Colored eggs for Easter decoration

Eggs and rabbits have long been associated with Easter, in Switzerland as elsewhere. And here, like in other countries where Easter has become increasingly commercialised, the origins of this spring festival tend to fade into the background as Good Friday and Easter Monday become a welcome extension to the weekend and a chance to go on a short break.

Chocolate bunnies, coloured eggs and special Easter cakes (Osterfladen) in shop windows serve to remind children weeks before the event that Easter is the time to indulge in these goodies. Easter Sunday often starts off with an Easter-egg hunt, with children combing the house or garden, eager to fill their baskets with what the Easter bunny has left. In this respect, Switzerland is no different from many other European countries or the United States.

However, a number of cantons still have their own special traditions:

In Mendrisio in the southern Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, the locals stage a performance of the Biblical Passion Play, complete with Roman soldiers and horseback trumpeters, on the last Thursday of Lent. This is followed on Good Friday with a much more sombre procession during which two sculptures, one of the dead Christ and one of his mother Mary, are carried through the streets.

• In Romont in western Switzerland, 'weeping women' carry scarlet cushions through the streets bearing the symbols of Christ's passion - such as the nails used in the crucifixion and the crown of thorns that was placed on his head - and the handkerchief which St Veronica used to wipe Christ's brow as he carried the cross and which was miraculously imprinted with the image of his face. The streets of this town in French-speaking Canton Fribourg echo with chants and prayers taken up by believers.
• In Nyon, near Geneva, the town's fountains are decorated with flowers, ribbons and eggs - in line with an old German tradition of celebrating the melting of the snows and the return of water to the fountains.
• In Canton Valais, certain villages observe the old Easter tradition of distributing bread, cheese and wine.
• Lucerne is the venue of the annual Osterfestspiele Easter concerts.
• People passing through the village of Rumendingen, Canton Bern, on Easter Sunday, might be surprised to see people throwing around wooden clubs (Knütteln). This game originated because it was forbidden to indulge in traditional sports on Easter Sunday. It involves the oldest player throwing a club, and the others trying to get their clubs as close as possible.