Germany's Easter Traditions - Great Foods and Great Celebrations

Easter in Germany means Easter eggs, Easter egg trees, the coming of spring and the opening of sidewalk cafes and ice cream shops. Easter egg trees in Germany are almost as prevalent as Christmas trees at Christmas time and people decorate trees in colorful wooden, plastic or blown eggs and stick cut-outs of the Easter bunny in their windows. Easter egg hunts are held throughout the weekend and, of course, Good Friday and Holy Monday are work holidays so there is a lot of travel in Germany on Easter weekend.

GERMAN EASTER EVENTS AND PILGRIMAGES

From Maundy Thursday (Gründonnerstag) through to Easter Monday, there are Easter events, walks, egg hunts, special meals and Easter Bonfires. There are also some very special events and pilgrimages held annually around Germany.

GERMAN EASTER FOODS

The best thing about any holiday, as far as I am concerned is the food. Germany's Easter food is no exception. On Maundy Thursday (Green Thursday or Gruendonnerstag), Germans traditional make Seven Herb Soup, served with thick chunks of fresh bread. On Good Friday (Karfreitag), a fish dinner is the order of the day. Easter morning, enjoy a breakfast of Eier in gruener Sosse (eggs with green sauce)- I guess this is an occasion where you might truly enjoy green eggs and ham. Lamb is by far the most prevalent of German Easter dinners, I have a lovely Herbed Leg of Lamb recipe that given to me by a German aunt and never fails to please everyone at the dinner table.

GERMAN EASTER EGGS

Germany is the home of the easter egg, hand-painted, blown, or wooden, German Easter eggs are a 600 year old tradition, symbolizing new birth and life. Eggs are decorated beautifully, often etched or hand painted. Blown eggs, wooden eggs, glass and crystal eggs and candy eggs can be bought across Germany. Of course, Germans color their eggs as well, whether boiled or blown.

EASTER EGG TREES

Easter trees (Osterstrauch) are a lovely tradition in Germany as trees are decorated with painted blown eggs, wooden eggs, plastic eggs, whatever the family finds fun. I generally do a small Easter tree in my house with dried branches arranged in a large floor vase and blown, glass and wooden eggs. Note: Do not try hanging hard boiled eggs on your Easter tree - they are heavy and they do have a tendency to stink up the place after a while.

THE EASTER BUNNY AND OTHER EASTER ANIMALS

The Easter bunny may have originated in Germany, with the first Easter bunny in German literature being mentioned in the 1500s. The Easter bunny lays a nest of colored eggs and hides them throughout the house and leaves baskets for the children. How or why the Easter bunny lays eggs is beyond me, but far be it from me to question this delightful tradition.

In different regions of Germany, there are other animals that play a major role as well, the wild hare, roosters, chickens, cuckoo birds, or foxes. After all, it is a heck of a lot of work for a bunny to accomplish all alone.

THE EASTER EGG HUNT

Easter egg hunts are popular across Germany and the children, of course receive Easter baskets and chocolates as well as candy eggs, boiled eggs and other treasures. Children play Eiertrudeln in some areas, rolling eggs down the hill in an egg race to see whose egg will get to the bottom of the hill first. The children I know also knock their eggs against each others in a contest to see whose egg will break first - plan on egg salad if you teach your kids that one!

EASTER BONFIRES (OSTERFEUER)

One of the biggest events on Easter Saturday are the Easter fires, huge bonfires are lit, even in many of the cities and people gather around the fire for Schnapps and socializing. The hillsides around villages and towns are dotted with fires as people all light their fires at the same time, generally around 9 or 10 pm.