Seven strange Easter traditions around the world

Did you know how other nations celebrate Easter around the world? That French kids do not get chocolate from the Easter bunny, but from the church bells? And that Finnish people celebrate by watching the grass grow? Travelo.hu collected seven strange Easter traditions from around the world.

It’s not the Easter bunny who gives children chocolate in France, in the Netherlands, and in Belgium, but bells. The reason for that is on old custom: the bells do not toll in the churches before Easter to remember Christ’s death. Children are told that all the bells have gone to Rome to visit the Pope, and on their way back they bring some chocolate as a present.

In certain parts of Switzerland and Germany wells are decorated with colourful eggs, flowers, and paper ribbons, usually placed out on Good Friday, and taken off two weeks after Easter. The custom of Easter wells or Osterbrunnen originates from early 20^th century Bavaria, and it soon spread to nearby regions. As Easter is a holiday of spring and renewal, wells, which give the water necessary for life, become decorated.

The well-decorating custom was really popular in the 1980s: countless tourists have visited the Heiligenstadt and Bieberbach wells, and the latter is even recorded in the Guinness World Records, because it was decorated with 11,000 hand-painted eggs in 2001.