Osterbräuche#

Easter Customs: Eastertide extends from Palm Sunday ( Palm Sunday Customs) to White Sunday (the Sunday after Easter). Side by side with the traditional Easter customs restricted to that period, there has been a tendency in recent times to extend Easter customs (Eastern markets, Easter egg exchanges, show-window, door and table decorations) to the period before and after Eastertide proper.

On Maundy Thursday (Gruendonnerstag, i.e. "Green Thursday", Antlasstag) many families in Austria traditionally eat green dishes such as spinach and herb or vegetable broths. Eggs laid on that day are considered lucky charms that protect people from evil (Antlasseier); choirs perform parts of Christ's Passion at Grossarl, Salzburg, (Leiden-Christi-Singen) and Traunkirchen, Upper Austria, (Antlasssingen), Passion plays are staged on the Holy Days at Tresdorf (Carinthia), Erl, Brixlegg and Telfs (all in Tirol), St. Margarethen (Burgenland) and elsewhere. One popular custom is Ratschengehen, a procession in the course of which rattles are sounded. For many Catholics, Good Friday (a public holiday for Protestants) is a fast day, at 3 p.m. a minute of silence is kept by many (including some business companies and factories) in commemoration of the death of Christ. During Easter night (from Saturday to Sunday) Christ's resurrection is celebrated in the churches, beginning with the blessing of fire, and many faithful take the Easter light back home. Easter bonfires are frequently lighted on mountains, particularly in Carinthia, Styria, Tirol, Lower Austria and Burgenland. On Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday foodstuffs (ham, eggs, special baked goods) are blessed in church. Perhaps the best-known popular custom is that of decorating and giving away coloured Easter eggs (allegedly laid by the "Easter bunny"), which are often used in a contest in which one person tries to crush his/her opponent's egg by hitting it with his/her own ("Eierpecken"). Children are given little presents (eggs, sweets), which are often hidden ("by the Easter bunny") in the house or garden. In former times, there were frequently excursions or processions around the fields on Easter Monday ("Emmausgehen" in Lower Austria and Styria), nowadays people visit their relatives, go on hiking tours, etc.