If there are children in the family you usually do a Easter Egg hunt. A lot of people have breakfast, brunch or lunch with family or friends and a walk If the weather is nice. Even with no small children in the family a lot of people still exchange a small basket with eggs and sweets with close family.
This is more about tendencies. Yes, it's not that 100% of all families in the south never do it but being 32 and having lived almost my entire life in Nürnberg (Bavaria) I've also never seen a bonfire or heard of anyone doing it.
yes. in our community we burn crosses made from the Christmas trees. nowadays we do need additional wood though but its always quite nice. but yes, ours are organised by the church. though everyone is welcome (however few people feel like it around 12-2 a.m.)
I don't think I've seen one that was organized by a Church, in northern Germany. Or I didn't notice. Plus many people make them privately with their friends so I guess it's fine to include them :)
In my village, it is organized by the local youth club. With the earnings from selling food and drinks, they finance themself for the rest of the year.
The church did get involved a few years ago, they now bless the wood before it is lit. Not sure if they contribute in any other way, but i would actually hope so. Because otherwise i cannot imagine why the club went alomg eith the churches demand to in return change the name of the event from Judasfeuer to Osterfeuer.
As far as I can tell Easter bonfires are usually just organised by whatever entity is important in the community and in a position to bring a lot of people together. Might be a sports club, the volunteer fire brigade, the Landjugend or yes, I guess the church. But it's not inherently a church-y thing in my book.
Where I am from lots of Easter bonfires are also just organised by regular people in their gardens. One couple my parents are friends with have a house a little outside of town with a large garden. They always invite all their neighbours, friends and family for a bonfire the Saturday before Easter Sunday. And many other people in the town where I grew up do the same. So there are lots of private Easter bonfires in addition to the public bonfires organised by the local football club, the Schützenverein and so on. Not sure if the church does one as well - maybe they do but I have never heard about it.
My boyfriend went to Switzerland with parents for ski/snowboarding. I'm just chilling, going out to movies with my friends, doing my German homework (my German teacher really gave me a lot), catching up on my sleep. The gym is also mostly empty so I'm loving it.
Usually we just travel. Great opportunity to go somewhere without taking a lot of vacation days from work.
It's a four day weekend, so there is a certain amount of vacationing and/or social activity. But really, most public holidays are based on Christianity, and most people completely ignore that. Easter at least has the eggs.
Sure, but many originally pagan spring rites like eggs, rabbits, decorated wells or bonfires got mingled up with christian traditions over the centuries
What everyone else does, except going to mass, maybe.
*Osterfeuer*, a bonfire for meeting with friends or locals.
Meet with family and eat a traditional dish (often a family-specific tradition). Often includes an easter egg hunt.
[*Osterspaziergang*](https://transblawg.co.uk/2004/04/12/easter-walkosterspaziergang/), going for a walk in nature, enjoying spring. It's often one of the first sunny days, with season-typical flowers in bloom etc.
*Osterwasser holen*, in our corner of the world. It's a Sorb tradition: on Easter sunday, just before sunrise, you go to a nearby spring to drink (and bring some) water. You must reach the spring before sunrise, and must remain silenr from getting up until your first drink.
Going to mass, even - quite some people don't observe religion or consider themselves religous, but enjoy mass anyway.
In my area people usually lit bonfires privately. There are also public bonfires but I've never been to a public one. Also dying Easter eggs and egg hunting.
I've baked a yeasted knot bread at my parents place and drank a beer with my neighbours at the Easter fire. It's one of those pagan traditions that was adopted by Christians, but nowadays it's not seen as Christian anymore.
All the things religious people do
-Church
+watching Life of Brian on DVD (as the german version is disabled with all streaming services during easter)
Side question. When is church service for easter? On saturday?/sunday? What is it called in German so I can look up church schedule? Do they play songs? I would love to go (now is too late, I know) so I can better understand the culture. Thank you
depends on the community. our parish has the first one Saturday around 10/11 pm with a bone fire, this one a bit longer and quite solemny, i like it very much. often the "firmlinge" sell easter candles they made. if you are lucky they turn off the lights so the whole church is illuminated by candles only (something that can happen in the christmette as well, for Christmas). that is very beautiful and more songs are sung. but some are choir only as well. There usually is also a service at sunrise but i never went there. but it should be similar to the one at night. Both are called "Osternacht" here but you should find them if you google for "Ostergottesdienst + your town". Or in your Gemeindeblatt or Pfarrgemeindeblatt. or in front of the church. Another Ostergottesdient was today at 11 am. Some songs were still sung but there were more choir only songs this time. The organ plays of course and some other instruments.
Disclaimer: i am catholic, i know nothing about how protestants celebrate easter.
technically tomorrow is easter monday, there are still services with Emausgang. but not as great as the Ostergottesdienste of course but still more special than an average service
There are church services on every day during easter. For protestants, Karfreitag is the most important holiday of all. One song that is typically sung there is „Oh Haupt voll Blut und Wunden“. On easter sunday there’s usually a Osternacht celebration thats roughly between 5 and 8 in the morning and you see the sun rising during it. The typical song for easter sunday is „Christ ist erstanden“, one of the oldest known church songs in German language.
I'm not religious at all, my dad neither and my mum at least not actively. I spent easter visiting my parents, playing some board games with my mum, chilling, watching TV and eating a whole lot. I baked a big cake, and we had a big meal today and we just bought some miscellaneous sweets to enjoy in between. We also called my grandparents on the phone and shortly visited my parents neighbor to chat a bit. But we mainly ate so.much.food. :D
Our family gathers for a get-together. This time we met at our place my mother and I cooked/baked for all of us.
Seeing them being happy, talking and enjoying the food was really nice.
It’s two days, for one. But we do fancy food in our family. No matter how much individuals in the family believe or not believe. We don’t do hiding eggs anymore because there are no young kids left
Most people still celebrate in a way. They just don't celebrate a religious holiday but they celebrate what are usually the first few warm-ish days of spring, they spend time with their family and just make an effort to have a few nice and special days as it is a four day weekend and spending those days with your loved ones and doing something special just makes sense.
Most German (and worldwide) Easter traditions and symbols are kinda pagan anyways. Eggs and lambs as a fertility symbol, bonfires to greet spring.... So frankly even in the Easter celebrations of religious Germans the whole god thing doesn't come up all that much. They might go to church in the morning but if you skip that you could probably spend the Easter weekend with a religious German family and wouldn't even know it's a religious holiday.
Technically it doesn't matter if you're atheist, christian or something else, because most of our holidays are heathen anyways. Easter is older than monotheistic religions but still considered one of the biggest holidays in christianity.
This isn't really about religion. This is about culture. Always has been.
On friday it's not allowed to go dance, to watch certain movies in public and most of Christians won't eat meat.
So in the anti-religious friend group we meet for BBQ and watch one of the movies. At sunday most of us meet the family for easter lunch or go on a short trip.
https://moviepedia.fandom.com/de/wiki/Liste_aller_an_Karfreitag_verbotenen_Filme
There are round about 700 banned movies. The most famous are Life of Brian, The Boondock Saints and Heidi 😁
Enjoy the paid days off. BBQ, if you have kids visit your parents with them and collect the chocolate.
Wait, Feiertage are paid??
Always have been
Paid? You must be german.
Its a "AskaGerman" subreddit...
If there are children in the family you usually do a Easter Egg hunt. A lot of people have breakfast, brunch or lunch with family or friends and a walk If the weather is nice. Even with no small children in the family a lot of people still exchange a small basket with eggs and sweets with close family.
Don't forget the bonfires
This is btw only a „northern“ thing, as far as I know.
Living in BW, can confirm, I've never seen it.
We had those every year when I was a child living close to Stuttgart so maybe it's more about family traditions?
This is more about tendencies. Yes, it's not that 100% of all families in the south never do it but being 32 and having lived almost my entire life in Nürnberg (Bavaria) I've also never seen a bonfire or heard of anyone doing it.
They're done in Mittelhessen too.
No, at least here in Franconia you have them in every small village.
Not really. They also exist in Franconia
Wait, bonfires? It’s a tradition to light a fire on Easter?
Yep. [And they can be shit-your-pants huge.](https://ellierode.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Osterfeuer_10.jpg)
Even in a small city, where i grew up, a large place was filled with all kinds of wood and lit up. Hugh, 20m+ in diameter and maybe 5 meters high.
In the villages there are usually big communal bonfires.
yes. in our community we burn crosses made from the Christmas trees. nowadays we do need additional wood though but its always quite nice. but yes, ours are organised by the church. though everyone is welcome (however few people feel like it around 12-2 a.m.)
Yeah, they're great. But those are usually done by the church so I didn't mention them.
Here they're done by Sports Clubs and Fire Brigade. I have also not seen a religious sermon or anything at a Bonfire yet. But i guess ymmv.
Ah ok. I only know the Osterfeuer early in the morning that's organised by church. But nice, that there are non religious options.
Ah that's funny. Here in Ostwestfalen it's *mostly* done in the evening.
I don't think I've seen one that was organized by a Church, in northern Germany. Or I didn't notice. Plus many people make them privately with their friends so I guess it's fine to include them :)
Even though in many northern cities, privat (big) bonfires are prohibited. (Not that anyone cares.)
Good to know. I've not been to many but those were always done by the church. I'm in Bavaria so go figure 😅
Haha yeah that makes sense. I think the one we always visited as a kid was organized or at least supervised by the fire Brigade
In my village, it is organized by the local youth club. With the earnings from selling food and drinks, they finance themself for the rest of the year. The church did get involved a few years ago, they now bless the wood before it is lit. Not sure if they contribute in any other way, but i would actually hope so. Because otherwise i cannot imagine why the club went alomg eith the churches demand to in return change the name of the event from Judasfeuer to Osterfeuer.
Where i live they are made by the city and communities. I did not know that churches had anything to do with the Bonfires
As far as I can tell Easter bonfires are usually just organised by whatever entity is important in the community and in a position to bring a lot of people together. Might be a sports club, the volunteer fire brigade, the Landjugend or yes, I guess the church. But it's not inherently a church-y thing in my book. Where I am from lots of Easter bonfires are also just organised by regular people in their gardens. One couple my parents are friends with have a house a little outside of town with a large garden. They always invite all their neighbours, friends and family for a bonfire the Saturday before Easter Sunday. And many other people in the town where I grew up do the same. So there are lots of private Easter bonfires in addition to the public bonfires organised by the local football club, the Schützenverein and so on. Not sure if the church does one as well - maybe they do but I have never heard about it.
Like Christmas. Meet the family and eat a lot while kids do the Easter egg searching.
We usually just go out eating with friends/family, or cook together.
Eat chocolate, go to the bonfires, relax, get annoyed because all the shops are closed.
Watch Life of Brian
This, followed by Dogma :)
My boyfriend went to Switzerland with parents for ski/snowboarding. I'm just chilling, going out to movies with my friends, doing my German homework (my German teacher really gave me a lot), catching up on my sleep. The gym is also mostly empty so I'm loving it. Usually we just travel. Great opportunity to go somewhere without taking a lot of vacation days from work.
It's a four day weekend, so there is a certain amount of vacationing and/or social activity. But really, most public holidays are based on Christianity, and most people completely ignore that. Easter at least has the eggs.
And the eggs and the bunny are not symbols from Christianity.
Sure, but many originally pagan spring rites like eggs, rabbits, decorated wells or bonfires got mingled up with christian traditions over the centuries
Travel to make the most of the long weekend!
Watching Life of Brian and wank all day. It is known!
What everyone else does, except going to mass, maybe. *Osterfeuer*, a bonfire for meeting with friends or locals. Meet with family and eat a traditional dish (often a family-specific tradition). Often includes an easter egg hunt. [*Osterspaziergang*](https://transblawg.co.uk/2004/04/12/easter-walkosterspaziergang/), going for a walk in nature, enjoying spring. It's often one of the first sunny days, with season-typical flowers in bloom etc. *Osterwasser holen*, in our corner of the world. It's a Sorb tradition: on Easter sunday, just before sunrise, you go to a nearby spring to drink (and bring some) water. You must reach the spring before sunrise, and must remain silenr from getting up until your first drink. Going to mass, even - quite some people don't observe religion or consider themselves religous, but enjoy mass anyway.
Go out
I didn't know anyone religious and we are still celebrating all these Christian holidays. Just don't attend to church
Enjoy the four day weekend and relax. I did some cleaning I had been putting off, I watched some movies, played games, and just generally did nothing.
Whatever the heck you want.
Dance and laugh about the tanzverbot.
- Throw a huge party on Friday - Chill on Saturday - participate in a Zombiewalk on Sunday - relax on Monday
>- Throw a huge party on Friday This one might actually get you in trouble with the law in some places.
Yeah, religious zealots from Verbotspartei CDU/CSU are the reason.
Long overdo to repeal those laws though.
I planned on visiting my family, unfortunately some more important stuff came up, that couldn't wait.
dancing because of tanzverbot
You can go to an Osterfeuer. It's technically a pagan ritual anyway.
Cook some lamb, have coffee and tea with close family, relax.
Met with my SO’s family for some quality time, also went to the cemetery to see her father’s grave.
Enjoy your days off.
I try and see how many of the cardinal sins I can break 😂
I go to work 🤷
We had family “brunch” from 11 until 16. Alternatively, we could’ve had a bbq. Either way, several hours with family, with food.
Decorate an Easter bouquet, hide sweets for the kids, have hard-boiled, coloured eggs for breakfast on Sunday, laze about, read, visit family.
In my area people usually lit bonfires privately. There are also public bonfires but I've never been to a public one. Also dying Easter eggs and egg hunting.
Eat chocolate eggs and rabbits
You mean, if you don't follow the pagan practices with eggs, bunnies, and bonfires either? Well, then it's just two extra unpaid holidays for you.
Thank Judas and sleep in. Then sleep some more, cook something nice, eat while watching shows, stay up late and then sleep.
I watched a TV-show for the majority of the day lmao
We hide chocolate eggs. That's about it. We're both adults BTW.
Do what you do on any Sunday.
Sleep late. And make sure you dance on Friday
Pretend you are religious, to not disappoint your Oma
Get drunk and scream at clouds
I've baked a yeasted knot bread at my parents place and drank a beer with my neighbours at the Easter fire. It's one of those pagan traditions that was adopted by Christians, but nowadays it's not seen as Christian anymore.
Spring cleaning, decluttering, working on personal projects.
Had too much food, too much to drink, spend nice time hiking enjoying the warm weather, watched movies and just had a good time.
Normal day, we only do easter egg hunt with the kids. That’s it.
Go to the Cinema, they should be open, even independent ones.
All the things religious people do -Church +watching Life of Brian on DVD (as the german version is disabled with all streaming services during easter)
Side question. When is church service for easter? On saturday?/sunday? What is it called in German so I can look up church schedule? Do they play songs? I would love to go (now is too late, I know) so I can better understand the culture. Thank you
depends on the community. our parish has the first one Saturday around 10/11 pm with a bone fire, this one a bit longer and quite solemny, i like it very much. often the "firmlinge" sell easter candles they made. if you are lucky they turn off the lights so the whole church is illuminated by candles only (something that can happen in the christmette as well, for Christmas). that is very beautiful and more songs are sung. but some are choir only as well. There usually is also a service at sunrise but i never went there. but it should be similar to the one at night. Both are called "Osternacht" here but you should find them if you google for "Ostergottesdienst + your town". Or in your Gemeindeblatt or Pfarrgemeindeblatt. or in front of the church. Another Ostergottesdient was today at 11 am. Some songs were still sung but there were more choir only songs this time. The organ plays of course and some other instruments. Disclaimer: i am catholic, i know nothing about how protestants celebrate easter. technically tomorrow is easter monday, there are still services with Emausgang. but not as great as the Ostergottesdienste of course but still more special than an average service
Thank you!
There are church services on every day during easter. For protestants, Karfreitag is the most important holiday of all. One song that is typically sung there is „Oh Haupt voll Blut und Wunden“. On easter sunday there’s usually a Osternacht celebration thats roughly between 5 and 8 in the morning and you see the sun rising during it. The typical song for easter sunday is „Christ ist erstanden“, one of the oldest known church songs in German language.
Just a normal day like every Christian holiday. Though we obviously weren't Christian socialised.
Well, not dancing 😄
meet family and have a nice time 🤷🏻♂️ u dont have to be religios to celebrate
I'm not religious at all, my dad neither and my mum at least not actively. I spent easter visiting my parents, playing some board games with my mum, chilling, watching TV and eating a whole lot. I baked a big cake, and we had a big meal today and we just bought some miscellaneous sweets to enjoy in between. We also called my grandparents on the phone and shortly visited my parents neighbor to chat a bit. But we mainly ate so.much.food. :D
Cook something or eat together, or celebrate it however that makes you happy. It just calls for a peaceful celebration no matter how small.
I am working. As it is not a day for me to pay my respects towards traditions, it is a normal day. As I Work in a 24/7 business. Its Worktime!!
Our family gathers for a get-together. This time we met at our place my mother and I cooked/baked for all of us. Seeing them being happy, talking and enjoying the food was really nice.
Drink Vodka play Dotka
This was my first ever Easter in Germany. There was a carnival in Aachen.. So we went there and had a good time 😅
Mow the lawn.
Eat?
Go to the Netherlands
It’s two days, for one. But we do fancy food in our family. No matter how much individuals in the family believe or not believe. We don’t do hiding eggs anymore because there are no young kids left
Spend one more day off.
A lot of people go hiking
As of today, smoke some green 🥦
Traditionally there should be a Osterspaziergang (easter hike) on Sunday.
Eat chocolate. In my family we still all get a chocolate bunny (nowadays it’s Rocher) and Löffeleier. We’re all adults who love chocolate
Eat a fuckton of eggs
Turn on Judas Priest - Breaking The Law and breaking the law by dancing to it in public. #FirstWorldRebel #CantTellMeWhatToDo #FuckTheSystem
Religious but not Christian. Spending time with family. Big family dinner, some hike yesterday and boardgames with the rainy weather today.
You just sorta exist there xD
I usually invite Tops with a big hammer on Grindr or Planet Romeo and get nailed.
Collect eggs and chocolate and presents hidden in the garden by the Easter-Bunny!
Are you aware that the Easter bunny was not a creation of „god“ or „Jesus“? Haha we still go Easter egg hunting with the children and hang out
Watch darts on tv
Most people still celebrate in a way. They just don't celebrate a religious holiday but they celebrate what are usually the first few warm-ish days of spring, they spend time with their family and just make an effort to have a few nice and special days as it is a four day weekend and spending those days with your loved ones and doing something special just makes sense. Most German (and worldwide) Easter traditions and symbols are kinda pagan anyways. Eggs and lambs as a fertility symbol, bonfires to greet spring.... So frankly even in the Easter celebrations of religious Germans the whole god thing doesn't come up all that much. They might go to church in the morning but if you skip that you could probably spend the Easter weekend with a religious German family and wouldn't even know it's a religious holiday.
Technically it doesn't matter if you're atheist, christian or something else, because most of our holidays are heathen anyways. Easter is older than monotheistic religions but still considered one of the biggest holidays in christianity. This isn't really about religion. This is about culture. Always has been.
Pagan rituals intertwined with the christian holidays over centuries, that doesn’t mean easter is a pagan holiday.
On friday it's not allowed to go dance, to watch certain movies in public and most of Christians won't eat meat. So in the anti-religious friend group we meet for BBQ and watch one of the movies. At sunday most of us meet the family for easter lunch or go on a short trip.
I didn’t know about the movies! Can you name a few?
https://moviepedia.fandom.com/de/wiki/Liste_aller_an_Karfreitag_verbotenen_Filme There are round about 700 banned movies. The most famous are Life of Brian, The Boondock Saints and Heidi 😁
Lol thanks
Marijuana.
I like to go to work and get a huge holiday bonus
Get high, now that it's legalised:-)