The bright constellation

Easter 2014

Ash Wednesday is 05 March
Palm Sunday is 13 April
Good Friday is 18 April
(Western) Easter Sunday is 20 April
(Orthodox) Easter Sunday is 20 April

Send your own personal message to the Easter Bunny from our website. We'll make sure that the Easter Bunny gets back to you in time for Easter.

CLICK HERE!

You can dye egg shells different colours if you hard boil them in water with different things in it. (but I wouldn't eat the eggs afterwards! Below is a list of what things turn the shells different colours.

Spinach Leafs = Green

Beetroot = Red

Tea Bag = Dark Brown

Onion Skin = Yellow / Gold

Red Gabbage Leaves = Light Blue

If you know of any others, please let me know!

Please only try this with some adult supervision!!

Click here to read and listen the story the tale of Benjamin.

Click here and play 12 games about easter world games. 

Chinese:- Fu huo jie kuai le

Croatian:- Sretan Uskrs

Danish:- Glζdelig Pεske

Dutch:- Vrolijk Pasen or Paasfeest

Estonian:- Head uut aastat

French:- Joyeuses Pβques

German:- Frφhlich Ostern

Hungarian:- Boldog Husveti άnnepeket

Italian:- Buona Pasqua

Lihuanian:- Linksmu Velyku

Modern Greek:- Kalo Pascha

Norwegian:- God pεske

Polish:- Wesolego Alleluja

Portuguese:- Boa Pascoa

Russian:- Schtsjastlivyje Paschi

Serbian:- Hristos voskrese

Spanish:- Felices Pascuas

Swedish:- Glad Pεsk

Turkish:- Mutlo (eller Hos) Paskalya

Yiddish:- A fraylekhn Pesah

Catalan:- Felices Pasques

American children play a game called Easter Egg Roll.

The world's most famous Mardi Gras carnival is held each year in New Orleans. It has parades, jazz bands and parties where everybody dresses up and joins in the fun. Groups of people called krewes prepare decorated floats with a Mardi Gras king and queen. Mardi Gras means 'Fat Tuesday' and only refers to Shrove Tuesday. The day after Mardi Gras is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

Easter is a time to eat special foods. In US it is baked ham, potatoes and vegetables.

In the US at Easter Hot Cross Buns are served as well.

Easter in the US is celebrated in many different ways by many different religions. Mostly it is celebrated with traditional church services and family festive celebrations. On Easter Sunday in New York and other cities, large street parades are held where people show off their new clothes and Easter bonnets. The parade is often led by someone carrying a candle or a cross.

Many children wake up on Easter Sunday and find eggs scattered about their rooms. They look in the nests they have placed in their yards or gardens and find Easter eggs in them. The eggs are said to have been bought from Rome where the bell ringing had gone to see the Pope and when the bells returned they bought with them the eggs.

In Italy olive branches are used on Palm Sunday instead of palm branches. Italians claim to have been said to have been the first to invent chocolate Easter eggs.

In Italy pretzels were originally an Easter food. The twisted shape is supposed to represent arms crossed in prayer.

Lent is preceded by a carnival with colorful pageants, masquerades, dancing, music and all kinds of merrymaking. The Carnviale begins in January and lasts until Ash Wednesday, but the ceremonies of the last three days are the gayest, especially those of Martedi Grasso or Shrove Tuesday, when pancakes are eaten.

An important part of the carnival is the wearing of masks. People wear all types of masks such as small black masks, which represent spirits and witches from the demon world.

One of the most exciting features of the festival is the death of the carnival. For example in Venice the straw body of "King Carnival" is filled with firecrackers and burned at midnight in the Piazza San Marco. The carnival figure is usually represented as a fat man, this is a symbol of the eating and drinking that takes place during this period.

Quaresima or lent, on the other hand, is represented as a lean old woman. Children are often been given the figure of an old woman with seven legs, representing the seven weeks of Lent, and at Mezza Quaresima they cut the figure in two, throwing half away and keeping the other half until the end of Lent.

During Lent, women often used to grow wheat in a dark place, so that the lack of sunlight would make it a white color. This is then used to decorate the altar of the local church during the days leading up to Easter. The white wheat represented Christ's tomb.

Domenica delle Palme or Palm Sunday, people take palm and olive branches to church to be blessed. When everyone is in the church, the doors are closed to represent the gates of Jerusalem. The priests knock three times, and the gates are then flung open in welcome, and they enter amid joyous music and the waving of palms, this is done to commemorate Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The palms are often spread over fields for good luck or patching up quarrels as an expression of peace.

Giovedi Santo or Holy Friday, many churches re-enact the ceremony of the washing of the feet at the altar. They chose 12 poor men from the parish representing the Twelve Disciples, and the priest, acting as Christ, bathes their feet.

Easter or La Pasqua is a joyous day. After morning mass people return home for the Easter dinner. The most important dish is agnellino, roasted baby lamb. The table is decorated with colored eggs which have been blessed by the priest.

In Italy lamb is eaten with a special salad made with hard-boiled eggs.

In Italy, church bells ring joyfully during the year. But the bells stop ringing on the Thursday before Good Friday. They are silent for a few days while people remember the death of Jesus. On Easter Sunday morning, the bells ring out, telling people that Jesus is alive again. When people hear the bells, they kiss and hug one another.

Many people believed that the world was created from a giant egg and that the sun was the yolk of the egg. The ancient people of Hawaii thought that this giant egg burst and its pieces formed the Hawaiian Islands. 

In Germany Easter is started by covering the cross on Good Friday. On this day they eat dishes which have fish in them.

Easter starts with mass, which is started on Saturday evening and continues until Sunday morning. On Sunday it is Family Day on this day they have a special Easter lunch and they have colored eggs and a cake which is shaped like a lamb.

They also eat other sweet foods such as cookies, cake and chocolate on this day and the best part of the day is the hiding of the eggs and cookies in the garden.

Another tradition is the Easter Fire which is where all the old Christmas trees are gathered up and burnt in a special place, this is done so as to clean away the last signs of winter and moving onto spring.

In Germany green eggs are used on Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday.

A town in Germany called Oberammergau, performs a passion play at Easter time. A passion play tells the story of the suffering, crucifixion and death of Jesus. 1200 villagers approximately perform in this six-hour play.

In Germany, just before the beginning of Lent, it is carnival time calledFasching. In Fasching parades in the city of Cologne, people wear masks and giant-sized papier-mβchι heads, sometimes twice the size of their bodies.

Germans cook a type of thick doughnut called a Cruller to use up fat before Lent. In some villages people hold an Easter walk or ride in memory of the walk Jesus took to His death. On Easter Saturday night children light huge bonfires.

They have an egg tree. This is a small tree branch put in a vase about two weeks before Easter. Real eggs that have been painted and decorated are hung from the branches. Other small, highly decorated eggs the family has collected are also hung on the tree.

In Germany, children play a game called Chocolate Kiss.

Egg Gathering a popular outdoor game in Germany.

Also in Germany, eggs used for cooking are not broken but are emptied by blowing the contents into a bowl through pinholes at either end of the hen's egg. The hollow eggs are then died and hung from shrubs and trees during Easter week.