I love Easter. It’s a beautiful and colourful time to spend with family. Best of all, it’s filled with divine and delicious chocolatey goodies, which is why it’s so important to me that our Easter range truly captures the spirit of Easter. In order for me to do that I need to understand what Easter means to different people, not just in South Africa, but across the globe.

So, I set out to find out more about how different cultures celebrate Easter. What I found was so mesmerising I just had to share some of the rituals with my fellow chocolate fanatics.

Sweden

Children can be seen dressed as witches and wearing colourful headscarves. They go from house to house to trade paintings for sweets. For brunch, you’ll find a table laid out with pickled herring, cured salmon and a potato dish, Jansson’s Temptation. It also won’t be strange if you find spiced schnapps served during the meal.

France

Easter celebrations are approached with complete enthusiasm in France. Shops are beautifully decorated with white and dark chocolate icons such as rabbits, chickens, fish and bells. On Easter Sunday, children wake up early hoping that the decorated nests they put out in the garden will be replaced by bright and beautiful eggs.

Russia

This is a devoted time of year in Russia. Church congregations will hold sermons throughout the Saturday night, and on Easter Sunday the whole community will feast together. One of the traditional cakes you’ll find at these feasts are kulich, a sweet yeast-risen bread, which is accompanied by paskha that’s made of cottage cheese, butter, dried fruit and vanilla.

Canada

To say a lot of effort goes into Easter celebrations in Canada is a total understatement. They have several traditions such as Easter egg hunts and Easter egg decorations. Although decorating eggs are a fun pastime for the kids at school, Canada is also the world record holder for the largest Easter egg in the world. It was created by a computer scientist, Professor Ronald Resch, in 1975. It is a giant jigsaw puzzle and has 524 stars and 1 108 equilateral triangles (a triangle where all three sides are equal).

Argentina

Staying with the tradition of Easter eggs, the biggest ever edible Easter egg was built in Argentina in 2012. This divine chocolate wonder weighed over 4 tons. That is over 4 tons of chocolate! It took 27 bakeries two whole weeks to construct, and it stood over 8.5 meters tall.

So, if you’re looking for chocolate nibbles or decadent eggs for an Easter egg hunt, our superb Beyers Chocolates Easter products are available at major retailers nationwide, our online store and our factory stores.

I also invite you, as a South African, to visit our social pages and share how you celebrate Easter.

Happy Easter to everyone,

Kees Beyers

References: ILoveIndia.com, Happy Kitchen, Wikipedia and Daily Mail