Last week a friend’s little boy was eagerly – indeed passionately – telling me about what he called “the Jewish Easter”. When I realised he meant Passover, it suddenly struck me that the Italian word for Easter – Pasqua – is derived from Pesach, Hebrew for Passover.
He had learned about the Jewish flight from slavery in Egypt during his preparation for first communion, which requires two years of after-school bible study. Despite the etymology, I still find it strange to liken Easter to Passover.
Sicilians celebrate Easter by eating lamb, because the gospels say that Jesus and the apostles ate a lamb at the last supper. Sicilians in Palermo also make Easter lambs from martorana (marzipan), which make Easterish decorations as well as being delicious.
My husband brought home so many this year that they formed a large flock. He will be called “Bo Peep” by me and my son until they are all eaten up.
As with so many other traditions, Sicilians are going global, so their lambs often have a few Easter eggs lying at their feet.
The egg started with the Eastern Orthodox Christians, where eggs symbolised rebirth from death long before Christianity. This symbolises the resurrection perfectly, of course.
Eggs were also one of the foods traditionally given up for Lent. Giving up eating eggs in spring time is another tradition going back to the dawn of time, since spring is the correct season to let your eggs hatch out into a new clutch of chicks. You have to give up drinking so much milk and renounce having the cream, as well, when your cows have newborn calves to feed. The arrival of Christianity and Lent gave everyone the chance to feel pious about the necessity of eating rather miserly food for a while in Spring time.
Well, the chicks have hatched, the calves and lambs are fed, and I think it is time to feast.
The Dangerously Truthful Diary of a Sicilian Housewife 
We also have ‘Easter lambs’ in Germany, in the form of a simple sponge cake, baked in special lamb-shaped baking tins. We also use “Pascha” as an alternative word for Easter, though its not commonly done in colloquial speech.
And of course, there’s plenty of Easter eggs 🙂
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That’s interesting – about the word for Easter and the Easter cakes. Never seen one of them. Is there a piccy on your blog? (Iì’ve been online very little lately and I am too out of touch with blogoland…..)
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They’re not all that fancy… here’s a link if you want to get an idea:
http://www.beiunszuhause.de/bei-uns-zu-hause1/page?PagecRef=1293&rid=3308
Most people buy them rather than make them themselves, because,well, who wants to buy a lamb-shaped cake tin for one single annual occasion?
Happy catching up with your reading 🙂 Pecora Nera has posted some funny stuff, lol.
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That lamb cake is adorable! I would buy that cake tin and make lamb cakes all year round! 🙂
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Interesting thing about the Lenten diet, that I’m imagining would have predated the Christian “co-opting” of the season from earlier religious practices, is the natural cleansing in the body. We had and still do possess an innate body knowing-wisdom that coincides with living in seasons, attuned to those natural rhythms and what we observe around us. That, too, got co-opted by authorities outside of self.
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I think you’re absolutely right about the body needing to fit into the rhythm of nature and the seasons.
Maybe religions co-opt these things anmd formalise them as a way of making sure they are not forgotten when life gets complicated. I had a university professor who said that religion is invented to replace your parents when you grow up: it sets you rules and enforces them with threats and promises of sticks and carrots in the next life.
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Happy Easter. Enjoyed the blog as usual . Don ‘t forget The Sisters: Ten Days in Sicily by LL Lee at Amazon Thanks , Lee
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I always learn something new and interesting from your posts! Happy Easter to you and your little family!
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Happy Easter to you too! xxx
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Yes, I know such German Easter lambs from my childhood, too (in the German southern Catholic province – looks, as if “southern Catholic provinces” have something in common, be it Germany or Italy?)
Happy Easter!
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It seems the Catholic traditions cross national boundaries sometimes, doesn’t it?
Happy Easter to you too!
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