Every Day Is Special: April 2

April 2 – Easter Monday

Posted on April 2, 2018

Okay, so a year ago, I was trying to plan a springtime visit to Europe around my daughter's show schedule, so I could be sure to see her show in Leipzig, Germany, during the trip.

It turned out that that meant I was in Eastern Europe during the Easter holidays. Which I hadn't really thought out, because, in many places in Europe:

Good Friday is a big-time holiday, AND

Easter Sunday is a big-time holiday, AND

Easter Monday is a big-time holiday!

Ummm...three of the first four days I was in Europe, a lot of places were closed. And some places were also closed on the Saturday in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday...because, why not?

I ended up having a really splendid time, anyway, and I didn't miss a thing I'd planned on doing or seeing - so "all good"! But I thought it was interesting that things were so shut down that weekend, because I always hear that Europe is less religious than the U.S., and that Eastern Europe is especially less religious than the U.S....and yet, most places in the U.S. aren't closed down for half a week at Easter time!

How do people celebrate Easter Monday?

Easter Monday is celebrated in many places all over the world. It is often just a day of rest and recovery, sort of like the day after Christmas being a holiday in many places.

In some places, there are parades or solemn religious processions on Easter Monday. In Sydney, Australia, there is a parade and family day at a park.

In Guyana, Easter Monday is a traditional day to fly kites!

In the U.S., a popular tradition is the White House Easter Egg Roll; to learn more, click the link below.

In some places, it's a great day to go outside - but not necessarily to watch a parade, fly a kite, or roll eggs. It can be a good day just to enjoy the beginnings of spring (or, in the Southern Hemisphere, the beginnings of autumn). Picnicking is big in Portugal and Italy, on Easter Monday, and hiking after a big holiday breakfast is common in the Netherlands.

Hopefully, the beginnings of spring are warm, because an old Hungarian tradition is for men to dunk their wives or girlfriends into water. It's even called Dunking Day! In some places, "dunking" becomes buckets of water sloshed onto loved ones - hence the name "Wet Monday." And in Poland,

it's sometimes called Splash Monday or Dyngus Day (to learn more, click the Dyngus Day link below).