Last weekend was Easter which meant Friday and Monday off. Friday was "Karfreitag" (= good Friday) which is the day when Christians celebrate the killing of Jesus. Ok, "commemorate" is probably the more fitting expression. Sunday and Monday are Easter Sunday respectively Easter Monday. This is the time when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We are not Christians, but having Friday and Monday off is enough reason to celebrate (especially at my current Job). I don't know many Easter traditions, but the one I like is of course giving out Easter candies - chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies, etc. And this year we were able to revive another tradition - hiding the Easter candies to have the children search for them. This tradition was never dead of course, but without children it is not so much fun. And this year we had children - our son and his cousin. So my sister hid the Easter candies in our parents' garden, and then the kids went wild. I don't know what was more fun for the Kids - searching for the candies or eating them.
Another important Easter tradition in Germany - basically every little village comes together to light a big bonfire - the Easter fire.
As with many Christian Holidays also many of the Easter traditions are not purely of Christian origin. Many of these traditions or at least parts of them have their origin in the pre-Christian times. When for example the Germanic tribes believed in all these more exciting gods like Wotan, Odin, Thor (who apparently leads a double life as a superhero).
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