easter in finland also has his traditions, children are clothed like witches the weekend before easter and they go from house to house. in their hands they carry birchbranches which they decorated with coloured bows and feathers...
the witches are tradition, they live on a hill called "Kyöpelinvuori". they are flying around with their besoms and have black cats
here i found some sentences about the finnish easter:
Easter
In Finland, Easter has retained more of its religious character than the other church holidays, but secular traditions have also developed around it. Children grow grass on plates indoors, decorate Easter eggs and make Easter cards. In the 1980s, a new Easter tradition appeared among children, and spread like wildfire. On Palm Sunday, they dress up as Easter witches, and go from door to door with sprigs of willow in their hands. As a reward for reciting a special verse they are given sweets or money.
Known as virpominen, this ritual was originally a GreekOrthodox custom, familiar to people of that faith in eastern Finland. On Palm Sunday, people went about, lightly lashing their friends and relatives with willow twigs, while reciting a charm to ensure good health and success. The tradition of children dressing up as Easter witches, a figure in local superstitions, was documented in Swedish children's traditions at least a century ago.
Thus Finland's modern willowbearing Easter witches combine the scandinavian witch tradition and the eastern Orthodox virpominen. This phenomenon is a recent example of the way eastern and western traditions, and Christian customs and folk superstitions merge in Finland.
http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=26049&LAN=ENG
Home 
Fri Apr 06, 2007 12:50 am
