Easter Traditions

Since I already did a post about Holy Week, the post today will focus on traditions, specifically in the US and a few European countries.

United States

As somebody that has lived in the Midwest US my entire life, this is the part where I am the most knowledgeable before research.

Probably the biggest Easter tradition in the US is the "Easter Bunny" delivering a basket of treats on Easter. The baskets typically have candy in plastic eggs, chocolate rabbits, and some small toys and/or gifts. Families will even dye hard boiled eggs for Easter and you can buy kits of dye at stores like Target or Walmart.

Some small towns hide eggs in a local park for an Easter Egg hunt. It's also a common thing for families to do in their own yard, also.

At the US White House, the annual Easter Egg Roll has been an Easter tradition since 1878.

Scandanavia

Påskekrim (Easter crime) is a Norwegian Easter tradition that may surprise you. It's a tradition of reading mystery books and/or watching detective shows or movies.

It's also common for Norwegian families to escape into the mountains for a week over Easter in a ski cabin. While at the cabin, playing games like Yahtzee is a popular tradition.

In neighboring Sweden, it's traditional for children to wear old, discarded clothing to dress up as Easter witches in the days before Easter and go from home to home trading paintings and drawing for sweets. There's a similar tradition in Finland, children dress up as witches, and go around begging for chocolate.

Italy

In Florence, Scoppio del Carro (explosion of the cart), has been an Easter tradition for over 300 years. The locals pack an ornate cart with fireworks and lead the cart through the streets while wearing costumes from the 1500s. After stopping outside of the Duomo, the Archbishop of Florence lights a fuse during mass that leads outside to the cart.

In the town of Panicale , locals gather the day after Easter to roll huge wheels of Ruzzola cheese around the town's perimeter in a tradition they refer to as Ruzzolone.

In Sicily, Abballu de daivuli is a tradition where locals wear red robes along with masks to represent devils. Those dresses up in the costumes then pester as many "souls" as they can. (By pestering souls they mean make people pay for drinks.) In the afternoon, people dressed as the Virgin Mary and the risen Jesus, send the devils away with the help of people dressed as angels.

• Mental Floss article on the origins of some Easter traditions
• My Little Norway post from 2010 on traditions 
• Explore Italian Culture post on traditions

Sources

• HuffingtonPost.com post from 2009
• Woman's Day post from 2018
• Reader's Digest post