Frohe Ostern

It's Easter weekend and the Germans honor/celebrate the holiday with several days of traditions. On Thursday, it's Gruendonnerstag (green Thursday), meant as a day of cleansing to prepare for the upcoming days. On Friday we have Karfreitag (Good Friday, but with this identifier known as Sorrowful Friday), then Ostersonntag (Easter Sunday), and finally Ostermontag (Easter Monday). All these days are official holidays.

As in America, we have the Easter bunny, easter egg scavenger hunts, and loads of chocolate. In Germany they also have the Osterfeuer (Easter fire) the Saturday eve before Easter. I've never celebrated Easter in Germany, so I was especially intrigued by this tradition. Some of my classmates and I went to the Elbe River, where the Osterfeuer celebration took place.

As we reached the waterfront and beach area, people were already setting up their individual fires. Many were properly prepared with blankets, grill items, drinks, and other delicacies.

But this was the main Osterfeuer, complete with a scarecrow perched on top. People had rallied their scrap wood, Christmas trees, old branches, and other twigs to create this massive pile. The fire literally and symbolically burns away the old and therefore makes way for the new (a nice symmetry to the meaning of Easter). I've also read that it's meant to symbolize Christ's resurrection and the triumph over the darkness of death and sin. Before it was adopted as a Christian tradition, it had other seasonal meanings (i.e. done for the fertility of the fields) and ties to the sun god(ess).
So we perched ourselves close to the pile. Please don't make fun of my hat. Sometimes you don't realize you're driving head on into a fashion disaster until you are hit with a photo like this:

Anyway, moving on. In the background you can see the fate that awaits the main Osterfeuer.

And then it's lit:
And it's beautiful. Everyone is just enjoying the warmth and the view as sparks fly and the wind carries the flames every which way. With the lights of the harbor in the background, it was quite a sight.

The next morning was much less dramatic, but still a pleasure. For breakfast we had challah bread shaped as bunnies, plus "easter nests" filled with lots of goodies.

Mom made me put a little easter bunny on my head and pose for this picture.


It was only fair that she do the same, and she happily obliged.

And that, folks, is Easter in Germany. Well, at least my Easter in Germany.