12 Unique Easter traditions from around the world

By Jessica Lima From BuzzFeed

Slovakia does WHAT on Easter?

Finns treat Easter like Halloween.

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Kids roam around the streets dressed up in costume (usually witch costumes) asking for treats.

Australians have the “Easter Bilby” instead of the Easter Bunny.

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The reasoning behind this is to bring awareness to the almost-extinct little creature.

In Greece, people paint their Easter eggs red.

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Red is meant to symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ and rebirth.

 

In Poland, the master of the house isn’t allowed to participate in the making of the traditional Easter bread.

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Or else it is believed that his mustache will turn gray and the dough will fail to rise.

In southwest France, people make a giant omelette on Easter Monday.

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It feeds over 1,000 people on Easter Monday every year.

Communities make beautiful carpets of sawdust and flowers that are usually a mile long.

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These colorful and extremely detailed carpets take weeks of preparation leading up to Easter. Once it arrives, huge processions walk over the carpets as people make their way to the local church where mass is held.

Here Easter is a joyous affair celebrated by flying kites on Good Friday.

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The kites are meant to represent the ascension of Christ into heaven.

Germans decorate trees with colorful hand-painted Easter eggs.

Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Mr. Kraft (pictured above) has had a 50-year-long tradition of hanging over 9,000 eggs on an apple tree in his backyard with his wife Christa.

In Switzerland, people decorate wells and fountains leading up to Easter.

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Decorating a well symbolizes the honoring of water, which is essential for life, and Easter, the feast of renewed life.

The tradition in Brazil is to make straw dolls of Judas

and bring them out to the streets to beat them up.

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This is to symbolize the hate Brazilians have for the man that betrayed Jesus Christ.

In Scotland, people roll their brightly decorated Easter eggs down a steep hill.

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The egg that gets the farthest without breaking wins!

And finally, in Slovakia, men whip women with a willow and splash them

with water.

SAMUEL KUBANI/AFP / Getty Images

All of this is supposed to symbolize youth, strength, and beauty for the upcoming spring season.