Easter in Sweden

Fredrik Johansson

                       Easter (pask) is a major holiday in Sweden, but it's celebrated a bit differently than in many other countries. It's a unique mix of Christian traditions and old Nordic customs. The Christian side focuses on the story of Jesus, while the older traditions celebrate the return of life and light after a long, cold winter. This time of year was seen as magical—when nature woke up and day and night were of equal length. Even today, people decorate their homes with yellow chickens, painted eggs, and birch twigs with colorful feathers. Many families enjoy a special Easter meal, often including eggs, salmon, and spring vegetables. A favorite tradition is hiding large paper eggs filled with candy for children to find around the house or garden.

        Have you ever wondered why eggs are such a big part of Easter? During the cold winter months in the past, chickens didn't lay many eggs, so people had to go without them for a while. But when spring arrived, the hens started laying again—just in time for Easter! That's why eggs became a symbol of the season and an important part of the celebration.

        One unique Swedish tradition is the "Easter witches" (paskkarringar). On the Thursday before Easter, children dress up in old clothes, headscarves, and painted freckles, going door to door with drawings or cards in exchange for candy. This comes from an old belief that witches flew to a mountain to meet the devil during Easter, but today it's just a fun and friendly tradition-much like Halloween in the United States. In some parts of Sweden, including Gotland where I'm from, people also light big bonfires during Easter weekend. This was originally done to scare away witches and evil spirits, but today it's a social event where families gather, clean up gardens, and welcome the arrival of spring. Even if you're not Christian, there are many reasons to enjoy and celebrate this special time of year.

Easter Day Activities

趙翊嘉

        Easter Day is a holiday for Christians. It is on the first Sunday after the full moon of the spring equinox, but if that day is on Sunday, it will move to the following week. People will have some activities on this holiday. The popular one is an Easter egg hunt. They hide eggs somewhere, and others are going to find them. We did these activities in our class and had a great time.

陳彥琛

        April 20th is a special day for Christianity. This day is the day that Jesus left the world, and “Easter” means “rebirth”. And on that day, in Taiwan, I was surprised to experience this particular activity. When we talked about Easter, most of us thought it was just “colored eggs” or “bunnies”. In our class, we learned that bunnies represent fertility and eggs represent birth. By the way, on this day, we had Kinder Eggs instead of colored eggs. Although they were not eggs, we also had fun. We also made bunny ears by ourselves, so everyone rushed into the garden and looked for eggs. It is not only a game, but also a new experience for me！ Easter is an amazing festival. I tried many new activities today. I marvelously thank my teacher, Jam, for letting me experience this activity. I experienced many cultures in this activity. It was cool！

林于宸

      On Easter Day, our teacher prepared a special activity for us to let us learn more about Easter. First, we watched a video about Easter Day with cute anime and complete information. Our teacher also explained the difficult part that we didn't know. After that, we used colored pencils to draw the bunny's ears. We cut them down and put them together to make a headband. Everyone had their unique headband. Finally, we went downstairs to the garden. Teacher hid the chocolate eggs to let us find them. After a few minutes, we ran into the garden and looked around inside the bushes and tree branches. We looked carefully because it was too secretive. After we found all the chocolate eggs, we took a picture with them. This was the most fun Easter Day I've ever had！

邱云謙

        Easter is an important holiday in some countries.  To celebrate Easter, our class had some activities. First, we learned some vocabulary about Easter. Next, we watched a video explaining why Easter is celebrated with rabbits and eggs.  Then, we made a head band with rabbit ears on it.  Finally, Teacher hid eggs and let us find them.  I love Easter not just because of the activities we did, but also because of its history.

林彧睿

      On the windy day after rain, several parts of the ground were still wet. The wind was howling through the school, and the sun was shinny in the sky. I stepped into the classroom with my classmates and took out our important object for the activities- a chocolate egg. To let us know more about Easter, our teacher prepared some vocabulary words and a video for us to watch. We learned that bunnies and eggs are important symbols of Easter. To paint bunny ears was one of the activities. Painting bunny ears with different colors to make it colorful was fun. The most exciting activity was finding eggs. To find eggs in such a big part of the school was hard work. Finding little things cost a lot of time. The eggs were hidden by the pond, under the trees, or under the leaves. Even though I didn't find any of the chocolate eggs, I still felt happy  about the activities. Easter is an important holiday for Christians. It's a day to remember the important person, Jesus. People celebrate it like Christians, and we celebrated it, too！

何鎧仲

      It was Easter last week, so we naturally had some Easter related activities in our class. Teacher Jam had us make paper bunny ears. We colored the ears and then cut them out. Then, a strip of paper was made as a strap to put on our heads. The reason that bunnies are related to Easter is that they are seen as a symbol of birth, as Jesus was resurrected on that day, and also because they give birth to a lot of offspring every time. The second activity was finding Easter eggs. Teacher Jam had us buy chocolate eggs and then hid them for us to find. The rule was that you could keep every egg that you found, and our class had a lot of fun racing against each other for every egg within sight. The tradition of the egg hunt is obviously because eggs symbolize birth, indicating that the resurrection of Jesus is the birth of a miracle. Now, people all over the world have lots of fun finding chocolate eggs and spending time with their family.

林雨萱

      Easter is one of the most important events, but we never really understood Easter, because in Taiwan, most people believe in Buddhism. It is not the main religion in Taiwan, but in Teacher Jam's activities, I learned a lot.

      First, we watched a video about the origin of Easter and the meaning of Easter. Easter Day is the day when Jesus was resurrected. And how about the Easter bunny? The Easter bunny symbolizes good fertility because rabbits can give birth to many offspring.  After we watched the video, we painted adorable rabbit ears.  I used an orange hue to paint them.  They looked like the bright sun in the sky, shining on us.  After we finished it, we took a picture with them on our head. Finally, the most exciting activity came.  It was Easter egg hunting！

Teacher Jam hid the eggs in the grass, trees, and rocks. We needed to find all of the eggs. “Three！ Two！ One！Start！” We rushed into the garden and found where the eggs were, but I didn't find any eggs.  It‘s a little pity of the activities. I learned a lot from this activity. I realized the origin and how important Easter is to Christians.  Although I didn't find an egg, it was the most interesting cultural education.