　おいしい！

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Look at the Easter Rabbits in gold! Yum!

Cute bunny chocolates

Here's one pretty one!

I've got two!

Wow! Humongous egg!

A french "eggy" commercial

Little eggs with liqour

Ahhhhhh... mon chéri... cherry liqour...Hmmmmmmm

*******

France - the country of decadence. Why do I say so? We practically feast on chocolates throughout the year. Christmas is a period with showers of chocolates! Then, it extends into the New Year, where chocolates can be found anywhere and everywhere. Shortly after comes Easter, and we find chocolates in the shape of bunnies and eggs. In a period of 3 months plus, there are three major festivals for gorging on chocolates nonstop. That is an average of one festival per month! Ah! The indulgence in the chocolatey sin!

I'm pleasantly surprised to see how foreigners celebrate Easter. In Singapore, it's just a typical commercialised holiday where Kinder earns a lot of money with lots of Kinder Surprise displayed on shelves of NTUC or Cold Storage. Over here, probably because Europe is a Catholic country, I more or less feel the true meaning of Easter and understand more about the story of the Easter Rabbit.

The Easter Rabbit was originally a hare. We do not know why the name changes from hare to rabbit but I guess that rabbit catches on much faster. I would say the origin of Easter started in Germany where the Easter Rabbit is associated with the Easter eggs to celebrate the arrival of Spring. German children build nests out of leaves, moss and grass and place them in their garden. They believe that during the night of Easter, the rabbit will fill their home made nests with multi-coloured eggs. These children will exchange presents wrapped up like Easter eggs on the day itself.

There is also the custom of the Easter Tree in Germany. People pierce the easter eggs at both ends and blow the white and yolks from one hole out the other. The shell is then decorated in different colours and hung on trees.

In Holland and France, children go from door to door to ask for Easter Eggs. This is similar to the tradition of Halloween's trick or treat. However nowadays, French children only go to the houses of relatives to ask for Easter Eggs. No one knocks on the doors of strangers anymore.

The Orthodox Russians have their eggs blessed in church and cook them for their Easter breakfast.

There are many different legends and myths about Easter. Some people believe that the Easter Eggs have magical powers. Planted at the foot of grape vines, easter eggs have the power to enable the vines to grow more rapidly. Others believe that if the egg is to be buried for a hundred years, the yolk will turn into a diamond.

Some people will wear new clothes for Easter just like how we Chinese wear new clothes for Chinese New Year to bring luck. However, the truth of the matter is, people are just fed up with their old winter clothes and cannot wait to shed them for spring wear! This is just an excuse for revamping wardrobes! Haha. Lively spring colours replace that of the dull winter and some people believe wearing new clothes on Easter itself will bring luck all year round.

Another tradition that I will very much like to participate is to taste the hot cross buns of Good Friday! It is an English tradition and sad to say, hot cross buns are only available in England. Sob. Ok, maybe we can find them in certain parts of France but definitely not Normandy. Double sob. Remember the nursery song we sang in kindergarten "Hot cross buns"? It's funny how we can sing about something which we had absolutely no idea how it tastes like. It is a brioche which is a sweet bun which is only available during this time of the year. A cross is marked on the top of the bun and last time, people believe that eating hot cross buns will keep them in good health for the whole year.

In certain parts of England, people dance on the streets on Easter Sunday. They are the "Morris dancers" who dress themselves in white shirts, black pants, huge red belts, straw hats with streamers hanging down the rim. When they dance, the streamers fly in the wind, same goes for the red and green ribbons tied around their knees. They must be a pretty cool sight to behold indeed.

In Scandinavian countries like Finland and Sweden, children celebrate Easter in their own particular fashison. They draw witches on pieces of paper and write their wishes on them. Then they dress up as witches and go around distributing their home made cards to their friends. Firecrackers are set off all throughout the street as the children go around their card distribution, to scare away devils or other bad beings.

Interesting eh? All these traditions. All this knowledge is courtesy of the handout given to me during French class. So this is how colourful Easter can actually be. Happy Easter one and all!

Labels: easter

11:10 am　うまい！Y