Semana Santa vs. Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holy Week (Semana Santa)! Since I didn't have a chance to talk about Easter in the U.S., I thought I could share some info with you all now...how does that sound?

Well, this last Sunday (April 24th) was Easter and in the states it's celebrated very different than here in Spain. First of all, "Holy Week," which is Semana Santa, doesn't exist in the states. So this year was the first time I had ever celebrated Holy Week and seen processions from it  (and they were beautiful!). We do have a week of vacations (only for students) but it's not to celebrate any holiday, only to have a break for the schools- it's called Spring Break. Second, Easter is only one day, Sunday. It's not really celebrated at all other than that day. Let me go ahead and explain how exactly we celebrate Easter Sunday...

Each family celebrates differently but there are some similarities between many families. The most important thing that everyone does is go to church. Many people don't go to church the rest of the year but EVERYONE goes on Easter Sunday. Church only last about an hour or two and then the rest of the day is usually spent with the family. Many families have a special dinner together and do other activities with the family. Some fun activites include dying hard-boiled eggs, decorating cookies with a "Easter theme," and doing Easter egg hunts. Almost all families with children ALWAYS do an Easter egg hunt and even sometimes adults do it for fun- I just did one 2 years ago with a friend! In case you don't know what an easter egg hunt is, it's where one person (or more) hides eggs all over the house (inside or out) or park area. Then all the children (or adults) go and search for the eggs. Usually the eggs are plastic with candy or toys inside but sometimes people use decorated hard-boiled eggs too. The person that collects the most eggs wins a prize (there are also usually second place and third place prizes as well). This is a very fun activity for everyone!

One other very important thing about Easter are "Easter baskets." These are colorful baskets that children receive and they're filled with chocolate bunnies, hard-boiled eggs, toys, jelly beans and other goodies. This is another very important part of Easter but is mostly for kids.

Those are the most important parts of Easter in the U.S. and obviously VERY different from the celebrations in Spain (and the rest of the world for that matter). Let me know if you have any questions. I have had a lot of fun being able to see how Easter week is celebrated here and learn about all the traditions that I didn't know about! Even with all the rain, it has been very fun. Happy Easter everyone!