Children in the United States and Canada say the Easter bunny or rabbit brings eggs at Easter.
In Germany and England, they say the hare brings them.
The hare looks like a rabbit, but it's larger, with longer ears and legs.
In Australia, rabbits are quite a nuisance as they are not native to the land.
For this reason, there is an attempt being made to dub the Bilby as the the chief egg bringer of the land.
For lack of a better description, the Bilby looks a bit like a cross between a mouse and a rabbit.
そして、ここまでくれば、ついでに私の大好きなフランスまで飛びましょう。
In Italy, Belgium and France, children say Easter eggs are brought by the church bells.
There, church bells do not ring from Good Friday until Easter Sunday.
Because of this, people say that the bells have flown off to Rome.
As the bells fly back home for Easter, they drop colored eggs for boys and girls to find.
はぁ~♪ ヨーロッパの香りがしますねぇ。
The church bellsがローマに飛んでしまうなんて!Easterにたまごと共に戻ってくると。
やはりたまごは不可欠なわけですよねぇ。生命の象徴ですものねぇ。ふむふむ。
People in Russia eat an Easter bread that is full of plump white raisins and tastes like cake.
In some countries of Eastern Europe, people enjoy an Easter Cake called babka.
It's shaped like a skirt -- babka means "little old woman".
Easter cakes in Italy are shaped like a rabbit, which is a symbol of birth and new life
and many other countries make cookies and cakes shaped like a lamb, a symbol of Jesus.
Hot cross buns are another traditional Easter bread with icing in the shape of a cross
私も子供の頃からマザー・グースの唄の
「Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns, One a penny, Two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns♪」というフレーズを聴くたびに、このふっくらした
十字飾りのついたパンを想像して楽しい気分になったものです。
この歌詞は、19世紀ロンドンの物売りの口上がもとになっているとか。
参考資料
イギリスの祝祭日
UK NOW
http://www.uknow.or.jp/
Yahoo UK & Ireland
****************
イギリスのイースター
Easter in England
Learn about England and her culture from children who live there
Easter is the time for holidays, festivals and a time for giving chocolate Easter eggs. But Easter means much more. It is the oldest and the most important Christian Festival, the celebration of the death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ. For Christians, the dawn of Easter Sunday with its message of new life is the high point of the year.
Holy Week is the week leading up to Easter, commemorating events in the last days of Christ's life. The first day of Holy Week is Palm Sunday.
Good Friday Easter Saturday Easter Day
Origins of Easter Easter Resources for Teachers
【When is Easter?】
Easter usually comes in the month of April. It is what is called a 'moveable feast' because the date of it is fixed according to the moon. Easter Sunday has to be the first Sunday following the full moon, after the Spring equinox - the Paschal Full Moon . This means that Easter can fall as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.
In 2005, Easter Sunday is on March 27th.
Origins of Easter
Like most Christian festivals, Easter has its origins in pre-Christian times. Our ancestors believed that the sun died in winter and was born anew in spring. The arrival of spring was celebrated all over the world long before the religious meaning became associated with Easter. Today, Easter celebrates the rebirth of Christ.
Different Gods were thanked for bringing the Earth back to life. The word Easter is thought to have derived from the goddess Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon Goddess.
Even though Easter is associated with Spring here in England, it is not so in countries in the southern hemisphere. In these countries Easter falls near the end of autumn. However, through out the world Easter is felt to be a time of new life and new beginnings because of Jesus' rebirth.
Easter starts with Good Friday.
【Good Friday (Holy Friday)】
Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday. On this day, Christians remember the day when Jesus was crucified on a cross.
Jesus was arrested and was tried, in a mock trial. He was handed over to the Roman soldiers to be beaten and flogged with whips. A crown of long, sharp thorns was thrust upon his head.
Jesus was forced to carry his own cross outside the city to Skull Hill. He was so weak after the beating that a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was pulled from the crowd and forced to carry Jesus' cross the rest of the way.
Jesus was nailed to the cross. Two other criminals were crucified with him, their crosses were on either side of him. A sign above Jesus read "The King of the Jews." This took place at approximately 9am Friday morning.
Christians believe that Jesus stood in our place. His death paid the penalty not for his own wrong doings but for ours.
It is traditional to eat warm 'hot cross buns' on Good Friday. Hot Cross Buns with their combination of spicy, sweet and fruity flavors have long been an Easter tradition. The pastry cross on top of the buns symbolises and reminds Christians of the cross that Jesus was killed on.
The buns were traditionally eaten at breakfast time.They were once sold by street vendors who sang a little song about them.
"Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns."
【Good Friday Superstitions / beliefs:】
Many fishermen will not set out for catch on Good Friday.
Bread or cakes baked on this day would not go mouldy.
The planting of crops is not advised on this day, as an old belief says that no iron should enter the ground (i.e. spade, fork etc.).
Hot cross buns baked on Good Friday were supposed to have magical powers. It is said that you could keep a hot cross bun which had been made on Good Friday for at least a year and it wouldn't go mouldy.
Hardened old hot cross buns were supposed to protect the house from fire
Sailors took them to sea with them to prevent shipwreck.
A bun baked on Good Friday and left to get hard could be grated up and put in some warm milk and this was supposed to stop an upset tummy.
【Easter Saturday (Holy Saturday) 】
Easter Saturday is also known as Holy Saturday, Easter Even and the Great Sabbath. The term "Easter Even" was used by the 1549 Prayer Book. The 1979 BCP uses the title "Holy Saturday" for the Saturday before Easter (p. 283).
It is the Saturday before Easter, the last day of Lent and is the day when Christ's body lay in His Tomb. In the early church Holy Saturday was a day of fasting and preparation for the Easter Vigil.
【Easter Vigil】
dating back to at least the Roman times, takes place on Holy Saturday. It is celebrated by the use of a wax candle which is inscribed with a cross. The letters alpha and omega are inscribed at the top and bottom and the four numbers representing the current year are inscribed above and below the cross arms. Five grains representing the wounds of Christ are sometimes pushed into the soft wax.
【Holy Saturday】
is also often incorrectly called Easter Saturday, a term that correctly refers to the following Saturday after Easter.
【Easter Sunday】
Easter Day is the high point of the festival. A day of parties, gift-giving and above all a celebration that Jesus rose from the dead and lives forever. The traditional Easter gift is a chocolate egg.
Christians gather together on Easter Sunday for a Sunrise Service. This service takes place on a hill side so everyone can see the sun rise.
Eggs play an important part in Easter.
【Why Do We Give Easter Eggs? 】
For Christians, Easter eggs symbolise new life. They believe that, through his resurrection, Jesus defeated death and sin and offers people the promise of eternal life if they follow his teachings. Eggs have been a symbol of continuing life and resurrection since pre-Christian spring celebrations.
Eggs had a religious significance in many ancient civilisations; Egyptians buried eggs in their tombs as did the Greeks; A Roman proverb states, "All life comes from an egg". It’s probably no surprise that Christianity should also adopt the egg to symbolise the resurrection of Christ.
【Easter Presents 】
Chocolate eggs are given to children. The eggs are either hollow or have a filling, and are usually covered with brightly coloured silver paper.
Small chocolate eggs are hidden for the children to find on the traditional Easter Egg Hunt.
Around 80 million chocolate eggs are eaten each year in Britain.
【Pace Egging】
All kinds of fun are had with the hard-boiled decorated pace eggs.
Decorating and colouring eggs for Easter was a common custom in England in the middle ages. Eggs were brightly coloured to mimic the new, fresh colours of spring. The practice of decorating eggs was made even more famous by King Edward I of England who ordered 450 eggs to be gold-leafed and coloured for Easter gifts in 1290.
Egg rolling is the most popular and is an Easter Monday sport. Hard-boiled eggs are rolled down a hill. Customs differ from place to place. The winner's egg may be the one that rolls the farthest, survives the most rolls, or is rolled between two pegs.
Another activity that happens is the playing of a game with the eggs known as "jarping", which is rather like conkers. Each person holds a pace egg firmly in his hand and knocks it against his opponent's to see which is the strongest and which egg can score the most victims.
【Easter cards】
Easter cards arrived in Victorian England, when a stationer added a greeting to a drawing of a rabbit. The cards proved popular.
出典:Special Days in Britain
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/holidays.html