Easter is celebrated around the world in a number of different ways, with traditions differing from country to country, depending on ethnic, cultural and historical origins.
As an international business, operating in 55 countries around the world, we are always interested in learning more about local customs and traditions. And with the Easter holiday almost upon us, we thought this week we’d share some of the ways the holiday is celebrated around the globe. If there is paper involved, we will, of course, share that too!
For many of us, Easter is celebrated with chocolate – lots of it! Foil-wrapped chocolate eggs, ensconced in a colourful cardboard box are widely given and received. Supermarket shelves are stacked high at this time of year and specialist chocolatier businesses enjoy brisk sales in the days leading up to the Easter weekend.
In Brazil, carnival-like celebrations include the Sabado de Aleluia (Saturday of Hallelujah) take place across the country to celebrate the end of Lent.
Vito, our International Business Manager for Latin America, recalls how Easter is celebrated in his home town in Italy: “We enjoy a week-long celebration over Easter which includes a morning candlelit procession that can start as early 4 am on the Thursday before Good Friday. We enjoy Scarcella Pugliese which is a traditional Easter biscuit, often shaped as bunnies or wreath, with a whole boiled egg wrapped in the pastry!”
In Sweden, the tradition is similar to Hallowe’en, with children dressing up as witches and painting their cheeks red. They go from house to house, trading their drawings for sweets at the front doors.
In France, chocolate eggs are exchanged, but eggs in omelettes are also an important part of the Easter tradition in many parts of the country. In Haux, in the south of the country, for example, a giant omelette is prepared in a huge frying pan in the town’s main square on Easter Monday, using as many as 5000 eggs – enough to feed the whole town! (The story goes that Napoleon and his army stopped in the town and he demanded that the locals feed his army before they marched on!)
Decorating trees with colourful eggs at Easter is a popular German tradition. These are often made from papier mache and hung with ribbon, or intricately decorated with paper or silk flowers.
And what about paper in the celebrations? Well, alongside the paper, card and tissues used to wrap the chocolate eggs and biscuits – paper crafts are a huge part of Easter traditions.
Coloured tissue, graphical paper, newsprint, wallpaper, Kraft paper, lightweight card and coloured card are all excellent products for Easter crafts.
Here are some of our favourite, fun and easy Easter paper crafts that some of the PG team will be enjoying making with our children over the holidays:
Recent figures for Easter card sales are good news for the paper industry. Despite the prevalence of e-comms and e-cards, 57 million of us still send Easter cards every year. Who doesn’t appreciate the effort and a handwritten card hand-delivered or sent through the mail?
One final thought before we all start tucking into our chocolate eggs, omelettes (?) and Easter biscuits. When the celebrations are over, what of the packaging? You may be interested to read, as we were, about the recent results of a survey conducted by Censuswide on this very topic:
- 91% of UK adults would prefer their Easter egg packaged in carton or cardboard rather than plastic, because it is biodegradable and recyclable.
- 61% of those surveyed also said they would be willing to pay more for their Easter eggs if the packaging was environmentally-friendly.
There is a growing concern amongst consumers in the UK and elsewhere of the need for sustainable packaging options. It is refreshing to read the survey results and to see that consumer are actively choosing packaging that is renewable, recyclable and biodegradable.
The team at PG Paper would like to wish all of our customers and contacts celebrating the holiday this year, a very Happy Easter!
