Our Easter Travels

For the past few years, Nate and I haven’t been around in the States on Easter. We have experience Easter season celebrations in five countries other than our own. Each country carried its own magical charm.

There is nothing quite like seeing strongly rooted traditions that have been going on for hundreds of years that still continue to this day. The locals invest in it, believe in it and live for this wonderful holiday. It’s beautiful to witness a community devoted to their traditions. The endless church bells ringing nonstop, the smell of baked good flowing through the air and even catching some locals dressed in their Sunday best to attend an Easter mass is wonderful to see. It’s almost like watching a perfectly rehearsed movie with unbelievable sets and costumes. FYI- I’m an old soul, so I love old buildings, ornate fixtures, artists painting on the streets and open markets with fresh baked goods. It’s just fabulous!

PARIS, FRANCE

Our hearts broke after seeing the news early this week regarding the fire at Notre Dame. It was a year ago we were in Paris. I was sick, but Nate was able to sit in Notre Dame Cathedral for a Palm Sunday mass. Here are Nate’s words:

Nate’s video 1

Nate’s video 2

“I wandered along the river to Notre Dame. It was amazing!  The pictures don’t do it justice.  The area in front of the cathedral was PACKED with people. It was Palm Sunday after all… I knew there was no way that I’d have time to get in there before it closed at 6:45 PM, so I decided to grab some dinner.

I found a little cafe’ right across the street from Notre Dame called L’Esmeralda.  I decided to go for something that I wouldn’t normally try, so I ordered escargot and steak tartare. I sat outside and enjoyed my meal while taking in the sites.  Across the street, someone was playing the accordion…  It was quite charming. Melessa would have really enjoyed it.  I missed my sweetie.

After dinner, I walked through the gardens behind Notre Dame and meandered over to the river.  Again, it’s difficult to overstate how impressive the exterior of Notre Dame truly is. I made my way back around to the front of the cathedral and it was even more crowded. Turns out people were waiting to get in for the Palm Sunday evening mass.  I decided to follow the crowd, made my way inside and spent the better part of the next hour enjoying the service and interior of Notre Dame.”

 

SALZBURG, AUSTRIA

Oh Austria, I LOVE YOU SO! This is hands down my FAVE! Note all the caps!! Experiencing Austria around Easter was simply exquisite. I knew Austria was going to have beautiful views and cute towns, but I had no idea it would be downright romantic as heck! The details were unbelievable. The food was unbelievable, and the people were so kind! I’ll definitely do a more detailed post on my travel to Austria later.

The Easter markets are darling and all over. People fill their baskets with ham, eggs, bacon, butter, cheese, sausages, honey, and home-made bread and candles. All of the products come from local farms and are sold directly by the farmers.

On Easter Sunday the 40 days of fasting for Lent is over for the devout locals. The traditional Easter brunch with sweet bread (Osterpinze), cold cuts, colored eggs, and horseradish come out.

Nate and I went out of our way to make complete pigs of ourselves with their fresh baked apple strudel. OH MY GOSH, IT WAS SO GOOD!

Outside of the churches, the locals made large bouquets from willow twigs and foliage, which were decorated with curly ribbons, eggs and some with apples.  They were then taken to church and blessed to commemorate the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem.

We smiled as we witnessed a child throw a temper tantrum while walking with his parents on the way to church. We couldn’t tell if it was because he didn’t care for the absolutely darling traditional wool clothing he was wearing or if he was not excited about going to church, or both. It’s nice to see that other children from around the world don’t behave too differently. 🙂

Here’s a darling little primary Easter program we sat on in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche Catholic Church. 

 

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

This place is fully decked out all over. You’d never know that most of this country is atheist due to their country’s history. As the communists moved into this country in 1948, for the most part, Easter is celebrated only as a rite of spring. People lost their freedom to practice religion under communism. In 1989 communist rule ended, but the remnants and loss of faith still stand. Freedom is a beautiful gift that not all of us get to experience. It made me appreciate my agency and freedom to choose how I want to believe. St. Nicholas Cathedral is one of the only churches to commemorate the religious aspects of the holiday today.

 

These folks know how to throw a party, though. Red is the Easter symbol for many Czechs who wear it to symbolize good health and happiness. Their Easter is nearly a week-long celebration that begins on Ugly Wednesday and continues through to the Easter Monday feast with numerous special days in between. Aside from colored eggs and hand-made willow whips, Czechs also love to fill their trees and bushes with ribbons, eggs and more; a tradition that originated in Germany and Austria.

They have many goofy activities and rituals that occur during this time. The two craziest traditions that Nate I heard about are the Fertility Ritual and Slivovice.  The fertility ritual involves whipping women on the morning of Easter Monday. Men and boys whip women of all ages, around the legs with special whips made out of twisted willow branches (ouch) and dousing them in water to ensure fertility and beauty.  Yep, you heard that right. I had to have them repeat it so I didn’t misunderstand what I heard. Slivovice doesn’t seem much different, where men parade through the village in search of females to spank. They still do this today. Wowza! I’m holding back on what really went through my mind when I heard this. Let’s just say, it wouldn’t end well for any Czech guy bold enough to try those shenanigans with me! 😉

I almost forget to mention that Nate ate rabbit while in Prague.  He thought that it’d be funny to tell our boys that he ate the Easter Bunny…

 

ROME, ITALY

Please note: Don’t go to Vatican City two days before Easter as we did. I don’t care for crowds, and this place was a madhouse. It was absolutely beautiful but overwhelmingly immense. I don’t know how else to describe my feelings about it. Don’t misunderstand, I loved it, but it was so much to take in. You leave feeling overloaded and wowed all at the same time.

 

FLORENCE, ITALY

It was Easter morning and I Nate I decided to hit the 10 am mass at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. We had no idea what we were in for! We found our seats inside and as the parade of bishops headed by the archbishop made his way down the very long aisles. The archbishop stood at the head of the altar and sang the words, “In Excelsis Deo!” Then he lit a fuse that ignited this rocket dove on a string that shot down the entire 500 feet of aisles in this massive cathedral into this huge decorative cart parked just outside the main entrance of the cathedral doors which then started a huge fireworks display right at the front door of the cathedral. Check out the video below to see what it looks like outside the cathedral.  It was awesome! We should totally do this in our church Easter morning! 😉

 

LONDON, ENGLAND

Thank you to the songwriters of “feed the birds” from Mary Poppins. Nate and I enjoyed a lovely Easter Mass at that very spot inside Saint Paul’s Cathedral. The sermons were heartwarming and accompanying violin solos from Vivaldi and Bach were exquisite. We left with a peaceful spirit that uplifted and relaxed us for the remainder of the day.

It was beautiful to see some of the various Easter traditions in different parts of the world. It made me appreciate the diversity of beliefs and traditions around the world even more. There is truth everywhere. I have felt a sweet spirit in many places I have visited and have witnessed simple acts of kindness everywhere that Nate I have traveled, whether it was a simple head nod or a stranger holding the door for us or helping find our way. We live in a world filled with a lot of good people. I am grateful for this beautiful world and the beautiful people in it. I am grateful for a Savior, and for the faith that He knows each of us and loves each of us no matter where we are; He loves us where we are; weakness and all.  I’m grateful to experience these marvelous events around the world with people that Christ loves just as much as he loves me.

Have a wonderful Easter everyone!

XOXO