Activities
Easter customs
When we in Tyrol laugh about the palm donkey, drag long laths through the village and bake pretzels, it can only mean one thing: It's Easter time. We have collected the most important Tyrolean Easter traditions for you.
For many, Lent is about inner cleansing and a break from excess. The 40 days without meat, alcohol or sweets begin with a fasting soup on Ash Wednesday. Organisations like to invite people to such simple dishes to collect donations.
Towards the end of Lent, all things green are on the menu on Maundy Thursday. Salad, young vegetables, herbs, in short: everything that starts to sprout again in spring is put on the table.
Two days later, people eat more lavishly again. Depending on where you live, on the evening of Holy Saturday or the morning of Easter Sunday, you can finally eat to your heart's content again. Easter ham with fresh horseradish, sausages, Easter plaits and, of course, Easter eggs taste even better.
Palm Sunday is the start of the Easter celebrations, and those who wake up first thing in the morning enjoy a cheerful custom. They may call the last person to wake up "Palmesel". However, the planting - as they say in Tyrol - is usually soon forgotten as the anticipation of the procession takes over.
During the processions, girls traditionally carry a palm bush and boys a palm lath, which is made from olive branches and palm catkins and decorated with colourful ribbons and sweet pretzels. In Thaur, the wooden Christ is pulled along the country lanes on a donkey, while in Imst there is a competition for the longest palm lath. The poles can be up to 35 metres long and therefore have to be carried by up to 30 boys. Palm bushes and slats are consecrated and then carefully stored. They are supposed to protect the house and farm from lightning and fire all year round.
If you have ever been to Tyrol during Holy Week, you may have seen children with wooden "ratchets" and wondered about the creaking noise of these instruments. They replace the church bells, which may not be rung during masses on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Only the celebration of the resurrection on Holy Saturday ends the period of silence, when the fire, baptismal water and holy oils are also consecrated. Since 2015, the custom of ringing has been officially recognised as "intangible cultural heritage" by UNESCO.
In Tyrol, Easter and All Saints' Day are the dates on which godparents - called Get and Goti, Teít and Touta or God and Godn, depending on the region - give presents to their godchildren. These gifts often include an Easter plait made from yeast dough or an Easter lamb made from sponge dough, which are baked on Holy Saturday and sweeten the Sunday breakfast. Their shapes have religious significance.
Why are Easter eggs actually colourful? One of many theories: The reason lies in their shelf life. All the eggs that were not allowed to be eaten during Lent were hard-boiled and coloured in stages. This way, people knew which ones had to be eaten first. Artistic freedom in egg colouring only came with the invention of the fridge. Tyrolean families would gather around the cooker and kitchen table, dip eggs into the dye bath or paint them with brushes and watercolour. On the night of Easter Sunday, the little works of art are then hidden in the house and garden for the children - along with sweets and small gifts.
In the "egg pecking" game, two Easter eggs are smashed together at the tip with a short, firm blow in a direct duel. The broken egg must be handed over to the winner. There are some real experts in this field, and if you want to stand a chance, you need to follow the three most important basic rules:
As a symbol of the resurrection of Christ, large Easter bonfires are lit in some areas of Tyrol on the evening of Holy Saturday. One theory is that the custom goes back to the pagan spring bonfires. In Zillertal in particular, fires made from tree and shrub cuttings are an integral part of Easter celebrations - as long as the weather permits. In dry weather, the fires are prohibited due to the risk of fire.
Easter cleaning has a more mundane purpose: after a long winter, the house is cleaned from top to bottom so that everything sparkles in the spring sunshine in time for Easter.
The people of Tyrol clearly have a penchant for decorating their graves. The custom dates back to the 17th century and was intended to symbolise the death and resurrection of Christ to the church people - who often could not read or write. The graves are usually decorated with colourful glass balls filled with water and illuminated. In Breitenwang, Lienz, Nauders or Patsch, holy tombs are traditionally constructed, consisting of backdrops, curtains and figures. In other places, the cloths used to drape the altar are painted with scenes from the Passion and still others set up Lenten cots, an Easter version of the Christmas cot. The mechanical nativity scene in Telfs-Moritzen, which is integrated into the Holy Sepulchre, is particularly beautiful.
What could be better after all that good food at the weekend than exercise in the fresh air? How good that Tyrol even has its own custom for this: the Emmausgang on the morning of Easter Monday. It is reminiscent of the disciples' journey to Emmaus, where Jesus joined them unrecognised after the resurrection. Sometimes people pray and sing, but many simply enjoy a long walk in the spring sunshine.
