I am sure we all enjoyed the days off and most of us have spent the holidays with their familys celebrating easter with many traditions.
In Austria there are a number of different traditions connected to easter. Some of them are the same but of course every family has a couple additional traditions just for themselves. In Ireland I am pretty sure it is the same. Curious about Irish easter traditions here is a short overview about what we have in comon and what is different in Austria and Ireland.
As we all know easter already starts 40 days before Easter Sunday. This period is called Lent. In the traditional way one should not eat meat during this time (many people try thesedays to go without something else they really like, for example chocolate). What I did not know is, that Irish people usually eat fish every friday in Lent in some kind of fish soup and they also do not eat eggs until Easter Sunday. In both countries eggs are a symbol for easter and the will get painted in different colours.
Of course the most important week in Lent is the last week also known as Holly week starting with Palm Sunday. On Friday, Good Friday, just like in Austria people try not to do any outside work and prepare themselves for Easter. Then comes Easter Saturday with the Easter Vigil in the evening. Which is the same in both countries again. Apparently we Austrians are the more unpatient folks and so we already have our easter Dinner on Saturday. It usually consists of homemade white bread, smoked meat, horseradish, vegetables, wine and off course eggs. All this food will previously be blessed by the priest. Irish people wait patiently until easter sunday for their special Easter meal. In Ireland this would usually includes potatoes, vegetables, meat, stuffing, bread and anything else that makes up a good proper Irish feast. All together the Irish Easter is not that different from the Austrian.
I hope you all had a Happy Easter. :-)
