In the weeks before Easter, German front gardens fill up with decorated branches, shop windows with chocolate bunnies, and bakeries with sweet plaited bread. Then comes a long weekend with two public holidays, closed shops, and children searching the garden for hidden eggs on Sunday morning.
Here are the words for the eggs and the bunny, for the days of the long weekend, and for wishing people a happy Easter, plus what's open and what isn't.
The Easter Days
Easter
Ostern
Palm Sunday
der Palmsonntag
Maundy Thursday
der Gründonnerstag
Good Friday
der Karfreitag
Holy Saturday
der Karsamstag
Easter Sunday
der Ostersonntag
Easter Monday
der Ostermontag
Easter holidays
die Osterferien
Lent
die Fastenzeit
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Ostern
Gründonnerstag isn't really about the colour green. The name probably comes from an old word, greinen, "to weep". Even so, many families eat something green that day: spinach with eggs, or in Frankfurt the herb sauce Grüne Soße.
Easter moves. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, so it falls between 22 March and 25 April. School holidays are set around it, usually for two weeks, with dates that differ by state.
Eggs, Bunnies and Decorations
Easter egg
das Osterei
Easter bunny
der Osterhase
Easter nest
das Osternest
to dye eggs
Eier färben
to paint eggs
Eier bemalen
egg hunt
die Ostereiersuche
chocolate bunny
der Schokohase
Easter branches with hanging eggs
der Osterstrauß
daffodil
die Osterglocke
lamb
das Lamm
chick
das Küken
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das Osterei
The Osterhase, the Easter hare, brings the eggs and hides them, and children search for them on Easter Sunday morning, in the garden or around the flat. The eggs go into an Osternest, a little basket or nest of grass.
Osterstrauß: a vase of bare branches, often willow or forsythia, hung with painted eggs. Some people decorate a whole tree in the garden, the Ostereierbaum.
Easter Food
plaited sweet bread
der Osterzopf / der Hefezopf
lamb-shaped cake
das Osterlamm
roast lamb
der Lammbraten
boiled eggs
gekochte Eier
egg tapping
das Eierpecken / das Eiertitschen
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der Osterzopf / der Hefezopf
Eierpecken is the Easter breakfast game: two people knock their boiled eggs together, tip to tip, and whoever's egg stays whole wins. Every region has its own name for it.
Happy Easter
Happy Easter!
Frohe Ostern!
Have a lovely Easter!
Schöne Ostern!
Have a lovely Easter weekend!
Schöne Osterfeiertage!
I wish you a happy Easter.
Ich wünsche dir ein frohes Osterfest.
Happy Easter to you all!
Frohe Ostern euch allen!
Same to you!
Dir auch! / Ihnen auch!
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Frohe Ostern!
Ostern is plural in wishes: Frohe Ostern, not Frohes Ostern. In some regions people say Fröhliche Ostern, which means the same.
At work, Schöne Ostertage! or Schöne Feiertage! on the Thursday before is the usual goodbye.
Easter Traditions Around Germany
- Osterfeuer: in the north and in many villages, big bonfires are lit on Easter Saturday or Sunday evening. The whole village comes, with sausages and beer.
- Osterbrunnen: in Franconia, especially in Fränkische Schweiz, village wells are decorated with garlands and thousands of painted eggs.
- Ostermarkt: some towns hold small Easter markets with crafts and hand-painted eggs, a little like a Christmas market in spring.
- Church: for practising Christians, Easter is the most important festival of the year, with services from Thursday to Sunday, some of them at night.
What's Open Over Easter
| Day | Status |
|---|---|
Gründonnerstag | a normal working day; schools are usually on holiday |
Karfreitag | public holiday everywhere; shops closed; a "quiet day" with restrictions on dances and loud events in most states |
Karsamstag | normal Saturday; shops open and very busy |
Ostersonntag | Sunday; shops closed |
Ostermontag | public holiday everywhere; shops closed |
Tip: do the big supermarket shop by Thursday. On Saturday, supermarkets are as full as before Christmas, and the next chance is Tuesday.
Karfreitag is quiet. Most states have a Tanzverbot on Good Friday: no dance parties, and in some states no loud music in pubs. The rules differ from state to state.