EASTER FESTIVAL

The Easter Festival is an ancient tradition in the Lavanttal, so also in Carinthia. The Easter Week starts with the ordination of the Palm-Bushes on Palm-Sunday. Palmbushes are built on the “Palmweekend” and the watted grips are a typical sign for the Lavanttal. At the present day very big Palmbushes are made and carried by lots of younger boys.

On Holy Thursday Easter-eggs are dyed in different colours. The Good-Friday is a strict fast-day.

The first procedure on Holy-Saturday is the so called “swam-consecration”. It starts very early in the morning. With these swams of former times the fire in the stores was light up.

Another traditional act is the blessing of the “Easter-meals”. In the basket with the blessed meals you can find Easter-ham, Easter-sausage, dyed eggs and the “Carinthian Reindling”. The Easter-meal-blessing takes place not only in churches but also at chapels or wayside shrines.

After the resurrection-celebration of Jesus the “Easter-fires” are sparked at about 10 pm. You can see these burning fires on the slopes of Koralpe and Saualpe. This kind of custom has its roots in the besieging of the Turks.

On Holy-Sundays morning the Easter Bunny brings the gifts and the visit of a fair is for many families a part of the tradition of Eastern.