If you’re travelling over the upcoming Easter break, some destinations can provide more than just chocolate eggs at supermarkets.
Kevin Leung, British Airways’ Commercial Manager for Ghana and Kenya, said that in Germany, the Oberammergau Passion Play has been performed in the Bavarian village of the same name every 10 years since 1634.
The play, which depicts the life, death and resurrection of Christ will next be staged 2020, so in the meantime Petrie recommends a few other destinations, some quirkier than others.
Celebrations of resurrection, rebirth and renewal at Easter-time predate Christianity and were marked across ancient cultures in Europe and the Middle East.
Traditions like welcoming the return of the sun after a dark, cold Northern Hemisphere winter segued into Easter sunrise services and were co-opted and adopted by Christianity as it spread.
Other elements of those celebrations are still with us today, like Hot Cross buns, Easter rabbits and Easter-eggs, all universal symbols of fertility. Eggs have a special place in Haux, France too: around 5 000 of them are cooked in 10-foot frying-pans in the town’s square, yielding an omelette to feed around a thousand people who tuck in with gusto.
British Airways flies from ORTIA to Paris via London Heathrow daily.
If you like your Easter with a dash of multiculturalism, snorkelling and cocktails containing rum, tropical fruit and paper umbrellas, you need to visit Mauritius, which has earned its place as a favourite for holidays.
It’s the epitome of a tropical paradise, with warm, clear seas that offer superb seafood and water-sports, which beckon as seductively as ever on this vibrant island. But the island is rich in its unique cultural mix including – Creole, Franco-Mauritian, Sino-Mauritian amongst others – and its diverse religions, including Hinduism, Tamils, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, mean there’s no official faith as such.
So while there’s a profusion of churches, mosques and temples of all sorts, there’s also tolerance for a variety of faiths as well as those who choose to have none.
British Airways (operated by Comair) flies to Mahé weekly.
Scandinavia: if you like Nordic Noir, the genre of crime fiction, that includes Stieg Larsson, Peter Høeg, Jo Nesbø, then Easter is a good time to be in Norway for Easter-Crime, the country’s annual, nationwide celebration of crime novels. This craze has also spread to radio and television (the latter may have subtitles but if not, you’ll need to ask a local for translation) and you will be surprised to even find clues and puzzles on milk-cartons.
In Denmark, you can also take a walking tour of Copenhagen to trace the steps of Sarah Lund, the detective central to the television series The Killing.
Elsewhere in the region, in Finland, Easter is a bit like Halloween elsewhere, with children dressing as witches and wandering the streets for treats.
It’s not related to crime fiction, but it’s loads of fun. A bonus is that springtime in Scandinavia sees temperatures moving above freezing, with longer days and greenery sprouting.
- British Airways flies to several Sandinavian destinations via London Heathrow.
In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Easter is marked by gently whipping women with twigs or dousing them with water. Apparently this predates the recent titillation of EL James’s 50 Shades of Grey, but to avoid any misunderstandings, it’s best to ask for permission before joining in, recommends Petrie.
- British Airways flies to Tblisi via London Heathrow.
Source: British Airways
