Showing posts with label traditions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traditions. Show all posts

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter Witch!?

I'm not a huge Easter fan. I have no problems with other people celebrating it, but I don't really. I always thought it was a weird holiday. I mean, it's about Jesus (and his bloody bloody death, which seems kind of rude to keep bringing up, no?), but what's with this giant rabbit that comes into your house and leaves you eggs and chocolate? I suppose it isn't any fishier than other holiday rituals, but the rabbit is just odd. Until I found out about the pagan roots of the holiday and all that jazz. Needless to say, this kind of thing:


Creeps me out to this day. Do you know how dangerous a giant rabbit would be? Those teeth!

Recently, I found out that Easter is a kind of Halloween in Sweden and parts of Finland (thanks to Nicolette). Now, that's something I can get into.

Straight out of Time magazine, y'all:

In Sweden and parts of Finland, a mini-Halloween takes place on either the Thursday or Saturday before Easter. Little girls dress up in rags and old clothes, too-big skirts and shawls and go door to door with a copper kettle looking for treats. The tradition is said to come from the old belief that witches would fly to a German mountain the Thursday before Easter to cavort with Satan. On their way back, Swedes would light fires to scare them away, a practice honored today by the bonfires and fireworks across the land in the days leading up to Sunday.

Had I known there was a cool aspect to it, I woulda been in on it from the start! Dressing up like a witch and going door to door to get candy? I mean, look at these cuties:


They aren't even hag-like witches like you would see here on Halloween. Cute witches! With rosy cheeks. I'm totally going to scare the crap out of my neighbors when I have kids. Passover one week, dressing up like witches and sending your kids around the neighborhood? My inability to control my hair on humid days. If I get burned at the stake, you'll totally know why.