Easter traditions
Easter traditions (also known as Paschal traditions) are customs and practices that are followed in various cultures and communities around the world to celebrate Easter (also known as Pascha or Resurrection Sunday), which is the central feast in Christianity, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus. The Easter season is seen as a time of celebration and feasting, in contrast to the antecedent season of Lent, which is a time of penitence and fasting.[1]
Easter traditions include sunrise services or late-night vigils, exclamations and exchanges of Paschal greetings, flowering the cross,[2] the wearing of Easter bonnets by women,[3] clipping the church,[4] and the decoration and the communal breaking of Easter eggs (a symbol of the empty tomb).[5][6][7] The Easter lily, a symbol of the resurrection in Christianity,[8][9] traditionally decorates the chancel area of churches on this day and for the rest of Eastertide.[10] There are also traditional Easter foods that vary by region and culture. Many traditional Easter games and customs developed, such as egg rolling, egg tapping, and cascarones or confetti eggs.[11] Egg hunting, originating in the idea of searching for the empty tomb, is an activity that remains popular among children.[11][12][13] Today Easter is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs.
Asia[edit]
Malaysia[edit]
Despite Malaysia being a Muslim majority country, Easter is celebrated in the states of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia as there is a significant Christian indigenous population in both states.[27]
Europe[edit]
Cyprus[edit]
As well as the common painted easter egg hunt, in Cyprus it is customary for people to light great fires[32] (Greek: λαμπρατζια) in schools or church yards. The fires are made up of scrap wood, gathered usually by enthusiastic young boys which scour their neighbourhoods for them, in order to make their fire as great as it can be (and bigger than the neighbouring one). More than often this competition leads to fights happening over scraps of wood and the police or fire department being called to put out the fires that have gone out of control. It is customary for a small doll representing Judas Iscariot to be burnt. The same thing happens on Crete, but it is non-competitive, and the fire is called "founara" which means "big fire" in Cretan Greek. The founara burns coupled with the detonation of small dynamites called "plakatzikia" in plural, and with gunshots in the air.