It seems clear that although you can say from where a word might come, no one really knows for sure. The same holds true for ‘Easter’.
Some scholars think ‘Easter’ is derived from a Latin phrase that uses the plural for ‘alba’ which means ‘dawn’. Translate ‘alba’ into Old High German, a precursor to English, and you get ‘eostarum’.
Others believe that ‘Easter’ stems from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility, Eostre.
No matter where the word stems from, Easter is a holiday of high religious significance that celebrates the belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Many celebration traditions associated with it date back to pre-Christian, pagan times. Other celebrations associated with Easter are admittedly, much younger. Here are two of how people get out and about during Easter, one in the States and the other in Switzerland.
Easter Parade in the United States
The Easter parade is an American cultural, somewhat informal, and unorganized procession. Although it is held after attending Easter church services on Easter Sunday and the word ‘Easter’ is in its title, it is a non-religious event. While it is held in many cities around the country it is closely associated with Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The Easter parade started in the 1870s in New York. It hit its pinnacle in popularity in 1947 when about 1 million people attended the parade. In comparison, in 2008 there were only about 30,000 people who attended. In 2020 it was canceled due to the pandemic. Traditionally people dressed in new and fashionable clothes and promenaded up and down the avenue. The ladies hats often strove to impress.
Irving Berlin originally published his song ‘Easter Parade’ in 1933 for a Broadway revue ‘As Thousands Cheer’. As was the case in many of Berlin’s songs, they showed up in later films, too. In 1942 the song was in the film ‘Holiday Inn’ sung by Bing Cosby. In 1948 a musical called ‘Easter Parade’ was released. That film, which was basically constructed around the song, starred Judy Garland and Fred Astaire and was a raving success.
Like many things in life, the Easter Parade has evolved. In addition to expanding its name to ‘The Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival’, nowadays is neither a parade nor a promenade. Basically it’s a lot of people wearing creative, outrageous hats, milling around on Fifth Avenue between 49th St and 57th St.
Travelling During Easter in Switzerland
Traditionally for many Swiss and Europeans north of the Alps, they go south to Italy. Especially if it had been a cold, hard winter many use Easter as a time to jumpstart the warm weather. The warm weather is so close, just on the other side of the Alps, a couple of hours away. Keeping the Easter spirit while there, they often visit the Vatican.
One of the quickest and easiest ways to get there is to use the tunnel which goes through the St. Gotthard Massif. Unfortunately it’s not a well kept secret. More times than not the tunnel becomes a bottleneck which leads to long traffic backups on the northern side of the Alps and up to 5 hours of waiting to get through. After waiting through something like that, you really do need a vacation.
2020 put travelling south out of the question because of a travel ban to Italy due to the pandemic. Swiss were also discouraged to go to the Italian speaking Swiss region, also south of the Alps, because the pandemic hit hard there, too. For once on Easter the news didn’t show the traffic jams but eerily empty streets.
May your Easter be filled with lots of Easter eggs, presents from the Easter bunny, blessings and most of all happiness that lasts for a life time.
Happy Easter to you.
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