Easter traditions

Easter week, the last week of Lent, was characterized by silence, seriousness and fear of evil forces. Each day of this week had its own name, and certain customs were associated with it. Maundy Thursday and especially Good Friday were quiet days with a lot of seriousness. No one was allowed to make noise, neither at work nor at play. The evil forces, the witches, had to beware of. Especially on Ash Wednesday evening, when many of them gathered to fly to the witches' sabbath, they were particularly dangerous. Everything of value, both outside and inside, had to be protected from their evil sorcery.

The Lenten meals on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday were in many places nikål, nine kinds of greens, rye flour porridge or egg soup and dirty eggs. Eggs have always been part of Easter. Mother dyed the eggs so that they looked nice on the Easter table, and they were also used as gifts for the servants. The eggs were partly a symbol of fertility, and partly a hen's egg from a black hen could give a special psychic power that could reveal witches.

 

Museum exhibitions

Age-appropriate dialogue-based tour with stories in the exhibitions.

We examine Easter traditions – the meaning of Easter today and in ancient times.

Activity

The students are divided into smaller groups. They work in the kitchen preparing a shared Easter meal. The students make nikål soup on the iron stove, go to the garden and nature to collect herbs, make dirty eggs and collect eggs in the henhouse, bake Shrove Tuesday bread, churn butter, etc. And they work with straw and make witches, they dye eggs with herbs and onion skins and everyone ends the day by visiting the sheepfold, where the spring lambs are jumping around.