German Traditions and Recipes for Easter - Part 5: Easter Sunday and Monday
Welcome to the fifth and last part of my little article series about German Easter festivities.
In Part 4 we talked about the Easter Bunny, Easter Eggs and the hugely important Easter Breakfast on Sunday and finished with dinner, which is of course lamb more often than not.
There is however a lot more to be said about traditions and rites on Easter Sunday in Germany.
One thing that always fascinated me as a child was the believe that everything is somewhat sacred and full of miracles on this day.
Especially water was supposed to have special powers and if you went swimming in a lake or river, the waters special powers would protect you of anything bad that might happen to you throughout the year.
Sometimes it can still be rather cold in Germany that time of year, so just a dip would have had to do to get yourself wet with the "sacred" water.
Today nobody believes in these things anymore of course, yet it is exciting for kids, and many people just leave their children in the belief, that Easter Sunday everything is sacred and that the day is full of miracles.
Any unexpected, and sometimes firstly unexplainable little "miracle" that happens that day is of course most welcome and many Parents, Uncles, Aunties and Grandparents help those little miracles along the way to happen a bit more that Sunday than on other days, if you know what I mean.
In the afternoon many families will go out for a walk and collect goat willow twigs.
The goat willow is in bloom at that time of year in Germany and is being used instead of the palm branches which in Jesus days were waved as a sign of peace and joy.
The goat willow twigs are being used because they are quite nice and because palm trees don't grow in Germany's climate, of course.
The twigs (appr.
3 feet long) are being tied together and decorated with colourful ribands, fruits and of course eggs.
They are being brought to church, where they are being blessed before the big Easter Sunday church service.
After the service, the people of the village proceed along the main street with their blessed bunch of goat willow twigs before they make their way home, where the colourful bunch is being kept for another couple of days.
The evening and night is all about the Easter bonfire.
In many villages and small towns across the country the inhabitants are coming together to light a large bonfire.
It is common to dance around the fire and supposedly it brings good luck to jump across the fire.
But beware if you stumble or fall when doing so, as the opposite will be the case and you will have nothing but bad luck for the rest of the year.
When the fire has died down, large amounts of potatoes are being placed in the embers and enjoyed when done, often accompanied with one or more bottles of beer or wine and the odd schnapps too, of course.
Easter Monday is a bit like Boxing Day at Christmas.
People are chilling out (many of them curing a hangover) go for walks, or visit extended family and friends.
Often the leftovers of the big feast that was Easter Sunday are being served for dinner or people are going to restaurants.
Chinese, Greek, Italian or other restaurants with "foreign" cuisine are often the places of choice, for a nice change from the predominantly German food that has been on offer at home for most of the Easter Holidays.
And that is pretty much what a typical German Easter is like.
Of course there are many more customs and traditions, often very different from region to region, but it would simply be impossible, to tell you about all of them in short articles like this.
As I always do, I would like to share a recipe with you and I thought you might be interested in the recipe for the cake that is being shaped into a lamb like figure, that we talked about in part 3 of my little Easter series.
And here it goes: Ingredients: 3 1/2 oz.
butter 3 1/2 oz.
sugar 1 pk.
vanilla sugar 1 pk.
custard powder 2 eggs 2 tablespoons of baking powder 3 1/2 oz.
flour 5 oz.
yoghurt (vanilla taste if possible) some icing sugar some butter or margarine to rub into the baking dish some flour for the baking dish Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar until foamy.
Now add the eggs slowly and keep mixing while doing so.
In a separate bowl mix the flour with the custard powder, baking powder and yoghurt and then add to the foamy butter/sugar mixture.
Rub your lamb-baking dish with butter or margarine, sprinkle with flour and fill the dough into the form.
Pre heat the oven to 360 degrees F.
and bake the cake for 30 - 40 minutes.
When done, let cool for a while, carefully remove the baking dish from the cake and sprinkle the "lamb" with plenty of icing sugar.
In Part 4 we talked about the Easter Bunny, Easter Eggs and the hugely important Easter Breakfast on Sunday and finished with dinner, which is of course lamb more often than not.
There is however a lot more to be said about traditions and rites on Easter Sunday in Germany.
One thing that always fascinated me as a child was the believe that everything is somewhat sacred and full of miracles on this day.
Especially water was supposed to have special powers and if you went swimming in a lake or river, the waters special powers would protect you of anything bad that might happen to you throughout the year.
Sometimes it can still be rather cold in Germany that time of year, so just a dip would have had to do to get yourself wet with the "sacred" water.
Today nobody believes in these things anymore of course, yet it is exciting for kids, and many people just leave their children in the belief, that Easter Sunday everything is sacred and that the day is full of miracles.
Any unexpected, and sometimes firstly unexplainable little "miracle" that happens that day is of course most welcome and many Parents, Uncles, Aunties and Grandparents help those little miracles along the way to happen a bit more that Sunday than on other days, if you know what I mean.
In the afternoon many families will go out for a walk and collect goat willow twigs.
The goat willow is in bloom at that time of year in Germany and is being used instead of the palm branches which in Jesus days were waved as a sign of peace and joy.
The goat willow twigs are being used because they are quite nice and because palm trees don't grow in Germany's climate, of course.
The twigs (appr.
3 feet long) are being tied together and decorated with colourful ribands, fruits and of course eggs.
They are being brought to church, where they are being blessed before the big Easter Sunday church service.
After the service, the people of the village proceed along the main street with their blessed bunch of goat willow twigs before they make their way home, where the colourful bunch is being kept for another couple of days.
The evening and night is all about the Easter bonfire.
In many villages and small towns across the country the inhabitants are coming together to light a large bonfire.
It is common to dance around the fire and supposedly it brings good luck to jump across the fire.
But beware if you stumble or fall when doing so, as the opposite will be the case and you will have nothing but bad luck for the rest of the year.
When the fire has died down, large amounts of potatoes are being placed in the embers and enjoyed when done, often accompanied with one or more bottles of beer or wine and the odd schnapps too, of course.
Easter Monday is a bit like Boxing Day at Christmas.
People are chilling out (many of them curing a hangover) go for walks, or visit extended family and friends.
Often the leftovers of the big feast that was Easter Sunday are being served for dinner or people are going to restaurants.
Chinese, Greek, Italian or other restaurants with "foreign" cuisine are often the places of choice, for a nice change from the predominantly German food that has been on offer at home for most of the Easter Holidays.
And that is pretty much what a typical German Easter is like.
Of course there are many more customs and traditions, often very different from region to region, but it would simply be impossible, to tell you about all of them in short articles like this.
As I always do, I would like to share a recipe with you and I thought you might be interested in the recipe for the cake that is being shaped into a lamb like figure, that we talked about in part 3 of my little Easter series.
And here it goes: Ingredients: 3 1/2 oz.
butter 3 1/2 oz.
sugar 1 pk.
vanilla sugar 1 pk.
custard powder 2 eggs 2 tablespoons of baking powder 3 1/2 oz.
flour 5 oz.
yoghurt (vanilla taste if possible) some icing sugar some butter or margarine to rub into the baking dish some flour for the baking dish Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla sugar until foamy.
Now add the eggs slowly and keep mixing while doing so.
In a separate bowl mix the flour with the custard powder, baking powder and yoghurt and then add to the foamy butter/sugar mixture.
Rub your lamb-baking dish with butter or margarine, sprinkle with flour and fill the dough into the form.
Pre heat the oven to 360 degrees F.
and bake the cake for 30 - 40 minutes.
When done, let cool for a while, carefully remove the baking dish from the cake and sprinkle the "lamb" with plenty of icing sugar.
