As in England, the countdown to Easter officially starts on Ash Wednesday, with the beginning of
lent. In practice, most Germans do not seem to fast in lent, except perhaps those who feel they want
to loose weight, but not so many for religious reasons.
Modern efforts of fasting seem in general not to revolve round starving diets, but people trying
to make do without meat, alcohol or sweets. The problem with eating no meat is that we have
a nation of BSE scared Germans at the moment anyway, similar as to what happened in Britain more than 10 years ago,
only worse as, Germans being prudent and efficient people who are really into healthy living, there is
always a strong lobby for food scares and the press are really making a meal of it this time.
The ones who are actually suffering are the butchers, several have closed down already. So
maybe a good Christian, rather than fasting should stuff himself with steaks ? - Just a thought.
Long gone are the days when people used to avoid eating eggs during lent, hard boil them
to stop them perishing and hide them in the garden on Easter Sunday all painted in beautiful colours
to make them visible in the snow.
In fact, many Germans eat more eggs during lent than normal, because many traditional Easter
decorations are made from empty egg shells and you have to eat eggs to get the empty shells.
Egg shells can be painted with waterbased colours, poster paints, etc. Also you can draw on
them with felt tips, stick colourful paper on them, or decorate them in many other ways. Younger
children can decorate fake eggshells made of plastic.
Then you can decorate your eggshells with ribbons and bows and make them "hang-up-able"
with ribbons or threat.
Get a few spring branches eg hazel, willow or forsythia to hang your decorations on.
In quaint parts of rural Franconia springs and wells are traditionally decorated with branches and painted egg shells attracting busloads of tourists.
In the early hours of Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny (who is technically speaking, an easter hare in
Germany) hides an "easter nest" for each child in the garden. These are filled with colourful
boiled eggs, small chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies. In the recent years he has also been known to
cram in some toys, which are sometimes bigger than the easter nest itself and have to be left next to it.
(Similar problem as Father Christmas has
with stockings)
Many families have roast duck for dinner or lamb. Others reckon, roast rabbit sounds eastery,
which seems cold-blooded to me. Sounds like having roast Santa for your Christmas Dinner, doesn´t it ?
Happy Easter, however you celebrate it !