EASTER

WHAT IS EASTER LIKE IN SPAIN?

• Easter is a very important celebration in Spain. The whole of Holy Week is often a holiday. A lot of Spanish Catholics fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. On Ash Wednesday, people have a cross made of ash put on their foreheads. This is a way of saying sorry to God.

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• On Palm Sunday, most people go to mass in the morning. Children bring palm leaves and branches to be blessed by the priest. Sometimes the branches decorated with sweets, tinsel or have other decorations hanging from them. On Maundy Thursday, there is a special 'Dance of Death' celebration in Verges, Gerona. A scary dance is performed, at night, by men dressed as skeletons.

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• People celebrate Easter with processions through the street at nigh.Floats called 'tronos' are carried through the street. Each float has decorated figures which each tell the story of a part of the Easter story. e most famous and biggest processions are held in Seville. Each one is organised by 'Co-fradias', or 'The Brotherhoods'. The Co-fradias try to put on the biggest and best procession and there is a lot of competition among them as to who has done so.

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• In Murcia, a tronos, telling the story of the Last Supper has real food on on the table. On Easter Sunday the twenty-six men who have carried the table in the procession around the town sit down and eat the food! In southern Spain, the processions are often accompanied by drums being beaten by the local boys. In the village of Hellin, between eight and ten thousand drums are beaten at the processions between Holy Wednesday and Easter Sunday.

ITAILY

• Many towns and villages in Italy have sacred dramas about the episodes of the Easter story – these are held in the piazzas on Easter Day. Pastries called corona di nove are baked in the form of a crown. Other traditional foods include capretto (lamb) and agnello (kid/goat). Easter in Poland is celebrated with family meals that include ham, sausages, salads, babka (a Polish cake) and mazurka, or sweet cakes filled with nuts, fruit and honey.

BRAZIL

• The streets are filled, over several days leading up to Shrove Tuesday, with large processions of people marching, singing and dancing. People taking part in the parade dress up in very bright exotic clothes. Sometimes the costumes are made on large wire structures so the people wearing them look very big, like butterflies or birds. There are big floats, with stands for singing and dancing on built into cars or lorries that take part in the parade, they are decorated as brightly as the people and help make the procession look amazing!

ETHIOPIA

• The first Easter Day service actually starts at 8.00pm on Easter Saturday night and lasts until 3.00 am on Easter Sunday morning! Most people go to the whole service and wear their best clothes. These are often white and are called 'Yabesha Libs'. People have candles made of cotton and wax called 'twaf'. At 10.00 pm drummers start playing and accompanying the Priests as they chant a prayer called the 'Geez'.

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• The main Easter meal is eaten in the afternoon. The meal normally consists of a sour dough pancake called 'injera' and it is eaten with a mutton or lamb stew called 'beg wot'.After the service, people go back to their homes have a breakfast to celebrate the end of Lent with a 'dabo' sour-dough bread. It is traditional that the bread is cut by a priest or by the head man in the family.

FRANCE

• In France, Church Bells do not ring on Good Friday or Easter Saturday. Sometimes children are told that the bells have gone off to see the Pope! Boxwood branches are sometimes used instead of palm leaves. They are put over doors in houses to bring good luck to the people in the house.

GERMANY

• In Germany, at the Palm Sunday service, the Priest sometimes rides to the service on a Donkey! In the German village of Oberammergau, people hold a special Easter play, called a Passion Play, every ten years. They do this as a Thank You to God. In 1633 the village faced being destroyed by the Black death or plaque. The religious leaders of Oberammergau promised God that they would put on a play praising God every ten years forever if God saved the village.

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• They put a large painting of Jesus on the Cross to show this. God answered their prayers and saved the village, so the village stage the plays to keep their side of the promise.

GREECE

• In Greek Orthodox Churches, a tomb is often put in the centre of the Church for the Good Friday Service. People process to the service like they going to a funeral. A Service is held on the Easter Saturday evening, just before Midnight. Priests give out candles to people in the Church and they are lit at Midnight. Fireworks you are also sometimes used to signal that Easter Day has started. On Easter morning, a soup made of Lambs stomach is sometimes eaten for breakfast! The rest of the lamb is roasted and eaten for the main meal.

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• . A traditional Greek Easter cake is made with Oranges and Almonds in it. It is eaten with a spicy orange sauce poured over it.