Spring is one of the most spiritually and culturally rich seasons on the calendar. Across the world, families celebrate this time of year with traditions rooted in faith, community, and renewal that accompany the beginning of longer days and warmer weather. For many Christian families in the U.S., the seasonal themes of renewal and rebirth center on Easter and the Resurrection of Christ. And while the Resurrection is an important part of the Christian faith, the way it’s celebrated varies enormously from country to country and household to household.
Whether your family observes Easter religiously, celebrates it secularly, or simply appreciates the season of change, learning about Easter traditions around the world offers children an early understanding that people express their faith in different, and equally valid, ways.
Discover Easter traditions around the world and how to talk to your kids about cultural awareness.
Easter in Italy
In Italy, Easter (“Pasqua”) is one of the most important holidays of the year, celebrated with deep religious devotion and an abundance of food. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday processions through city streets and villages, where locals carry olive branches in place of the tropical palms used elsewhere. Good Friday is observed solemnly, with candlelit processions reenacting the Stations of the Cross in towns and cities across the country.
Easter Sunday itself is a joyful occasion centered on family. The traditional Easter meal is a long, celebratory affair often featuring lamb, artichokes, and colomba, a dove-shaped sweet bread that symbolizes peace and resurrection. Children receive large chocolate eggs, often with a small gift or toy hidden inside, a tradition that has spread well beyond Italy’s borders.
In Florence, Easter Sunday also brings one of Italy’s most spectacular traditions: the Scoppio del Carro, or “Explosion of the Cart.” A centuries-old ceremony that takes place between the Baptistery of San Giovanni and the famous Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, in which the archbishop lights a dove-shaped rocket that slides along a wire to ignite a decorated cart filled with fireworks. If the fireworks light successfully, it’s considered a good omen for the harvest ahead.
For families hosting an Italian au pair, Easter is a wonderful opportunity to bring some of the traditions to life at home. Ask your au pair how their family celebrates and encourage them to share a cherished recipe or their favorite regional custom. These small moments are exactly what cultural exchange looks like in practice, and it’s an excellent way to sow the seeds of cultural awareness in your children.
Semana Santa in Spain & Latin America
In Spain, the week leading up to Easter—Semana Santa, or Holy Week—is one of the most dramatic and visually striking religious observances in the world, with elaborate processions filling the streets of cities like Seville, Málaga, and Granada each day and night.
Participants carry enormous, ornately decorated floats bearing sculptures of the Virgin Mary and scenes from the Passion of Christ, and members of religious brotherhoods, called cofradías, march in long robes and tall pointed hoods. The processions are accompanied by marching bands playing solemn music, and crowds line the streets to watch in respectful silence, or to sing a spontaneous flamenco lament called a saeta to the passing float. It’s truly something to behold, an event that leaves an impact on all the senses that is not soon forgotten: the resinous scent of frankincense and myrrh incense, the flicker of candlelight and the striking vestments, and the sobering calls of drums echoing through cobblestone streets where these traditions have been held for centuries.
Brought to Latin America by Spanish colonizers, Semana Santa is still widely celebrated in Central and South America, with many countries weaving their own cultural traditions and local character. In Guatemala, elaborate carpets of colored sawdust and flowers are laid in the streets for the processions to pass over. In Mexico, dramatic reenactments of the Passion are held in cities across the country, including the 180-year-old UNESCO-recognized tradition in Iztapalapa, which alone draws millions of spectators every year.
For families in U.S. cities with large Catholic and Hispanic communities, local Holy Week processions or Easter parades may be closer than you’d expect. And for those hosting an au pair from Spain or Latin America, Semana Santa is a natural conversation starter—an opportunity for your children to learn about a fascinating cultural tradition from someone who grew up with it.
Orthodox Easter Traditions
For the millions of Orthodox Christians around the world, concentrated in Greece, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Ethiopia, and beyond, Orthodox Easter, or “Pascha,” is the most sacred holiday of the year. It often falls on a different day than Western Easter celebrations as Orthodox churches follow the Julian calendar, while Roman Catholic and Protestant churches follow the Gregorian calendar.
In Greece, the Easter midnight service is the emotional heart of the celebration. On the evening of Holy Saturday, churches fill to capacity and spill out into the street. At midnight, the lights of the church are extinguished, and the hushed crowds pass a single flame (representing the Holy Light) from person to person through the congregation, until the entire church glows with candlelight. The moment is greeted with the joyful proclamation “Christos Anesti!” (meaning “Christ is Risen!”) and the response “Alithos Anesti!” (“Truly He is Risen!”). After the service, families come together for a late-night feast of lamb soup called magiritsa to break the Lenten fast.
In Russia, Ukraine, and other Slavic countries, pysanky, elaborately decorated Easter eggs, are a beloved tradition that merges religion and art in a beautiful display. Each egg is hand-painted with intricate geometric and floral patterns using a unique wax-resist method that’s been passed down through generations, creating a final product that resembles some masterful work of pottery. After their midnight service, families bring baskets laden with bread, eggs, sausage, and cake to be blessed by the priest before sitting down together for the Easter feast.
Whether celebrated in a candlelit Greek church or around a table laden with blessed food in Russia, Orthodox Easter is a profound reminder of how faith and community intertwine across cultures.
Secular vs. Religious: Having an Honest Conversation with Your Kids
Not every family observes Easter the same way. For some, it’s a deeply religious occasion rooted in the Resurrection; for others, it’s a secular seasonal celebration of spring, marked by egg hunts, bright colors, and candy. Even among devout Christian families, observance varies widely—Lent, the 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and reflection leading up to Easter, looks different from household to household and culture to culture. During this period, some families abstain from meat and alcohol while others may make few, if any, changes to their lifestyle. Regardless of where your family falls on that spectrum, it’s important to give children the opportunity to understand and respect that difference and approach others’ traditions with curiosity rather than judgment.
When talking to your children about spring religious holidays, a few principles go a long way:
- Be honest about what your family believes and why, while making clear that other families believe differently, and that those differences are worth understanding, not discounting. Encourage them to ask questions and answer them as best as you can.
- Frame all religious traditions as worthy, regardless of personal faith. The Resurrection story, the significance of Passover, and the observance of Ramadan are each part of the world’s cultural and spiritual heritage, and children who understand them are better equipped to connect with the people around them.
- Let curiosity lead the way. Encourage them to ask questions about faith and to learn more about various religious traditions. Doing so can help children grow into adults who engage thoughtfully and respectfully with all types of belief systems—global citizens who can have honest, culturally sensitive discussions with anyone, regardless of their beliefs.
Teaching Respect for Different Beliefs
Teaching children about Easter globally is an excellent way to help them develop respect for different beliefs. Holidays are especially relatable—children everywhere understand the excitement of a special day, a shared meal, and a family gathered together—so starting from that common ground can make it much easier to explore any distinctions. Then, as their curiosity grows, you can use that foundation to open up conversations about other holidays, faiths, and traditions from around the world.
Here are a few simple ways to bring this learning to life at home:
- Set the example. As a parent, you are your child’s first role model, and the most powerful thing you can do is lead by example. If your children see you approaching unfamiliar beliefs and traditions with genuine curiosity and openness, they’ll learn to do the same.
- Introduce them to art from other cultures. Art is one of the simplest and most impactful ways to expose a child to new cultures. Start with what they already love—movies, music, and storybooks—and let curiosity take it from there. Paddington Bear is a charming introduction to British culture; Studio Ghibli films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service offer a window into the richness of Japanese storytelling; and for older children, the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales open a door into the spooky side of German folklore.
- Cook dishes from around the world. Food is one of the best entry points into another culture, and children are often more open to new ideas when there’s something delicious on the table. Make a habit of trying recipes from different countries together; it’s hard not to feel warmly toward a culture that just introduced you to your new favorite dish!
- Host an au pair. Hosting an au pair is one of the most exciting ways to teach respect for different beliefs—it allows your children to see how various holidays are celebrated firsthand. And because au pairs come to the U.S. with different backgrounds, traditions, and sometimes different faiths, cultural differences will become naturally woven into your family’s daily life. Your children might learn about Semana Santa from someone who grew up watching the processions or discover how a devout Irish Catholic observes Lent.
Incorporating some of these practices into your family’s daily life can make a lasting difference in how your children see the world, and hosting an au pair brings all of them together naturally.
Bring the world to your home—host an au pair with Au Pair in America!
Spring religious holidays, wherever they’re observed and however they’re celebrated, share something in common: they’re about renewal, community, and the human impulse to mark the passage of time with meaning and gratitude. Teaching your children to approach these traditions (both familiar and foreign) with curiosity and openness is a gift that will serve them for a lifetime—and few experiences make that easier than hosting an au pair.
Hosting an au pair is about so much more than flexible live-in childcare. It gives your children a window into a wider world, right from the comfort of home. This spring, let the season be an invitation to learn something new together.
