Quirky Easter traditions from around the world
Chocolate eggs, hot cross buns, simnel cake… All treats we associate with Easter, some universal, others peculiar to our home turf. Neil Davey wonders if it could be time to enrich the celebrations by adding a few more celebratory quirks to our rituals
PHOTOGRAPHS: ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
Our traditions are, at this time of year, a strange, colourful mix of the religious and the pagan, of key events in the Christian calendar and the rites of spring, where rabbits and eggs symbolise fecundity and new life. Some of our traditions are deeply rooted in religion, such as Pa ssion Plays and Lent. Then there’s at least one that ’s only ostensibly religious – it has a cross but it ’s undeniably a bun. It ’s ava ilable for severa l months of the year and gets adulterated with any thing from cheese to Marmite to chilli.
As it happens (a nd rather wonder f ully), the UK isn’t a lone in its eccentricities: in lands near and far, ‘eccentric’ doesn’t quite cover the mix.
KITES AND CARPETS
Bermuda channels its inner Mary Poppins to go fly a kite. Legend has it that a local Sunday School teacher was struggling to explain the Resurrection and decided to demonstrate the idea with a kite that looked like Jesus. In modern parlance, the notion went viral. Festiv ities begin with the Good Friday KiteFest on Horseshoe Bay Beach, where people gather to show off and fly their homemade kites and compete in categories such as Best Traditional Bermuda Kite or Most Innovative Design.