes with tall pointed hoods called capirotes, designed so that penitents could repent in anonymity.

The climax of the week is La Madruga, the night from Maundy Thursday to Good Friday, when the most revered processions, including those of the Macarena, the Gran Poder, the Esperanza de Triana, and the Gitanos, move through streets that stay awake to watch them. All processions follow a route from their home churches to Seville Cathedral and back, and the final shared stretch before the cathedral is called the Carrera Oficial. Seville’s Semana Santa was declared of International Tourist Interest in 1980.

Italy: Florence and the Explosion of the Cart

Florence marks Easter Sunday with one of the loudest traditions in Europe: the Scoppio del Carro, or Explosion of the Cart. On Easter morning, a tall antique cart loaded with fireworks, known as the Brindellone, is drawn by white oxen decorated with garlands from the Porta al Prato to the Piazza del Duomo, escorted by soldiers, musicians, and people in historical dress. At the same time, a fire struck from historic flints kept at the Church of Santi Apostoli is carried in procession to the cathedral square.

During Easter Mass, at the singing of the Gloria, the Archbishop of Florence lights a fuse in a mechanical dove called the colombina, using the Easter fire. The dove speeds along a wire from the high altar, out of the cathedral, and ignites the cart outside, while the bells of Giotto’s campanile ring. The fireworks display that follows lasts about 20 minutes. According to tradition, a smooth flight promises a good harvest and a good year.

The origin of the ceremony is told as a legend. According to tradition, the Florentine captain Pazzino de’ Pazzi, said to have been the first to scale the walls of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, received three flints from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and those flints are kept at the Church of Santi Apostoli. The story is presented here as tradition, not as verified history.

Greece: Pots, Rockets, and Red Eggs

Greek Easter is the most important festival in the Greek Orthodox calendar, and its most spectacular local customs are found on two islands. On Corfu, Holy Saturday morning brings the Botides, the pot throwing. At 11:00 a.m., residents throw large clay pots and jugs filled with water from balconies in Corfu Town, around Spianada Square, to shatter on the streets below. Balconies are draped with red fabric, and the pots are often tied with red ribbons. Philharmonic bands play as the pots fall, and crowds collect pieces of the smashed pottery to keep as good luck charms. Local accounts describe the custom as symbolizing renewal and the welcoming of spring, and as warding off evil spirits.

On Chios, the village of Vrontados stages the Rouketopolemos, the Rocket War, on Holy Saturday night. Two parishes, Agios Markos and Panagia Erithiani, fire thousands of homemade rockets at each other’s church, aiming at the rival dome or bell tower, in a mock battle that local tradition dates to the Ottoman era.

Across Greece, eggs are dyed red, a color associated in Greek tradition with the blood of Christ and with new life, and family members tap their eggs against each other, with the holder of the last uncracked egg said to enjoy good luck for the year. The main Easter meal traditionally includes roast lamb and magiritsa, a soup made for the breaking of the fast.

Poland and Czechia: Water, Willows, and Painted Eggs

Easter Monday is the liveliest day of Easter in Poland and Czechia, and in both countries it involves water, willow, and eggs, in different combinations.

In Poland, Easter Monday is Smigus-Dyngus, or Wet Monday. People splash each other with water, using buckets, bottles, and water guns, and the custom is now a mutual water fight, especially among children and teenagers. Historically, boys drenched girls and tapped their legs with pussy willow branches, girls retaliated on Tuesday, and painted eggs called pisanki served as gifts or “ransoms.” Pussy willows, blessed on Palm Sunday, were treated as charms for health and good fortune. The origins of the custom are described as a blend of older spring and fertility ritual with Christian baptism themes, and a 1410 edict by the Bishop of Poznan is said to have tried to curtail it.

In Czechia and Slovakia, Easter Monday brings the pomlazka, a braided whip made of fresh willow twigs, often decorated with ribbons. Boys and men visit girls and women, recite Easter rhymes, and lightly tap them with the whip, which is understood as passing on the health and vitality of the young willow branch. In return, visitors receive painted eggs called kraslice, sweets, ribbons, or refreshments. The word pomlazka is linked to the idea of making someone young again, and the willow was chosen because it is one of the first trees to come into leaf. The custom is described as a spring rite older than Christianity that later became part of Easter week. In some regions, girls get their revenge on Tuesday by dousing the boys with cold water. Today the form varies: in cities it is often reduced to a ribbon, a joke, and a glass, while in villages groups still go from house to house.

Germany: Fountains, Bonfires, and the Easter Hare

Germany celebrates Easter with customs that vary sharply by region. In Franconia and Bavaria, public fountains and wells are dressed as Osterbrunnen, Easter fountains, with garlands, evergreen crowns, paper ribbons called Pensala, flowers, and hand-painted eggs. The tradition began in the early 20th century in Franconian Switzerland and spread across the region. The decorations typically remain from Good Friday until about two weeks after Easter. The custom honors water as vital for life, and some displays use thousands of eggs, often artificial now to prevent vandalism. Families also make an Ostereierbaum, an Easter egg tree, and bake an Osterlamm, a lamb-shaped cake.

In northern Germany, including Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, and Hanover, large Easter bonfires called Osterfeuer are lit on Holy Saturday evening, or on Easter Sunday evening in some places, as community events with food and music. The fires are described as symbolizing the driving away of winter and the welcoming of spring, with roots in pre-Christian spring fire customs that were later given Christian meaning. In eastern Germany, Sorbian communities in Saxony and Upper Lusatia decorate eggs with wax-resist and scratch techniques.

Germany is also widely described as the birthplace of the Easter Bunny tradition, known there as the Osterhase. In the 17th century, German stories told of a hare that laid colored eggs for well-behaved children, and German immigrants later carried the custom to America, where it became the Easter Bunny of egg hunts and chocolate rabbits.

France: A Giant Omelette and Bells That Fly

In Bessieres, in the Haute-Garonne department of southern France, Easter Monday brings a giant omelette cooked in a giant pan over an open fire and served to the crowd. Reports put the omelette at around 15,000 eggs, stirred by members of the Confrerie, the brotherhood of the giant omelette, using long wooden paddles like oars, and served with bread to the crowd. The sister event in Abbeville, Louisiana, uses 5,000 eggs, a useful reminder that the numbers belong to different towns. The Bessieres omelette is tied to a legend: Napoleon, traveling through southern France with his army, is said to have enjoyed an innkeeper’s omelette so much that he ordered the village’s eggs gathered into one giant omelette for his soldiers, and the village then made a giant omelette each year to feed the poor at Easter. The legend is told as a legend. Historians note that a more likely origin is a custom in which local young people gathered eggs from farmers to make omelettes for people in need.

The second French custom is for children. According to French tradition, church bells do not ring between Good Friday and Easter Sunday because the bells have flown to Rome, and when they return they drop chocolates and treats for children to find. French children therefore look for treats brought by Les Cloches de Paques, the Easter Bells, rather than by a bunny. The flying bells are a story told to children, not a claim about real bells.

The Nordic Countries: Witches, Crime Novels, and Cabins

In Sweden, children dress as paskkarringar, Easter witches, wearing colorful skirts, headscarves, and painted freckles, and go door to door on Maundy Thursday or Easter Saturday offering handmade Easter cards or drawings in exchange for sweets or small coins. The custom is rooted in old folklore about witches flying to Blakulla on Maundy Thursday. Swedish homes are decorated with paskris, birch twigs with colored feathers.

In Finland, children dress as Easter witches too, in a custom called virpominen or virvonta. Carrying willow branches decorated with feathers and crepe paper, they recite a rhyme that translates roughly as “I wave a twig for a fresh and healthy year ahead; a twig for you, a treat for me,” leave a branch behind, and receive sweets or coins in return. The custom is performed on Palm Sunday in most of Finland, and on Easter Saturday in parts of Ostrobothnia in the west. It is described as mixing an eastern Finnish Orthodox blessing custom, in which birch twigs represent the palms laid down when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, with a western Finnish and Swedish witch tradition. Seasonal foods include mammi, a rye pudding, and pasha, a quark dessert.

In Norway, Easter means crime. The tradition is called paskekrim, literally Easter crime, and it began with a publicity stunt. On Saturday, March 24, 1923, the day before Palm Sunday, the newspaper Aftenposten ran a front-page advertisement designed to look like a breaking news headline, “The Bergen Train Robbed Last Night,” for a crime novel by Nordahl Grieg and Nils Lie, writing under the pseudonym Jonatan Jerv. Many readers took it as real news, and the book sold thousands of copies within days. Publishers began releasing crime novels for Easter, and by the 1950s crime novels were standard Easter reading. NRK aired crime radio dramas at Easter, television followed in 1966, and even milk cartons carry short crime stories at Easter.

Mexico and Guatemala: Fire, Satire, and Sawdust Carpets

In Mexico, Holy Saturday brings La quema de Judas, the Burning of Judas. Large papier-mache effigies of Judas Iscariot, sometimes joined by satirical figures of politicians or other figures of public contempt, are paraded through streets and plazas, pelted, hanged, and ignited, exploding with the fireworks stuffed inside them. The burning is understood as symbolizing the defeat of evil and betrayal. The custom arrived through Spanish colonial evangelization in the 16th century, when Franciscan missionaries adapted older European rituals, and the earliest Mexican figures were made of straw and rags. Later, with paper and fireworks arriving through the Manila-Acapulco trade route, artisans began crafting cardboard figures stuffed with firecrackers, and the figures grew to several meters tall. The tradition is now as much folk art and satire as religious ritual. Mexico City also hosts one of the largest and most famous Passion plays, the Via Crucis reenactment in Iztapalapa, on Good Friday.

In Guatemala, the town of Antigua is the center of one of the most visually striking Holy Week celebrations in Latin America. Throughout Semana Santa, residents create alfombras, large carpets made from colored sawdust, flowers, pine needles, and sometimes fruit, laid along the cobblestone streets on the procession routes. Sand is first laid to level the cobblestones, then dyed sawdust in bright colors, with flowers such as bougainvillea, chrysanthemums, carnations, and roses. Families and neighbors work through the night to finish a carpet before the procession arrives, and then the procession walks over it, destroying hours of work in minutes. New carpets are made for each following procession on the same route. The carpets are walked over by cucuruchos, purple-robed participants bearing large wooden floats called andas, which carry religious images, accompanied by drums, brass music, and incense. The largest processions take place on Good Friday, and Easter Sunday brings fireworks and a joyful mood. The tradition combines Indigenous and Christian elements and has been present in Central America for around 400 years.

Jamaica, Bermuda, and the United States: Food, Kites, and Egg Rolls

In Jamaica, Easter is above all a food holiday. The signature pairing is bun and cheese: a sweet, spiced, molasses-darkened loaf studded with dried fruit, eaten with a slice of sharp processed cheddar cheese. The bun descends from the British hot cross bun, introduced by colonists as a Good Friday food, and Jamaican bakers transformed it into a loaf, swapping honey for molasses and adding local spices and fruit. The pairing needs no cooking, which suited an older Good Friday custom of not lighting a fire before noon. Good Friday itself is a solemn public holiday, with many congregations holding a three-hour service from noon to 3 p.m., and fish, fried, steamed, or escoveitch style, is the traditional meal.

In Bermuda, Good Friday belongs to kites. Homemade kites, traditionally hexagonal or octagonal, built from wooden dowels or fennel sticks, covered in colored tissue paper, with long tails and paper “hummers” that buzz in the wind, are flown across the island, with the main gathering at Horseshoe Bay Beach. The annual Kite Festival there is free, with prizes for categories including largest, smallest, best design, best traditional kite, loudest kite, and even ugliest kite. Local tradition links the kite to the Christian story, with the wooden frame forming a cross shape and the rising kite representing the Ascension. The Easter weekend also brings Gombey dancers, with colorful costumes and drumming. Good Friday food is codfish cakes on hot cross buns.

In the United States, the best-known Easter event is the White House Easter Egg Roll. Since 1878, presidents and their families have celebrated Easter Monday with an egg roll party on the South Lawn of the White House, one of the oldest annual White House events. In the 1870s, Washingtonians rolled dyed hard-boiled eggs on the west grounds of the US Capitol, but by 1876 Congress had restricted public use of the Capitol grounds, prohibiting egg rolling. In 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes opened the South Lawn to egg rollers, and the event has continued since. In 1974, egg roll races were introduced and remain a favorite part of the day.

Ethiopia and Australia: An Ancient Fast and a Native Marsupial

Ethiopian Easter, called Fasika, is one of the most important celebrations in the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar, and it follows its own rhythm. It is preceded by a 55-day fast known as Hudade, during which observers abstain from meat and dairy, eating one vegan meal a day in the stricter observance. Good Friday brings solemn services, Holy Saturday brings an all-night vigil with candles, and the Resurrection is announced at sunrise on Easter morning. The fast is then broken with a feast of doro wat, a spiced chicken stew, injera, a sourdough flatbread, tibs, sauteed meat, tej, a honey wine, Ethiopian coffee, and Defo Dabo bread. Because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church follows its own calendar and calculation, Fasika often falls on a different date from both Western and other Orthodox Easters.

In Australia, the Easter Bunny has a native rival: the Easter Bilby. The bilby is an endangered native Australian marsupial with long rabbit-like ears, and rabbits themselves are an invasive species that have caused immense ecological damage in Australia since their introduction by European settlers. Chocolate bilbies are sold alongside or instead of chocolate bunnies, with proceeds from some sales supporting bilby conservation. The concept was first documented in March 1968, when 9-year-old Rose-Marie Dusting wrote “Billy The Aussie Easter Bilby,” published as a book 11 years later. In 1991, Nicholas Newland of the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia developed the idea to raise awareness of feral rabbit damage, and confectioners including Haigh’s Chocolates and Darrell Lea began selling chocolate bilbies, with part of the proceeds donated to conservation. Haigh’s reports making its first chocolate bilbies in 1993 and selling over a million since.

Experiencing Easter Traditions Respectfully

Easter traditions are living customs, not performances staged for visitors. Good Friday processions in Seville, Antigua, and Corfu are solemn religious observances, so quiet behavior, modest dress, and no flash photography during services are the norm. Check dates before booking, since Easter moves every year and Orthodox and Western Easters often differ, and the most famous events fill hotels months in advance. Arrive early for procession routes, kite beaches, and firework squares, and stay behind barriers rather than stepping into the route.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Easter fall on a different date every year?

Easter is set by a lunar rule, not a fixed calendar date. The Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed that Easter should fall on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox, taken as March 21. That rule puts Easter on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25 each year.

Why is Orthodox Easter often on a different date from Western Easter?

Eastern Orthodox churches calculate Easter using the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar used in the West, and Orthodox tradition holds that Easter must not fall before or at the same time as Passover. The two calendars are currently 13 days apart, so Orthodox Easter usually occurs later, although the two Easters coincide in some years.

What do people eat at Easter around the world?

The foods vary by place: roast lamb in Greece, bun and cheese with fish in Jamaica, codfish cakes on hot cross buns in Bermuda, doro wat and injera in Ethiopia, mammi and pasha in Finland, and a giant omelette in Bessieres, France. Eggs appear almost everywhere, whether dyed red in Greece, painted in Poland and Czechia, or made of chocolate in Australia, where the chocolate bilby rivals the chocolate bunny.

Sources & references

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Easter" (Nicaea 325 date rule; March 22 to April 25 range; Julian calendar difference; word origin). https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday
• White House Historical Association, "Origins of the White House Easter Egg Roll" (Capitol grounds rolling in the 1870s; grounds restricted by 1876; Hayes opening the South Lawn in 1878; races in 1974). https://www.whitehousehistory.org/origins-of-the-white-house-easter-egg-roll
• Visit Tuscany, "Explosion of the Cart" (Brindellone cart; colombina dove rocket; Pazzino de' Pazzi tradition; harvest omen). https://www.visittuscany.com/en/events/explosion-of-the-cart-in-florence
• Visit Andalucia, "Experience the Splendour of Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Andalucia" (Seville brotherhoods; pasos; costaleros; La Madruga). https://www.visit-andalucia.com/semana-santa-andalucia/
• Elculture, "Greek Easter: Common and Regional Traditions" (Corfu Botides; Chios Rouketopolemos). https://elculture.com/elcmagazine/greek-easter-common-and-regional-traditions/
• Visit Ostersund, "Swedish Traditions: Easter and Walpurgis" (paskkarringar Easter witches; paskris twigs; Easter table). https://visitostersund.se/en/swedish-traditions-easter-walpurgis/
• Finland.fi, "Why Finnish Children Dress Up as Witches at Easter" (virpominen custom and rhyme; Palm Sunday timing; mammi and pasha). https://finland.fi/life-society/why-finnish-children-dress-up-as-witches-at-easter/
• Visit Norway, "Easter Crime: Norwegian Easter Equals Brutal Murders" (1923 Aftenposten advertisement; cabin holidays; Kvikk Lunsj). https://www.visitnorway.com/typically-norwegian/easter/crime-time/
• Atlas Obscura, "In Norway, Easter Means Tucking Into Crime Stories" (Bergen train headline, March 24, 1923; Grieg and Lie; thousands of copies sold). https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-paskekrim-easter-crime
• Atlas Obscura, "Tastee Cheese" (Jamaican bun and cheese; hot cross bun origins; molasses adaptation). https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/tastee-cheese-jamaica
• Jamaican Museum and Cultural Center, "A Journey Through Jamaican Easter Celebrations" (bun and cheese; Good Friday fish; three-hour services). https://www.jmccatlanta.com/article-archive/a-journey-through-jamaican-easter-celebrations
• Adventure Life, "Easter in Guatemala Celebrations Travelers Guide" (Antigua alfombras; carpets destroyed by processions). http://www.adventure-life.com/articles/guatemala-easter-festival-191/
• Veloso Tours, "Semana Santa in Latin America: Holy Week Traditions" (Antigua processions; alfombras). https://www.veloso.com/holiday-styles/festivals-carnival/insights/semana-santa/
• Mexican Folk Art Guide, "Judas Burning in Mexico: Fire, Satire, and Tradition" (La quema de Judas; papier-mache effigies; straw and rag origins; Manila-Acapulco route). https://www.mexican-folk-art-guide.com/judas-burning.html
• Chewstick Foundation, "Bermuda's Good Friday KiteFest" (Horseshoe Bay KiteFest; free entry; prize categories). https://chewstick.org/bermudas-good-friday-kitefest-april-3-horseshoe-bay-beach/
• Haigh's Chocolates, "30 Years of the Easter Bilby" (1991 Easter Bilby; first Haigh's bilbies in 1993; over a million sold). https://www.haighschocolates.com.au/stories-promotions/30-years-of-the-easter-bilby
• Prague.tv, "Easter in Czechia: The Willow Whip, Painted Eggs and a Day of Rattles" (pomlazka whip; kraslice eggs; spring rite; city and village variation). https://prague.tv/culture-trends/czech-easter-traditions-pomlazka-and-egg-decoration
• SmarterGerman, "German Easter Traditions and Chocolate with Alcohol" (Osterbrunnen fountains; Pensala ribbons; Osterfeuer bonfires). https://smartergerman.com/blog/german-easter-traditions/
• Sky HISTORY, "10 Peculiar Easter Traditions From Around the World" (Bessieres omelette, around 15,000 eggs; Napoleon legend; likelier charitable origin). https://www.history.co.uk/articles/five-peculiar-easter-traditions-that-don-t-involve-chocolate-eggs
• Ethiopian Airlines, "Experience Unique Easter Festivities With Ethiopian Airlines" (Fasika; 55-day Hudade fast; doro wat, injera, tibs, tej, Defo Dabo). https://www.ethiopianairlines.com/in/blog/holidays-and-events/blog-detail/experience-unique-easter-festivities-with-ethiopian-airlines
• The Bermudian, "How Codfish Cakes Became Bermudian" (hot cross buns and codfish cakes as Good Friday musts). https://www.thebermudian.com/seasonal-content/easter/how-codfish-cakes-became-bermudian/