FANCY EASTER WITH A TWIST? TRY FIRE WORKS AND TANGO
When it comes to Easter abroad, nobody does it better in terms of religious pageantry than the Spanish. And if you could highlight one particular location in Spain that absolutely nails it, in terms of theatre and overall visual splendour, then it has to be Seville. But, judging from a few emails that I have received in recent days, there is also a demand for a different kind of Easter holiday. Where can you go at Easter, within Europe, some of you want to know, where there is something a bit different going on?
Well, here are a few options. We are well used at this stage to the appeal of Christmas Markets across Europe. In Prague, however, their Easter Markets are a big deal. They started yesterday, actually, and will now run right through until 3 April. And yes, inevitably they feature all kinds of goodies for sale, from jewellery and hand-crafted toys to glassware and local foods like klobasa (barbecued sausages) and hot, sweet pastries. The stalls are concentrated around Wenceslas Square and Old Town Square and it’s not just a case of buying – you can also see local producers actually turning out their wares. And it’s not just for the grownups, since there is plenty to appeal to children, including making Easter chicks and painting eggs and ‘whips’, made with twigs.
BASEL
In this Swiss city Easter is all about the tango – as unlikely as that seems. The annual Tango Festival always ties in with the Easter weekend, when the city comes alive to the sound of music. Workshops, films, marathon dances and lessons are all part of the programme and the festival features performances from some of the world’s most renowned tango dancers. It runs from Holy Thursday until Easter Monday. Definitely a different kind of Easter experience.
FLORENCE
I have spent Easter in Italy on more than one occasion and have always found it to be a fairly low-key affair. I have certainly never encountered the level of visual and religious pageantry that exists in Spain.
But in Florence they do have an age-old Easter tradition that dates back to the 11th Century. This is known as the Scoppio del Carro. Literally, the explosion of the cart is an event that takes place on Easter Sunday when the cart in question (nine metres tall, in use for hundreds of years and pulled by a team of white cattle) is paraded, stuffed to the gills with fireworks, from the Porta del Prato right into the square in front of the lovely cathedral in the city centre. With a wire running from the cart to the high altar inside the duomo and attached to a mechanical dove, once the Easter Sunday evening Mass is nearing completion, the dove is lit and the ‘fire’ runs through the cathedral and out to the cart. Cue a magnificent firework display as Easter goes out with a bang for another year.
GREECE
If you can’t resist the religious parades but you’ve already ‘done’ Spain at Easter, then head instead to Greece for their take on the festival. This is a Greek Orthodox celebration, of course, operating under a different religious calendar, and this year ‘Big Friday’ (our Good Friday) falls on April 29 with Easter Sunday on May 1. Lots of egg painting, flower-bedecked churches and religious processions.
Try one of the Cretan towns or fly into Athens and head for somewhere in the Peloponnese. The village of Kardamyli, close to where the writer Patrick Leigh Fermor lived for many years, is as good a bet as any.