Hunting for Easter Eggs

Every year, on Easter Sunday parents hide painted hard boiled eggs, chocolate eggs and pastry eggs in backyards or in the woods. They also hang blown out and painted hen's eggs on cherry branches. The children are told the story of the Easter Bunny who paints eggs and then hides these for them to find.

Walpurgis' Night and the May-tree

The first day of May tends to get many German towns setting up the local May-tree. This is a very tall tree with a trunk stripped of branches, painted blue and white and decorated with streamers and shields representing the town's craftsmanship corporations. Walpurgis' Night, celebrated on the eve of April 30, is when young men from different towns try and steal these trees from their neighbouring towns.

If they manage to sneak them away, the owners have to 'buy back' their tree, paying in barrels of beer. This is an embarrassing situation and is usually expensive due to the large amounts of beer that have to be paid for.

During Walpurgis' Night, stealing the May-tree is not the only activity people engage in; they also tend to terrorize the neighbourhood with their mischief; unhinging and carting off doors and gates and wrapping cars in toilet paper; people have been known to find carts and even a cow on the roof of haylofts, on the next day.

Advent Wreath

Four weeks before Christmas Eve, German families prepare the so called Advent Wreath. It is a simple pine wreath holding four candles. The first Sunday of the month only one candle is lit, on the second, two until on the last Sunday before Christmas Eve all four are lit. This tradition symbolizes the coming of the most important evening in the Christian year.