Easter in Saxony between festive tradition and peace march

Egg hunts, church services, peace marches: Saxony celebrates Easter - as a Christian festival and as a spring festival. While music and prayer commemorate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, children look forward to Easter egg hunts and families to excursions into nature - and in the face of wars and crises, it's Easter march time:

CHURCHES: Numerous services and concerts are traditionally held in around 1,700 Protestant and Catholic churches. In addition to Easter bonfires, there are Easter masses where Christians gather early on Sunday mornings in churches that are still dark and light the Easter candles - and often also organize Easter breakfasts. In the Zittau Mountains, the traditional Ecumenical Easter Vigil takes place on Mount Oybin. Easter water is also collected, especially in the countryside, and the Easter Vigil is a popular baptism date for adults, for example in Dresden's Frauenkirche.

MUSIC: The Dresden Kreuzchor expects thousands of visitors to attend performances of the St. John Passion, Easter Vespers as well as the Candlemas and Mettenspiel at the Easter Vigil. The St. Thomas Boys Choir in Leipzig's St. Thomas Church will perform Bach's Easter Oratorio and sing the Easter Mass.

MUSEUMS: Easter egg art can be found in Dresden's Museum of Saxon Folk Art, where you can also look over the shoulders of the creators of the creations amidst decorated Easter bouquets. At Rochlitz Castle, you can find out whether the knights of old were also looking for Easter eggs. The Sorbian Museum in Bautzen also provides an insight into special decorating techniques and displays the most beautiful Sorbian Easter eggs of the year.

CULTURE: In Catholic Lusatia, the settlement area of the Sorbs, the Easter message is traditionally also proclaimed from horseback. According to an old custom, around 1,500 men in tailcoats and top hats parade on horseback, singing and praying to the sound of bells from their home church around the fields to the next village.

During the Bautzen Egg Rolling, the Eierjokel throws colorful balls on the Protzschenberg, which children in the valley can catch and exchange for small gifts - just as wealthy citizens once rolled hard-boiled eggs, fruit or nuts down the steep slope to the Spree for poor children.

FREIZE: From "knights' spectacles" to Easter geochaching, there is something for families and children. Easter markets in Meißen, Schwarzenberg and Rammenau offer the opportunity to stroll, do handicrafts and play. Animal fun is guaranteed with the Easter rally and chick hatching at Dresden Zoo or dung cart races and shark tooth searches at Görlitz-Zgorzelec Zoo.

OSTERFEUER: According to old custom, wood or brushwood is collected in many places, piled up and lit to form a large Easter bonfire. These must be registered and approved, and are usually supervised by local fire departments - parishes usually use fire baskets on a paved surface for this.

Egg HUNT: You can look for eggs at Königstein Fortress, in Kleinwelka Dinosaur Park or in castles such as Rammenau and Moritzburg. At Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen, the Easter Bunny will surprise you, and at Weesenstein he challenges you to a scavenger hunt. And the Weißeritz and Lößnitzgrund railroads are steaming through the valleys as the Easter Bunny Express.

DEMONSTRATIONS: Many people use the holidays to demonstrate for peace and disarmament. So far, six Easter marches in Chemnitz, Plauen, Leipzig, Kamenz and Dresden - for a world without wars, against rearmament and social cuts.