United
States, Canada, UK, and Australia
Throughout North America, Australia and parts of
the UK, the Easter holiday has been partially secularized, so that some families
participate only in the attendant revelry, central to which is (traditionally)
decorating Easter eggs on Saturday evening and hunting for them Sunday morning,
by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden.
Chocolate eggs have largely supplanted decorated eggs in Australia.
In North America, eggs and other treats are
delivered and hidden by the Easter Bunny in an Easter basket which children find
waiting for them when they wake up. Many families in America will attend Sunday
Mass or services in the morning and then participate in a feast or party in the
afternoon.
In the UK and US children still color eggs, but
most British people simply exchange chocolate eggs on the Sunday. Chocolate
Easter Bunnies can be found in shops, but the idea is considered primarily a US
import. Many families have a traditional Sunday roast, particularly roast lamb,
and eat foods like , a fruit cake with eleven marzipan balls representing the
eleven faithful apostles. Hot cross buns, spiced buns with a cross on top, are
traditionally associated with Good Friday, but today are eaten through Holy Week
and the Easter period. In the north of England and the north of Ireland, the
tradition of rolling decorated eggs down steep hills is still adhered to.
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