![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sweden's Easter Witches
Apr. 10th, 2009 03:58 pmI find it pretty amusing that the day after I made a post asking how other people celebrate Easter, I stumbled across one of the world's wackiest Easter traditions.
Easter witches.
As mentioned, I'm in Sweden on holiday right now. We're out in the middle of nowhere in a place called Feringe, between Vittaryd and Ljungby. And yesterday, while making my way back home from the store, I spotted a group of girls all dressed up as witches. They even carried broomsticks and were pretending to fly. I found it rather odd, but brushed it off as a case of 'weird things kids do'.
Turns out it's part of the Swedish Easter celebrations.
It's said to come from an old belief that witches would fly off to a German mountain the Thursday before Easter to go dance with the devil.
The kids carry around branches of Goat Willow which they've decorated with colourful feathers. They ring doorbells and hand out the branches in exchange for some candy, it's kind of like a mini-Halloween. What a fun tradition!
Easter witches.
As mentioned, I'm in Sweden on holiday right now. We're out in the middle of nowhere in a place called Feringe, between Vittaryd and Ljungby. And yesterday, while making my way back home from the store, I spotted a group of girls all dressed up as witches. They even carried broomsticks and were pretending to fly. I found it rather odd, but brushed it off as a case of 'weird things kids do'.
Turns out it's part of the Swedish Easter celebrations.
It's said to come from an old belief that witches would fly off to a German mountain the Thursday before Easter to go dance with the devil.
The kids carry around branches of Goat Willow which they've decorated with colourful feathers. They ring doorbells and hand out the branches in exchange for some candy, it's kind of like a mini-Halloween. What a fun tradition!
