Forget chocolate eggs, here are the world's top 10 alternate Easter traditions

How does the rest of the world celebrate the Easter holiday? Hop this way for our top 10 strangest Easter celebrations around the globe.

By Dave Lancaster |

06:53 19 April 2014

Smashing plates and reading crime novels has nothing to do with Easter, right? Wrong! Check out the top 10 alternate Easter celebrations from across the globe. 

 

10) Canada 

 

While Canada is home to many of the classic traits of Easter (attending church, eating chocolate and putting on plays), Canada is the proud owner ofthe world’s largest pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg). You'll find it in Vegreville where thousands gather round to celebrate its symbols of life, eternity and prosperity. 

 

 

9) Bermuda 

 

Citizens of Bermuda take to the skies on Good Friday and launch arrays of impressive homemade kites into the air. Legend has it, the tradition stems from a teacher who struggled to explain Christ's ascension to Heaven before he stumbled on the idea of a cross-shaped kite flying from the ground to the sky. 

 

 

8) Poland 

 

Expect to get in Poland over Easter Monday as traditional POles attempt to drench each other with water as a sort of epic tribute to baptism. It's also said that the girls who get covered in water will marry the next year. 

 

 

7) Germany

 

Toy hunts are common in Germany with Easter baskets hailed as the mail tradition over the period. The goodie boxes are hidden by parents for their eager children to seek out in the garden or on a country walk. 

 

 

6) Greece 

 

The Greeks are famed for their laziness when it comes to doing the washing up (they traditional smash the plates) and Easter is a similarly smashing experience. On the morning of Holy Saturday keep your eyes peeled for falling earthenware as Greeks on the island of Corfu partake in pot throwing - chucking their pots and pots out of the window. Out with the old, in with the new. 

 

 

5) Sweden 

 

In Sweden on the days leading up to Easter Sunday, children opt for fancy dress. You'll see them done up as Easter witches adorned in old clothes. Legend has it they trade arty illustrations for sweets. 

 

 

4) Spain

 

The medieval town of Verges is host to a popular 'death dance' which eerily reproduces scenes from The Passion from midnight on Holy Thursday until three in the morning. Expect the townsfolk to dress as skeletons and carry ashes. 

 

3) Haiti 

 

In Haiti, things get musical over Easter as Holy Week is littered with parades and rara music played on traditional and homemade instruments (everything from bamboo trumpets to disused coffee tins). What's really interesting about Haiti's celebration is that it so vividly cocktails Catholic and Voodoo beliefs. 

 

 

2) France

 

Easter Monday in the town of Haux, southern France is famed for its mammoth omeletes created in the town square. Thousands of eggs go into the mix and the resulting dish feeds anywhere up to a 1,000 hungry townsfolk. 

 

 

1) Norway

 

While many of us like to settle down with a wealth of chocolate over Easter, in Norway they take a more literary approach. Easter is the peak season for crime fiction publications. It all began over Easter in 1923 when a book was advertised on the frontpage of a local newspaper but made up to look like a breaking news headline. The trick worked, linking Easter and daring crime writing forever more.