193 Fun Facts About Easter

In Germany's Franconia, what is dressed with Easter eggs in the Osterbrunnen tradition?

Wells and fountains are decorated with painted eggs and greenery; the custom began in the early 20th century in Franconian Switzerland, and displays stay up from Good Friday until about two weeks after Easter.

In French tradition, what flies back from Rome on Easter morning, bringing eggs for the children?

Church bells fall silent in France in the days before Easter, and children are told they have flown to Rome; they return on Easter morning scattering eggs and chocolate.

Easter Sunday falls on the first Sunday after what lunar event?

Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, the ecclesiastical full moon falling on or after 21 March, which is why the date can shift by up to five weeks from year to year.

In many cultures, what do Easter eggs symbolize?

Rebirth is the idea, new life hatching from what looks lifeless; eggs were also forbidden through Lent, so Easter brought the first chance to eat them again.

Which poet answered Ireland's 1916 rising with 'Easter, 1916' and its refrain 'A terrible beauty is born'?

W. B. Yeats ends the poem by naming executed leaders, among them John MacBride, a man he despised and calls 'a drunken, vainglorious lout' earlier in the same poem.

Which sweet, spiced fruit bread is traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the UK?

Hot Cross Buns were once so tied to holy days that in 1592 London's Clerk of Markets banned their sale except on Good Friday, at Christmas and for burials.

Which Renaissance artist painted The Last Supper on the wall of a convent dining hall in Milan?

Leonardo da Vinci painted it around 1495 to 1498 at Santa Maria delle Grazie, working in tempera and oil on dry plaster instead of true fresco, which is why it has decayed so badly.

Where in the U.S. is the best-known Easter Parade, famous for its festive bonnets, held each year?

New York City's parade grew out of a 19th-century habit: well-to-do worshippers left Fifth Avenue's churches after Easter services and strolled the avenue to show off new spring outfits.

In John's Gospel, who first sees the risen Jesus, mistaking him for the gardener?

Mary Magdalene recognised him only when he spoke her name; she answered 'Rabboni', teacher, and he sent her to tell the disciples what she had seen.

"Easter" is believed to derive from Eostre, a spring goddess of what ancient culture?

Germanic is the usual answer because the name is Old English and has a cognate in Ôstarmânoth, the Old High German name for the Easter month.

In Britain, which food gives Shrove Tuesday its nickname, as cooks used up eggs and fat before Lent?

Pancakes used up the eggs and fats given up for the Lenten fast, so the last day before Lent became Pancake Day, still marked in British towns with pancake races.

What are the eleven balls on a British simnel cake made of?

Marzipan forms both the eleven balls, one for each apostle except the betrayer, and a layer baked through the middle of the cake.

On Easter Monday in Poland, what do people throw over one another in the Śmigus-dyngus custom?

Water flies on what Poles call lany poniedziałek, Wet Monday; by tradition the boys soaked the girls, who took their turn the next day.

Which composer wrote the music for Jesus Christ Superstar, the 1970 rock opera retelling the Passion?

Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice could not get stage backing at first, so the score came out in 1970 as a concept album and only reached Broadway the following year.

Which decades-long conflict did the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 largely bring to an end?

The Troubles had gripped Northern Ireland since the late 1960s; the deal, reached in Belfast on Good Friday itself, set up a power-sharing government and was backed by referendums that May.

Like Easter, the spring new year festival Nowruz features painted eggs; which culture's festival is it?

Persian families set painted eggs on the Nowruz table as a sign of creation and new life, and one long-repeated account has early Christians borrowing the Easter egg from Persia.

Which tall, sweet yeast cake is a traditional Easter bake in Poland and Ukraine?

Babka is 'little grandmother', supposedly for its skirt-like fluted shape; the braided Jewish babka is a cousin, and the French baba au rhum is thought to descend from it.

Which Roman emperor convened the Council of Nicaea, which ruled that all churches keep Easter on the same day?

Constantine summoned the bishops to Nicaea in 325 and afterwards wrote to the churches urging them to adopt its Easter ruling; the council also drafted the first Nicene Creed.

Which feast falls on a Thursday, the fortieth day of the Easter season?

Ascension Day recalls Jesus being taken up from the Mount of Olives as his disciples watched, until a cloud hid him and two strangers asked why they stood staring at the sky.

The White House Easter Egg Roll began after Congress banned egg rolling at which building?

The Capitol hosted the egg rolling until an 1876 crowd tore up its grass and Congress banned play there; in 1878 Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House grounds instead.

Which marshmallow candy shaped like chicks and bunnies is a popular US Easter treat?

Peeps chicks were piped by hand in 1953 and took 27 hours each to make; mechanised production cut that to about six minutes.

On Easter morning many Christians say 'Christ is risen!'; what is the traditional reply?

He is risen indeed! echoes Luke 24:34, where the disciples report 'The Lord is risen indeed'; the greeting itself repeats the angel's words to the women at the tomb.

What is the main liturgical color for Easter Sunday in many Christian churches?

White is the color of light in church symbolism and stands for joy, so at Easter it replaces the sombre violet worn through the penitential weeks before.

In Sweden and Finland, children go door to door before Easter dressed as which figures?

The custom grows out of the old belief that witches flew on brooms to Blåkulla on the Thursday before Easter to meet the Devil.

What is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when Jesus's body lay in the tomb, called?

Holy Saturday is also when tradition places the Harrowing of Hell, Christ's descent to free the righteous dead, before the Easter celebration begins after nightfall.

At which spot on the Mount of Olives do the Gospels say Jesus was arrested?

Gethsemane is where the Gospels say Jesus prayed in anguish while his disciples three times fell asleep, moments before the armed crowd arrived.

Which U.S. state is Ponce de León said to have named in 1513 for the Easter season in which he sighted it?

Florida is usually traced to Pascua Florida, 'feast of flowers', Spain's name for the Easter season; in other accounts Ponce de León named the land for its flowering landscape.

What type of meat is a traditional main course for Easter dinner in many Western countries?

Lamb recalls the animal eaten at the first Passover, and Christians call Jesus the 'Lamb of God', which is how it became the classic Easter roast.

In the 1974 Peanuts Easter special, Snoopy hands out eggs to the gang but runs out before reaching whom?

Charlie Brown is the one left empty-handed: Snoopy, revealed as the Easter Beagle that Linus kept promising, gives eggs to everyone else, even Woodstock and Lucy.

Easter Island, named by a Dutch explorer who sighted it on Easter Sunday, belongs to which country?

Chile annexed the island in 1888 and leased much of its land for sheep ranching; the islanders became full Chilean citizens only in the 1960s.

In Australia, chocolate versions of which native marsupial are sold as an alternative to the Easter Bunny?

The Easter Bilby took off in 1991, when the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia promoted it to highlight the damage wild rabbits do; chocolate bilbies now help fund the threatened animal's protection.

Which jewellery house made ornate Easter eggs for Russia's imperial family from 1885?

Fabergé made fifty Imperial eggs after Tsar Alexander III ordered the first in 1885: the Hen Egg, whose plain shell opened to reveal a gold hen with ruby eyes.

What color are Easter eggs traditionally dyed in Greece?

Red eggs, kokkina avga, are usually said to stand for the blood of Christ, and Greek households traditionally dye them on the Thursday before Easter.

Lent's 40 days echo the fasts of Jesus, Elijah and which other biblical figure?

Moses went forty days on Mount Sinai without eating or drinking while he wrote out the covenant; Elijah walked forty days to Horeb on the strength of food an angel had brought him.

Which Italian city explodes a cart of fireworks outside its Duomo each Easter Sunday in the 'Scoppio del Carro'?

Florence's archbishop lights a rocket at the high altar during the Easter Gloria; it shoots along a wire through the cathedral to ignite the cart outside.

Which 1739 Charles Wesley Easter hymn is famous for the 'Alleluia' sung after every line?

'Christ the Lord Is Risen Today' appeared in the Wesleys' 1739 Hymns and Sacred Poems; its Alleluias are thought to be a later editor's addition, made to fit the tune 'Easter Hymn'.

Which apostle refused to believe in the resurrection without seeing Jesus's wounds for himself?

Thomas had missed Jesus's first appearance to the disciples; a week later he was invited to touch the wounds and answered, 'My Lord and my God!'

What is the centuries-old UK name for rolling decorated Easter eggs down hills?

Pace-egging is said to recall the stone being rolled from Christ's tomb; Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh and hills across Lancashire are traditional rolling sites.

Which Neapolitan tart of cooked wheat, ricotta and orange blossom is traditionally eaten at Easter?

Pastiera is traditionally baked two or three days ahead, so that its wheat, ricotta and orange-blossom scents have time to blend before Easter Sunday.

The hooded penitents' processions staged across Spain in the week before Easter go by what name?

Semana Santa sees Catholic brotherhoods called cofradías carry heavy floats through the streets while hooded penitents hide their faces under conical capirotes.

Which trumpet-shaped flower, native to Taiwan and Japan's Ryukyu Islands, is forced into bloom as the classic Easter plant?

The Easter Lily's bulbs once came mostly from Japan; after a soldier carried a suitcase of them home to Oregon following World War I, that coast and northern California became the bulb's heartland.

Under biblical rules, the Jewish paschal sacrifice had to be an unblemished young sheep or which other animal?

Exodus 12 allows a year-old male taken from the sheep or the goats; the animal was set apart on the 10th of Nisan, slaughtered at dusk on the 14th, then roasted and eaten that night.

What name is given to the fourteen images of Jesus's final journey that worshippers move between in prayer?

Stations of the Cross let worshippers make a pilgrimage in spirit, a devotion that grew from pilgrims walking the route of the Passion in the Holy Land.

What is the large decorated taper lit from a new fire on the night before Easter Sunday called?

The Paschal candle is first studded with five grains of incense, one for each of Christ's wounds, and only then lit from the newly blessed fire.

In which British Overseas Territory is flying homemade kites a Good Friday tradition?

Bermuda's kites are said to stand for Christ rising, and islanders of all ages send their homemade ones skyward each year.

Which confetti-filled eggshells are cracked over heads at Easter in towns along the US–Mexico border?

Cascarones, named from the Spanish for 'shell', are mostly a Carnival custom in Mexico, but along the border the two cultures merged them into an Easter tradition.

Which day commemorates Jesus riding into the holy city on a donkey?

Palm Sunday recalls the crowds waving palm branches; in many churches the palms blessed that day are burned to make the ashes for the following year's Ash Wednesday.

In the Gospels, what signal did Judas use to identify Jesus to the men sent to arrest him?

A kiss was the signal Judas had arranged; Jesus answered, 'Do what you came for, friend', and the armed crowd stepped forward and seized him.

In Matthew's Gospel, what gesture does Pilate make before the crowd to disclaim responsibility for Jesus's death?

Washes his hands: seeing a riot starting, Pilate declares, 'I am innocent of this man's blood. It is your responsibility!'

In Matthew's Gospel, what did Pilate's wife urge him to do during the trial?

Have nothing to do with him, she warned, calling Jesus 'that innocent man' and saying she had suffered a great deal that day in a dream about him.

According to the Gospels, what does the name Golgotha, the site of the crucifixion, mean?

The place of the skull is the Gospels' own gloss on Golgotha; a legend known to Origen explained the name by saying Adam's skull lay buried there.

In Matthew, what happened to the temple curtain at the moment Jesus died?

It tore from top to bottom, Matthew 27:51 says, and in the same moment the earth shook, rocks split and tombs broke open.

In Matthew, what did the chief priests do to Jesus's tomb the day after his burial?

Sealed it and posted a guard: Matthew 27 says they reminded Pilate that Jesus had said he would rise after three days, so he told them to make the tomb as secure as they could.

Matthew says the chief priests paid soldiers to spread which story about the resurrection?

The disciples stole the body while the soldiers slept, they were paid to say; Matthew 28 adds that the story was still circulating among Jews in his own day.

In John's Gospel, what was the name of the high priest's servant whose ear Peter cut off?

John 18:10 names the servant as Malchus; only John gives the name, and only Luke records that Jesus healed the ear. Jesus was then taken first to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas.

According to John, what did the soldiers do with Jesus's seamless undergarment rather than tear it?

The soldiers cast lots for it rather than tear the seamless tunic, which John presents as fulfilling Psalm 22; Pilate's notice above the cross read 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews'.

In John's Gospel, what does the risen Jesus forbid the first person who sees him to do?

Hold on to him is what she must not do ('Do not hold on to me', the famous noli me tangere), because he had not yet ascended; he sends her to tell the disciples instead.

In John's Gospel, which disciple outruns Peter to the tomb on Easter morning?

The one whom Jesus loved reached the tomb first, looked in and waited outside; Peter arrived behind him and went straight in to find the linen strips lying there.

Luke says Pilate sent Jesus to which ruler, and that the two men became friends that very day?

Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee, happened to be in the city; he hoped to see a miracle, got only silence, and sent Jesus back to Pilate in an elegant robe.

In Luke, what does the risen Jesus eat to show his disciples he is no ghost?

Luke 24:42-43 says they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he ate it in front of them, after he had invited them to touch his hands and feet to prove he was flesh and bone.

In Luke, two disciples walking to which village fail to recognise the risen Jesus until he breaks bread?

Emmaus was where they were heading; the moment they recognised him he vanished, and they hurried back at once to tell the Eleven.

Mark identifies Simon of Cyrene, who was forced to carry the cross, as the father of which two men?

Mark 15:21 calls Simon 'the father of Alexander and Rufus', a passer-by coming in from the country; Mark adds that Jesus then refused wine mixed with myrrh.

In Mark, which woman walks to the tomb with the two Marys on Easter morning?

Mark 16:1 names Salome alongside the two Marys; on the way they wondered who would roll the stone away, and Mark says they fled and told no one, because they were afraid.

In Luke's Gospel, what does Jesus promise the repentant criminal crucified beside him?

Paradise with him that day was the promise; one criminal had hurled insults, while the other rebuked him and asked only to be remembered when Jesus came into his kingdom.

What did medieval scholars call the reckoning of the date of Easter?

Computus, 'computation', had to reconcile the sun's year with the moon's months, which is why finding Easter took whole tables and cycles; Orthodox churches call it the paschalion.

Easter's latest date, 25 April, is also which day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand?

Anzac Day marks the 1915 landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli; Easter last fell on it in 1943 and next does so in 2038.

The dating of Easter relies on a 19-year lunar cycle named after which ancient Greek astronomer?

Meton of Athens found in 432 BC that 235 lunar months almost exactly equal 19 solar years, so the moon's phases come round to the same calendar dates again.

Which year-numbering system did the monk Dionysius Exiguus introduce in his 6th-century Easter tables?

Anno Domini years first appear in his Easter tables for 532 to 626; he counted from the Incarnation rather than keep dating by the reign of Diocletian, a persecutor of Christians.

What did medieval calendars call a year's place, from 1 to 19, in the lunar cycle used to date Easter?

The golden number is found by dividing the year by 19 and adding one to the remainder; calendars marked it beside the dates on which new moons fell.

Which country passed an Easter Act in 1928 to fix Easter in mid-April, a law never brought into force?

United Kingdom law still holds the Easter Act 1928, unused as of 2025: it needs an order approved by both Houses of Parliament, made with regard to the churches' opinion.

Which early Christian practice kept Easter on 14 Nisan, the Jewish Passover date, whatever the weekday?

Quartodecimanism, named for that fourteenth day, so angered Pope Victor I around 190 that he moved to excommunicate the churches of Asia Minor, until Irenaeus rebuked him.

Where in 664 did King Oswiu rule that Northumbria would calculate Easter the Roman way?

The Synod of Whitby met at Hilda's monastery, where Oswiu chose the Roman reckoning because St Peter held the keys of heaven and he would not contradict its doorkeeper.

Which 8th-century monk recorded that April was once named for the goddess Ēostre?

Bede's The Reckoning of Time is the only early record of the goddess, so scholars long debated whether he had simply invented her.

Which pope's 1582 calendar reform is why Western and Orthodox Easter usually fall on different days?

Gregory XIII's 1582 reform changed the leap-year rule and revised the lunar tables used for Easter; Orthodox churches kept the Julian reckoning, so the two feasts usually fall on different Sundays.

Which Pharisee, who had once visited Jesus by night, helped Joseph of Arimathea bury him?

Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple who had asked Pilate for the body; together they wrapped it in linen and laid it in a new garden tomb.

What is the period from Maundy Thursday evening to Easter Sunday evening called?

The Paschal Triduum, 'three days', opens with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, after which the altars are stripped bare.

What is the ancient Easter Proclamation, chanted by a deacon in the candlelit church on Easter eve, called?

The Exsultet takes its title from its opening word and dares to call Adam's sin a 'happy fault', because it led to so great a Redeemer.

Which Marian antiphon replaces the Angelus during the Easter season?

Regina Caeli is of unknown authorship; legend says Pope Gregory the Great heard angels chant its first three lines during a procession in Rome and added the fourth himself.

In Eastern Christianity, what are the seven days beginning on Easter called?

Bright Week is kept as one long Easter day: fasting is suspended, and the royal doors of the icon screen stay open all week, recalling the open tomb.

What word comes before 'Sunday' in the traditional English name for the Sunday after Easter?

Low Sunday is also Quasimodo Sunday, after the opening words of its Mass; Victor Hugo's hunchback, abandoned at Notre-Dame as a child on that day, was named for it.

Which pope designated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday?

John Paul II made the designation on 30 April 2000, the day he canonised Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun whose visions inspired the Divine Mercy devotion.

In the Roman Catholic calendar, which season follows Eastertide?

Ordinary Time resumes once Pentecost closes the Easter season and runs until Advent; the name replaced the older habit of counting these weeks as Sundays after Pentecost.

Which two New Testament books, traditionally by one author, narrate the Ascension of Jesus?

Luke and Acts form a two-part work: the Gospel closes with the Ascension and Acts opens by retelling it, adding two robed strangers who promise the watching disciples that Jesus will return the same way.

What is the Wednesday before Easter nicknamed, after the disciple who agreed that day to betray Jesus?

Spy Wednesday casts the betrayer as a spy among the Twelve: once he had struck his bargain with the chief priests, Matthew says, he began looking for a chance to hand Jesus over.

Which Eastern Christian feast, the day before Palm Sunday, recalls a miracle at Bethany?

Lazarus Saturday marks the raising of Lazarus of Bethany; in Greece and Cyprus bakers shape small spiced breads called lazarakia into a man bound in a shroud, with cloves for eyes.

What does the British monarch distribute at the Royal Maundy service?

Silver coins called Maundy money go to as many men and as many women as the monarch has years of age; medieval kings also washed the feet of the poor, a duty later dropped.

The Roman Rite celebrates no Mass between which two liturgies?

No Mass is celebrated between Maundy Thursday evening and the Vigil; the Good Friday service is a Liturgy of the Word with communion reserved from the night before.

In which church does the Holy Fire ceremony take place each year on Great Saturday?

Church of the Holy Sepulchre: the Greek Orthodox Patriarch enters the tomb shrine and emerges with lit candles, and the flame, which believers hold is kindled miraculously, is passed from hand to hand through the crowd.

Which denomination held the first recorded Easter sunrise service, in a graveyard in 1732?

The Moravians of Herrnhut began it when a group of the community's young men went to the graveyard early on Easter morning to worship; the next year the whole congregation joined them.

Which sculptor carved the Pietà in St Peter's Basilica, the only work he ever signed?

Michelangelo cut his name across the sash on the Madonna's chest: Vasari tells that he heard visitors credit the statue to another sculptor, so he shut himself in one night with a light and his chisels.

In Christian symbolism, Easter eggs represent what?

The egg stands for the empty tomb, a sealed shell from which life breaks out; the oldest tradition, strong in Central and Eastern Europe, is to dye chicken eggs.

Ukrainian pysanky are decorated with dyes and which resist material?

Pysanky are made by drawing designs in melted beeswax with a stylus called a kistka, dyeing from lightest to darkest, then melting the wax off; the name comes from pysaty, 'to write'.

Peterlee in County Durham hosts the world championship of which Easter egg game, known locally as jarping?

Egg tapping sets two players knocking the pointed ends of hard-boiled eggs together until one cracks; at Peterlee the eggs are boiled and locked away the day before to foil cheats, who have tried beer and nail varnish.

What is the goal of the traditional Easter game in which eggs are laid on the floor?

The goal is to dance among them, breaking few; in one old tale a hundred eggs were scattered on sand, and a couple who danced through without cracking one could marry whatever their parents said.

On which part of the White House grounds is the Easter Egg Roll held?

The Egg Roll takes place on the South Lawn, where children push eggs through the grass with long-handled spoons; war, food shortages and a rebuilding of the mansion kept it away from 1942 until the Eisenhowers revived it in 1953.

The Leicestershire village of Hallaton stages a hare pie scramble and what other Easter Monday ritual?

Hallaton's bottle kicking pits the village against neighbouring Medbourne in a no-rules scrum to carry small wooden casks over a stream; the hare pie is scattered before the game begins.

Which Greek island, close to the Turkish coast, sees rival parishes fire thousands of rockets at each other's churches at Easter?

Chios stages the Rouketopolemos, or rocket war, in the town of Vrontados, where two hilltop parishes aim for each other's belfry; the hits are supposedly counted next day, yet both sides always claim victory.

In Czech and Slovak tradition, what is the pomlázka?

A decorated willow whip, the pomlázka is braided from fresh rods and tied with ribbons; on Easter Monday men lightly whip women with it, a custom meant to pass on the young willow's health and youth for the year.

Which US city's Polish community has celebrated Dyngus Day since 1961?

Buffalo's Dyngus Day began in 1961, when the Chopin Singing Society threw an Easter Monday party to give the city's Polish community a new rallying point; a local paper later declared that everybody is Polish on Dyngus Day.

Which Egyptian spring festival always falls on Orthodox Easter Monday?

Sham Ennessim is a national holiday kept by Egyptians of every faith with picnics, coloured eggs and spring onions; its date follows the Coptic church calendar, yet the festival itself is not a religious one.

On the Monday after Coptic Easter, Egyptians picnic on fesikh, a pungent delicacy of salted and fermented what?

Fish, usually grey mullet, is dried in the sun, then salted and left to ferment; every spring Egyptian newspapers report food poisonings from batches that were badly prepared.

The Filipino pre-dawn ritual Salubong reenacts an encounter between the risen Christ and whom?

Salubong ('meeting') brings images of the risen Christ and the Virgin Mary together at dawn, when a child dressed as an angel lifts the black veil of mourning from Mary's image.

What are the sawdust carpets laid for Guatemala's processions in the week before Easter called?

Alfombras, Spanish for 'carpets', are made from dyed sawdust, flowers and pine needles, most famously in Antigua Guatemala; each takes hours and is destroyed as the procession walks over it.

The Oberammergau Passion Play was born from a 1633 vow to be spared from what?

Bubonic plague had killed dozens of villagers when Oberammergau vowed to stage the Passion every ten years; by tradition no one died after the vow, and the first play was acted in 1634 on a stage built over the victims' graves.

In which city outside England did Handel premiere Messiah at a charity concert on 13 April 1742?

Dublin heard it first, at the Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street; the takings went to three charities and bought the release of 142 people imprisoned for debt.

How quickly did Handel compose the music for Messiah?

Handel finished the score in 24 days in the late summer of 1741; his librettist Charles Jennens took the speed for careless haste, and relations between the two men stayed strained.

Which composer wrote the St Matthew Passion for double choir and double orchestra while music director in Leipzig?

Johann Sebastian Bach's Passion then went unheard outside Leipzig for a century, until a twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducted it in Berlin in 1829 and turned attention back to Bach's large-scale works.

Which songwriter recycled his 1917 wartime tune 'Smile and Show Your Dimple' into the 1933 standard 'Easter Parade'?

Irving Berlin wrote the melody in 1917 as a cheer-up song for girls whose men had gone to war, set it aside, and gave it new Easter lyrics for his 1933 Broadway revue As Thousands Cheer.

Which actor was originally cast opposite Judy Garland in the 1948 film Easter Parade before breaking his ankle?

Gene Kelly broke his ankle shortly before filming and suggested Fred Astaire, who came out of a two-year retirement to take the part.

The 1916 Easter Rising was led by which schoolmaster and Irish-language activist?

Patrick Pearse read out the Proclamation of the Republic as the Rising began on Easter Monday 1916; he was shot at Kilmainham Gaol nine days later, on 3 May.

Which knighted former British diplomat was hanged in London for seeking German help for the Easter Rising?

Roger Casement, honoured for exposing colonial atrocities in the Congo and Peru, was stripped of his knighthood and hanged at Pentonville in August 1916; the other fifteen men executed after the Rising were shot.

The term 'Easter egg' for a hidden video-game message was coined around 1980 at which company?

Atari manager Steve Wright coined the term for Warren Robinett's secret credit in the 1980 game Adventure, hidden because the firm would not name its programmers; removing it proved too costly, so Atari promised players more.

Just Born, maker of America's marshmallow Easter chicks, is based in which Pennsylvania city?

Bethlehem has been Just Born's home since it left New York in 1932; in 1953 it bought the Rodda Candy Company of Lancaster, whose marshmallow chicks it turned from a slow hand-made sweet into a mass-produced one.

Which small sugar-shelled candy became an American Easter staple in the 1930s thanks to its egg-like shape?

Jelly beans joined the Easter basket in the 1930s because they look like tiny eggs; by one often-repeated claim, a Boston confectioner was already urging people to send them to Union soldiers in 1861.

Which actor-director made the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus?

Mel Gibson's own company made the film for about $30 million, with every line of dialogue spoken in ancient languages; it went on to take more than $600 million worldwide.

Which Swiss chocolatier has fought court battles across Europe over its gold-foil Easter bunny with a red ribbon?

Lindt won in Austria's Supreme Court in 2012 against a rival's ribboned bunny, yet two months later lost its bid at the European Court of Justice to trademark the shape across the whole EU.

Simnel cake, now an Easter bake, was originally made for which other Sunday?

Mothering Sunday, three weeks before Easter, was the cake's first home: young people in service who went back that day to see their families took it with them, and only later did it move to Easter.

What does the seasoning inside a hot cross bun traditionally signify?

Spices used to embalm Jesus at his burial are the usual reading, as the cross on top stands for the crucifixion; folklore added that a bun kept all year would never go mouldy and that one taken to sea warded off shipwreck.

What is kulich?

A tall Russian Easter bread, kulich is baked in cylindrical tins, even old coffee cans, iced so the glaze runs down its sides, and carried to church in a basket to be blessed.

Russian paskha, a pyramid-shaped Easter dessert stamped with the letters XB, is made mainly from what?

Curd cheese, known as tvorog, is sweetened and pressed in a wooden mould into a truncated pyramid; the letters on its sides are the initials of the Orthodox Easter greeting.

Colomba pasquale, Italy's Easter counterpart to panettone, is baked in the shape of what?

A dove, colomba in Italian, gives the cake its name; it was devised in the 1930s by Dino Villani, advertising chief at the Milan firm Motta, to keep its panettone machinery busy after Christmas.

Which Greek soup of offal and greens breaks the fast after the midnight Easter liturgy?

Magiritsa uses up the offal taken out of the animal that will be roasted for Easter Sunday, so nothing is wasted; it is eaten straight after the midnight service that ends the long fast.

According to the Gospels, whom did the crowd choose to be pardoned instead of Jesus?

Barabbas, whom Mark calls a rebel who had committed murder, is named 'Jesus Barabbas' in some early manuscripts of Matthew, so the crowd may have been choosing between two men called Jesus.

For how many pieces of silver was Jesus betrayed, per Matthew's Gospel?

Thirty pieces of silver is the price in Matthew 26:15, echoing the thirty shekels of Zechariah 11:12; the betrayer later flung the coins back into the temple.

According to all four Gospels, what sound reminded Peter of his three denials?

A rooster crowing follows Peter's third denial in all four Gospels, just as Jesus had predicted that evening; Peter went out and wept bitterly, and Mark alone has the bird crow twice.

According to John's Gospel, the inscription on the cross was written in Hebrew, Greek and which language?

Latin was the tongue of the Roman authorities, and its wording gives the INRI seen on crucifixes; when the chief priests asked Pilate to reword the sign he refused: 'What I have written, I have written.'

According to Mark and Luke, Joseph of Arimathea was a member of which council?

Mark 15:43 and Luke 23:50 call Joseph a respected member of the Council, the Sanhedrin, and Luke adds that he had not consented to its decision against Jesus.

In medieval legend, which relic did the followers of Joseph of Arimathea carry to Britain?

The Holy Grail first reaches Joseph in Robert de Boron's poem of around 1200, which made it the vessel of the Last Supper and sent it west with his followers; in the earlier romance of Chrétien de Troyes it was not yet the cup of Christ.

Which high priest who questioned Jesus has his family name carved on an ornate bone box unearthed in 1990?

Caiaphas is the name cut twice into the limestone ossuary, which road workers broke into by accident; Josephus says he was made high priest around AD 18 by Pilate's predecessor as governor.

Under which Roman emperor did Pontius Pilate govern Judaea?

Tiberius was emperor for the whole of Pilate's decade in Judaea; when Pilate was ordered back to Rome to answer for his bloody handling of a Samaritan gathering, the emperor died before he arrived.

Which church venerates Pontius Pilate as a saint, believing he became a Christian?

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church keeps a feast day for Pilate, drawing on the Gospels' reluctant judge and on apocryphal texts in which he converts and dies a martyr.

Where did Pilate make his primary residence, going to Jerusalem mainly for major feasts?

Caesarea Maritima was the seat of Rome's governors of Judaea; an inscription naming Pilate as prefect turned up there in 1961, having survived because later builders reused the stone as a stair block behind the theatre.

Which French king built the Sainte-Chapelle to house the Crown of Thorns?

Louis IX (Saint Louis) paid 135,000 livres to redeem the relic, pawned to Venetian bankers by the bankrupt emperor of Constantinople; the dazzling chapel he built to house it cost less than a third as much.

The Holy Lance is also known as the Spear of which saint?

Longinus is the name an apocryphal Gospel gives the soldier who pierced Jesus's side with a spear; later legend made him a convert and a martyr.

In which Vienna palace is a famous Holy Lance relic displayed with the Imperial Regalia?

Hofburg's Imperial Treasury shows the lance beside the crown of the Holy Roman Empire; the museum that keeps it dates the spearhead to the 8th century, far too late to have stood at the crucifixion.

How many sayings of Jesus on the cross are traditionally counted across the four Gospels?

Seven sayings are pieced together from all four Gospels, no single one giving more than three; Haydn turned them into seven slow orchestral movements for a church in Cádiz.

For roughly how long do the synoptic Gospels say darkness covered the land during the crucifixion?

Three hours of darkness, from midday on, are in Matthew, Mark and Luke; a devotion of the same length, said to have been devised by a Jesuit in Lima, is still kept in many churches from noon till three.

In Christian legend, which woman wiped Jesus's face on the road to Calvary, leaving his image on her cloth?

Veronica appears in no Gospel, and her name may come from the relic itself: the cloth was called the vera icon, 'true image', which some scholars think was later mistaken for the name of the woman who held it.

According to Matthew, the silver paid for Jesus's betrayal was returned and used to buy what?

Matthew 27:7 says the priests bought the potter's field as a burial ground for foreigners, hence its name Field of Blood; Matthew credits the prophecy to Jeremiah, though the words resemble Zechariah 11.

On Corfu, what do islanders hurl from balconies at 11 a.m. on the day before Easter?

Clay pots called botides, often filled with water, are thrown from balconies as the 'first Resurrection' is sung at 11 a.m.; onlookers gather up the shards, which are thought to bring luck.

As of 2025, in which of these countries is Easter Monday an ordinary working day rather than a public holiday?

United States federal law gives no holiday for Easter Monday, even though the White House holds its Egg Roll that day; Germany, Australia and New Zealand all give workers the day off.

The Easter rule attributed to Nicaea fixes the Paschal moon relative to what?

The vernal equinox rule is why Easter wanders between 22 March and 25 April; the council wanted every Christian keeping Pascha on the same day.

What is the name of the solemn blessing the pope gives from the balcony of St Peter's on Easter Sunday?

Urbi et Orbi, 'to the city and to the world', is kept for Easter, Christmas and a new pope's first appearance; in March 2020 Pope Francis gave an extraordinary one to an empty square during the pandemic.

Which building, still a landmark of O'Connell Street, did the Easter Rising's leaders seize as their headquarters?

The General Post Office was held for most of Easter week until fire gutted everything but its granite front; the new Irish state did not finish rebuilding it until 1929.

Catholic missionaries in the Americas read the stigmas of the passion flower as which objects from the crucifixion?

The nails: its three knob-like stigmas stood for the three nails and its fringe of filaments for the crown of thorns, which is why the 'passion' in the flower's name is Christ's Passion, not romance.

Ethiopian Orthodox Christians break the Fasika fast with which spicy chicken stew?

Doro wat, stewed chicken and boiled eggs in fiery berbere, is among the dishes most often used to end religious fasts; at Fasika families go home from the all-night service at about 3 a.m. to eat.

Which ancient Roman monument is the traditional setting for the pope's torchlit Good Friday procession?

The Colosseum was consecrated to the Passion of Christ in 1749 by Benedict XIV, who held that Christians had been martyred in its arena; historians have found no evidence that they were.

In 1917 the White House Easter Egg Roll was moved to the grounds of which nearby landmark?

The Washington Monument's grounds hosted the roll in April 1917; a year later it was cancelled outright, because wartime food rules would not allow eggs to be destroyed for fun.

Where did Pennsylvania Dutch children make the nests in which the 'Oschter Haws' left coloured eggs?

The nests were made in their caps and bonnets, boys setting out woollen caps and girls bonnets, sometimes out in the barn; only children who had been good were said to find coloured eggs in them.

In a tale first printed in 1883, the goddess Eostre creates the Easter Hare by transforming which creature?

A bird is what the hare once was in the story, which is why it can still lay eggs; far from being ancient myth, the tale cannot be traced back beyond a book published in 1883.

Which Australian actor voices the Easter Bunny in the 2012 animated film Rise of the Guardians?

Hugh Jackman's Bunnymund, the Guardian of Hope, is no cuddly rabbit: he speaks in the actor's own Australian accent and opens his part in the story by kidnapping the hero, Jack Frost.

In which Shakespeare play does Mercutio mock Benvolio over a new doublet worn before Easter?

Romeo and Juliet has Mercutio accuse the peaceable Benvolio of picking fights, even with a tailor 'for wearing his new doublet before Easter'; minutes later it is Mercutio who draws his sword and is killed.

Which firm made Britain's first chocolate Easter egg in 1873, two years before Cadbury?

J.S. Fry & Sons of Bristol had a head start: in 1847 its factory moulded what is often called the first solid chocolate bar, and the same skill produced a hollow chocolate egg a quarter of a century later.

Which US state did Ponce de León reputedly name after Spain's term for the Easter season?

Florida recalls Pascua Florida, the 'festival of flowers', as Spaniards called Easter; the lush landscape may have helped too. The state still keeps an official Pascua Florida Day.

Which Peanuts character insists nobody need prepare for Easter because the Easter Beagle will handle everything?

Linus turns out to be right: on Easter morning the Easter Beagle, who is Snoopy, dances in handing out eggs, though he runs out just before he reaches Charlie Brown.

Which Victor Hugo character is named after the Sunday after Easter, the day he was found as an abandoned child?

Quasimodo was left on the foundlings' bed at Notre-Dame on Quasimodo Sunday, and Archdeacon Frollo named the boy after the day he adopted him.

The writers of the Easter hit 'Here Comes Peter Cottontail' wrote which Christmas favourite a year later?

Frosty the Snowman followed in 1950, a year after Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins composed their bunny song. Singing cowboy Gene Autry recorded both.

In French Easter tradition, what flies off to Rome and returns on Easter morning carrying eggs for children?

Church bells fall silent in France for the days before Easter, so children are told they have flown to Rome. They are said to come home with coloured eggs and hollow chocolate.

The French town of Bessières marks Easter Monday by cooking a giant version of which dish from 15,000 eggs?

Omelette on this scale is the work of a local brotherhood, the Knights of the Giant Omelette, who cook it in Bessières each Easter Monday.

Easter Island, famous for its giant stone moai, has been a territory of which South American country since 1888?

Chile annexed the island even though its coast lies about 3,500 km away. Islanders know their home by its Polynesian name, Rapa Nui.

Which US president was shot on Good Friday and died the next morning, the day before Easter Sunday?

Abraham Lincoln was praised in sermons that Easter Sunday, the day after his death. He had been watching the comedy Our American Cousin when John Wilkes Booth fired.

In which Nordic country is Easter the season for crime fiction, with mysteries even printed on milk cartons?

Norway fills its Easter television schedules with detective dramas, and publishers time new thrillers for the holiday. Many families read them at mountain cabins between ski trips.

The oldest known decorated eggshells, engraved about 60,000 years ago in South Africa, came from which bird?

Ostrich shells that large served as drinking flasks, and their owners scratched hatched patterns into them. About 270 engraved fragments were dug up at Diepkloof Rock Shelter.

Which composer wrote the music for Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock opera about the days leading to the crucifixion?

Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice could not find backers for a stage show, so they released the score as a 1970 album first. Its success carried the show to Broadway a year later.

Which Hollywood star directed The Passion of the Christ, the 2004 crucifixion drama with no English dialogue?

Mel Gibson had the script translated into ancient tongues, yet the film took more than $600 million worldwide. It stayed America's top-grossing R-rated release for 20 years.

Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper on the dining-hall wall of a convent in which Italian city?

Milan's Duke Ludovico Sforza commissioned the mural for Santa Maria delle Grazie. It freezes the moment after Jesus announces that one of the men at the table will betray him.

The strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America struck which US state on the Friday before Easter in 1964?

Alaska shook for more than four and a half minutes as about 600 miles of fault ruptured at once. The magnitude 9.2 quake is the second most powerful ever recorded anywhere.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, whose death on the Stone Table and return to life echo the Easter story?

Aslan lets the Witch kill him in place of the traitor Edmund, then rises again. C. S. Lewis called the lion a portrait of Christ, though not an allegorical one.

Which day, falling 46 days before Easter, is named for the mark that worshippers receive on their foreheads?

Ash Wednesday worshippers hear the words 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return' as the cross is traced. Wearing ashes has signalled repentance since biblical times.

Which Christian feast, also called Whitsun, falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter?

Pentecost takes its name from the Greek for 'fiftieth', counting from Easter Day itself. It recalls the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus's followers amid a rushing wind and tongues of fire.

Which British comedian voices E.B., the runaway heir to the Easter Bunny, in the 2011 film Hop?

Russell Brand's rabbit would rather drum in a band than take over from his father. The film places the family business on Easter Island, and E.B. bolts for Hollywood.

Which Charlton Heston epic has aired on ABC almost every year since 1973, traditionally around Easter?

The Ten Commandments runs so long that ABC's one-night broadcast, adverts included, has stretched past four and a half hours. The network first showed it in February 1973.

The linen cloth that some believe wrapped the body of Jesus has been kept since 1578 in which Italian city?

Turin received the shroud when the Dukes of Savoy made the city their capital. Radiocarbon tests by three laboratories in 1988 dated the cloth to between 1260 and 1390.

Which Australian actor voices the Easter Bunny in the 2012 animated film Rise of the Guardians?

Hugh Jackman kept his own accent for the part, joining Alec Baldwin's Santa Claus and Isla Fisher's Tooth Fairy. Together they recruit Jack Frost to stop the nightmare-bringer Pitch Black.

Araucana chickens, ancestors of America's 'Easter egger' hens, naturally lay eggs of what colour?

Blue shells are so rare among chickens that the Araucana's were once thought unique. Crossed with brown-egg breeds, the same gene produces green and olive eggs.

Torrijas, a sweet fried treat that Spain eats in the run-up to Easter, are a close cousin of which breakfast dish?

French toast and torrijas both rescue stale bread by soaking and frying it; the French call theirs pain perdu, 'lost bread'. Torrijas turn up in a Spanish songbook as early as 1496.

In which Caribbean country is a slice of spiced fruit bun eaten with cheese the classic Easter snack?

Jamaica bakes its Easter bun in a loaf tin with molasses, brown sugar and dried fruit. Employers traditionally hand out bun and cheese to their staff as a holiday gift.

Most Orthodox churches set the date of Easter using which older calendar, now 13 days behind the one in everyday use?

Julian dating is why Orthodox Easter so often falls later than the Western feast. Both traditions follow the same rule, but they start counting from a different 21 March.

The Easter cactus, a widely grown ornamental plant, grows wild on rainforest trees in which country?

Brazil's subtropical rainforest is home to the plant, which clings to trees and rocks instead of rooting in desert sand. Red oblong fruits follow its flowers.

The Vegreville egg, a giant Ukrainian-style Easter egg sculpture that turns in the wind, stands in which country?

Canada part-funded the pysanka on condition that it honoured the Mounties' 1975 centenary. Three and a half storeys of aluminium tiles, it swings like a weather vane in an Alberta town.

Which singer's 1978 album Easter includes the hit 'Because the Night', co-written with Bruce Springsteen?

Patti Smith scored her commercial breakthrough with the record, her third studio album. The single climbed to number 13 in America and number five in Britain.

Which Irish poet wrote 'Easter, 1916', whose refrain declares that 'a terrible beauty is born'?

W. B. Yeats usually rejected violence and had strained relations with some of the rebels he ended up mourning. The executions that followed the rising shocked him into verse.

The Easter Offensive, a 1972 invasion on three fronts using hundreds of tanks, was a major campaign of which war?

The Vietnam War had seen nothing like it since the Tet Offensive of 1968. In a radical change of tactics, the North sent conventional infantry and armour south.

The first imperial Easter egg, a gift from Russia's Alexander III to his wife, opened to reveal a yolk holding what?

A gold hen with ruby eyes sat inside the yolk, and the tsarina loved it. Her husband placed a standing order for a new egg every Easter, each hiding its own surprise.

Which make of egg dye, created by a New Jersey druggist, takes its name from his neighbours' word for Easter?

Paas began with William Townley's recipe for dye tablets, sold for five cents and dissolved at home in water and vinegar. He later renamed his drugstore business the Paas Dye Company.

Mämmi, the dark malted pudding that Finns eat with cream at Easter, is made from the flour of which grain?

Rye flour and malted rye are left to sweeten naturally, then baked until the pudding sets and darkens. Dried Seville orange zest is the traditional seasoning.

Painted eggs join seven symbolic items on the haft-sin table for which new year festival, held as spring begins?

Nowruz is the Persian new year, and each of the seven items on its table has a name starting with the Persian letter 'seen'. Goldfish and a mirror often sit alongside.

What is the name for a young hare, the animal that delivered the eggs in the original Easter folklore?

A leveret is born fully furred with its eyes open, able to fend for itself soon after birth. Rabbit young, by contrast, arrive blind and hairless.

Which Russian composer wove old Orthodox chants into his Russian Easter Festival Overture, completed in 1888?

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wanted to capture the leap from a gloomy, mysterious vigil night to unbridled merrymaking on Easter morning. He dedicated the piece to the memory of Mussorgsky and Borodin.

Which one-act Italian opera, famous for its Intermezzo, unfolds on Easter morning in a Sicilian village?

Cavalleria rusticana won Pietro Mascagni first prize in a contest for composers who had never had an opera staged. The villagers sing an Easter hymn before jealousy leads to a fatal duel.

Paskha, the pyramid-shaped Russian Easter dessert decorated with the letters XB, is made mainly from which dairy food?

Curd cheese called tvorog gives paskha its snowy colour, a symbol of purity. Raisins, almonds and candied fruit are often stirred in before it is pressed in a mould.

Which Australian city has staged a Royal Easter Show combining livestock judging with an amusement park since 1823?

Sydney owes the 'Royal' in the show's title to Queen Victoria, who granted the organising society the right to use it. The event runs for twelve days around Easter.

Which 1989 film starring Sally Field and Julia Roberts reaches its finale at a small Southern town's Easter celebration?

Steel Magnolias ends with Annelle going into labour mid-festivities, trailed to hospital by a man in an Easter Bunny costume. Robert Harling adapted the script from his own 1987 play.