This article contains some amazing games and traditions practiced and played during Easter periods like this. Among the most popular traditions associated with Easter -- the celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. The festival falls on April 17 this year.
1. Easter eggs
What are the origins of these traditions?
Some believe that Easter eggs came from pagan spring festivals to celebrate the goddess Eostre. Some Germanic cultures held the belief that goddess Eostre and her egg-laying rabbits signaled the arrival of spring.
For thousands of years, eggs had been considered symbols of life and rebirth. Eventually, they came to symbolise Christ’s resurrection.
Church leaders did not permit the consumption of eggs in the week leading to Easter, so eggs laid during that period were saved, decorated and presented to children.
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs,are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tradition, which continues to be used in Central and Eastern Europe, is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs.
Traditionally, Easter eggs were coloured red as a symbol of Christ’s blood.
The game to hunt for Easter eggs is believed to have originated in the 1700s. The Pennsylvania Dutch community believed that there was a bunny called Osterhase, the Easter bunny’s precursor, who laid eggs in the grass.
Children would go looking for the eggs laid by Osterhase. Osterhase gave way to the Easter Bunny, and even though the Easter Bunny is not known to lay eggs, the tradition of creating nests, baskets and going looking for the presents it left endured.
2. Easter Bunny
The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide,[1] similar to the "naughty or nice" list made by Santa Claus. As part of the legend, the creature carries colored eggs in its basket, as well as candy, and sometimes toys, to the homes of children. As such, the Easter Bunny again shows similarities to Santa (or the Christkind) and Christmas by bringing gifts to children on the night before a holiday. The custom was first[2][unreliable source?] mentioned in Georg Franck von Franckenau's De ovis paschalibus[3] ('About Easter eggs') in 1682, referring to a German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing eggs for the children.
3. Egg Decorating.
Egg decorating is the art or craft of decorating eggs. It has been a popular art form throughout history because of the attractive, smooth, oval shape of the egg, and the ancient associations with eggs as a religious and cultural symbol. Egg decorating has been associated with Easter in recent times, but was practiced independently by many ancient cultures.
4. Hot Cross Bun.
A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, and has been traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the United States.[1] They are available all year round in some places, including the UK.
5. Egg Tapping.
Colour red winsEgg tapping, or also known as egg fight, egg knocking, egg pacqueing, egg boxing, egg picking, egg chucking, or egg jarping is a traditional Easter game usually played by 2 or more people. In English folk traditions, the game has variously been known as "shackling", "jarping" or "dumping"
The rule of the game is simple. One holds a hard-boiled egg and taps the egg of another participant with one's own egg intending to break the other's, without breaking one's own. As with any other game, it has been a subject of cheating; eggs with cement, alabaster and even marble cores have been reported.
6. Egg Hunts.
An egg hunt is an Eastertide game during which decorated eggs or Easter eggs are hidden for children to find. Real hard-boiled eggs, which are typically dyed or painted, artificial eggs made of plastic filled with chocolate or candies, or foil-wrapped egg-shaped chocolates of various sizes are hidden in various places; as many people give up sweets as their Lenten sacrifice, individuals consume them after having abstained from them during the preceding forty days of Lent.
Chocolate Easter eggs hidden as part of an egg hunt
The game is often played outdoors, but can also be played indoors. The children typically collect the eggs in a basket. When the hunt is over, prizes may be given out for various achievements, such as the largest number of eggs collected, for the largest or smallest egg, for the most eggs of a specific color, consolation prizes or booby prizes.[2] Real eggs may further be used in egg tapping contests. If eggs filled with confetti left from Mardi Gras (cascarones) are used, then an egg fight may follow. Eggs are placed with varying degree of concealment, to accommodate children of varying ages and development levels. In South German folk traditions it was customary to add extra obstacles to the game by placing them into hard-to reach places among nettles or thorns.
7. Easter Baskets.
An Easter basket, also known as a Paschal basket, is traditionally, a basket containing the foods traditionally forbidden to consume during Lent (meat, eggs, and dairy products), that is blessed by a priest for breaking the Lenten fast. This continues to be normative in Eastern Christianity and Easter baskets are typically blessed before the midnight service on Holy Saturday, with their contents being consumed at the feast after the service.
Easter baskets prepared for blessing in an Eastern Orthodox church's hall
In parts Western Christianity, emphasis is placed on making a Lenten sacrifice (giving up pleasures such as chocolate and cookies) rather than the traditional abstinence from meat, lacticinia and wine (though a few congregations have revived this practice);[non sequitur] as such, in countries of the Western world such as the United States, Easter baskets are filled with Easter eggs and sweets after having abstained from them during Lent.
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