Happy Easter!

Germany is big on traditions around its holidays. Easter egg hunts and traditional decorations make it feel like Easter to me. Customs in Ireland are different as we found out when we moved there.
Here's an Excerpt from my upcoming book I once had a Farm in Ireland:

 

Happy Easter Bunnies

We had just missed it the first year, but from year two onward we adhered to an old German custom of an Easter egg hunt. Our neighbors’ kids were flummoxed that there was an Easter Bunny who visited German children and brought them sweets and colored eggs — even to those living abroad. When we set out on our hunt, we could see them peeping through their front windows. It wasn’t customary in Ireland at the time to have an egg hunt. So we invited them to join us, but since they had to attend Mass in the morning, they never took up the offer.

As the weather was often dreadful and our offspring couldn’t be relied on to always find what had been left for them, we came up with a clever strategy. On Easter Sunday, Mac would take us through the gardens pretending to look for hidden eggs. He had all the goodies in his big overcoat and dispensed them furtively as he went along. Amy and Patrick hung back with me, thoroughly inspecting each shrub and little tree for possible hiding places. The garden was big enough for him to forge ahead without them noticing. This maneuver had a double benefit: neither did the chocolates or colored and decorated eggs get soaked, nor did we find rotten surprises when gardening later in the year."

And in Germany, there are two holidays for Easter, Easter Monday is a full holiday where shops are closed and people don't have to go to work. Just like for Christmas and Whitsun. Other countries like Italy and Spain have the same tradition. 

Siggy Buckley

.