Which animal traditionally brings chocolate eggs to children at Easter in many countries?
Answer : The rabbit
The Easter bunny, or hare, is a tradition of Germanic origin: it symbolises fertility and the return of spring.
Questions and answers: Easter
Revise Easter: here is a selection of questions of every level, with the answer and an explanation. To test yourself without seeing the answers, play the quizzes.
Play the Easter quizzesVery easy
In the northern hemisphere, in which season does Easter fall?
Answer : Spring
Easter is set according to the spring equinox: it always falls between late March and late April, just as nature comes back to life.
On which day of the week does Easter always fall?
Answer : Sunday
Easter is always a Sunday, the day of the resurrection in Christian tradition; the following Monday is a public holiday in several countries, including France and the UK.
In France, who is said to deliver Easter eggs in the gardens?
Answer : The bells
According to tradition, church bells fall silent before Easter, fly off to Rome, then come back on Easter Day loaded with chocolate eggs.
Which treat is moulded into eggs, hens and rabbits at Easter?
Answer : Chocolate
Moulded into eggs, hens and rabbits, chocolate has become the emblematic Easter treat: it is given to children or hidden in the garden.
How are hard-boiled eggs traditionally decorated at Easter?
Answer : By painting or dyeing them
Painting or dyeing hard-boiled eggs is a very old custom: in Europe, onion skins or plants were used to obtain natural colours.
What is the game called in which children look for eggs hidden in a garden?
Answer : An egg hunt
The egg hunt is the great Easter game for children; it is played in many countries, from France to the United States.
Which Christian festival celebrates the resurrection of Jesus?
Answer : Easter
Easter is the most important festival of the Christian calendar: according to the Gospels, it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus three days after the crucifixion.
Easy
What is the Sunday before Easter called, recalling Jesus's entry into Jerusalem?
Answer : Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday opens Holy Week, one week before Easter; worshippers carry blessed branches of box, olive or palm.
What is the period of penance before Easter called?
Answer : Lent
Lent lasts forty days, not counting Sundays, in memory of Jesus's forty days in the desert; it begins on Ash Wednesday.
Which day of Holy Week commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus?
Answer : Good Friday
Good Friday, two days before Easter, is a day of reflection for Christians; it is a public holiday in many countries, including the UK and Germany.
In which country did the tradition of a hare bringing eggs to children, the Osterhase, originate?
Answer : Germany
A hare bringing eggs to well-behaved children is recorded in Germany as early as the 17th century; German emigrants later introduced it to the United States.
Which tree produces the beans from which chocolate is made?
Answer : The cacao tree
The cacao tree grows in humid tropical regions; its pods contain beans that are fermented, dried and then roasted.
Which Central American civilisation was already drinking cocoa long before the Europeans arrived?
Answer : The Maya
The Maya, then the Aztecs, prepared a bitter, spiced cocoa drink reserved for the elite; the Spanish brought it back to Europe in the 16th century.
Which Jewish festival is the date of Easter historically linked to?
Answer : Passover
The Gospels place Jesus's Passion at the time of Passover, which commemorates the exodus from Egypt; in many languages the word for Easter comes from Hebrew pesach.
Which animal traditionally represents Christ in Easter imagery?
Answer : The lamb
The paschal lamb recalls the lamb sacrificed at the Jewish Passover; in the New Testament, the title 'Lamb of God' designates Christ.
Medium
Which Italian sweet bread shaped like a bird is traditionally eaten at Easter?
Answer : Colomba
The colomba pasquale is the Easter version of Christmas panettone: a sweet bread topped with almond glaze and pearl sugar, its shape recalling the dove of peace.
In the Greek Orthodox tradition, what colour are Easter eggs?
Answer : Red
Red eggs evoke the blood of Christ and life; on Easter Day people tap them against each other, and the owner of the egg that stays intact is said to have good luck.
For which family did the House of Fabergé create precious, jewelled Easter eggs?
Answer : The Russian imperial family
About fifty imperial eggs were made for the court of the tsars; each hid a miniature surprise, often a tiny jewel or a mechanical object.
Which ingredient from the cocoa bean makes up white chocolate?
Answer : Cocoa butter
White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar and milk, but neither cocoa mass nor cocoa powder; that is what sets it apart from dark chocolate.
Which Christian festival falls seven weeks after Easter?
Answer : Pentecost
Pentecost is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter, hence its name from the Greek; it commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles.
Which country is famous for pysanky, Easter eggs decorated with geometric patterns using wax?
Answer : Ukraine
Pysanky are decorated with a wax-resist technique, the wax being applied before dyeing; each motif has a meaning, such as protection or prosperity.
Between which dates can Easter fall in the Gregorian calendar?
Answer : Between 22 March and 25 April
Because Easter depends on the equinox and the full moon, its date varies: 22 March is the earliest possible and 25 April the latest.
According to the calculation rule, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon following which moment?
Answer : The spring equinox
This rule explains why Easter moves every year; the Church fixes the spring equinox at 21 March and relies on tables of lunar dates.
Hard
Which Australian animal often replaces the rabbit in Easter chocolates, rabbits being considered pests there?
Answer : The bilby
In Australia the introduced rabbit is an invasive species; the bilby, a small endangered marsupial, has become an Easter alternative that raises awareness of its protection.
What is the Church calculation used to set the date of Easter called?
Answer : The computus
The computus combines the cycle of the Sun and that of the Moon; in the Middle Ages it was a science studied in monasteries.
Which council, held in 325, laid the foundations for a date of Easter shared by all Christians?
Answer : The Council of Nicaea
Held under Emperor Constantine, the Council of Nicaea asked that Easter be kept on a Sunday, independently of the date of the Jewish Passover; the details were settled later.
Which German mathematician devised a famous algorithm for calculating the date of Easter?
Answer : Carl Friedrich Gauss
Carl Friedrich Gauss published his method in 1800 and corrected it in 1816; it uses only divisions and remainders, which makes it easy to program.
Why do the Orthodox Churches often celebrate Easter on a different date from Catholics and Protestants?
Answer : They calculate the date using the Julian calendar
The Orthodox calculation relies on the Julian calendar, which is now thirteen days out of step with the Gregorian; the two dates coincide only in some years.
In which century did the first chocolate Easter eggs appear in Europe?
Answer : The 19th century
Solid, mouldable chocolate only became possible in the 19th century thanks to advances in manufacturing; before that, chocolate was consumed mainly as a drink.
Which Swiss man developed milk chocolate in 1875?
Answer : Daniel Peter
Daniel Peter spent nearly eight years learning to blend milk and chocolate; he had teamed up with his neighbour Henri Nestlé, a milk specialist.
In which country do children dress up as little witches at Easter to ask for sweets?
Answer : Sweden
In Sweden, the påskkärringar are children dressed as old witches, headscarf on, who hand out Easter drawings in exchange for sweets; Finland has a similar custom.
Expert
For whom did Tsar Alexander III intend the very first Fabergé Easter egg in 1885?
Answer : His wife Maria Feodorovna
Nicknamed the Hen Egg, it holds a golden yolk, then a hen, then a miniature crown; delighted, the tsar ordered a new egg every year.
In which year will Easter fall on 25 April, the latest possible date?
Answer : 2038
This extreme date is rare: Easter fell on 25 April in 1943 and will do so again in 2038; 22 March, the earliest date, will not return until 2285.
Which 6th-century monk, author of Easter tables, is behind our numbering of years from the birth of Christ?
Answer : Dionysius Exiguus
Dionysius Exiguus, a monk from Scythia, calculated Easter tables in 525; he numbered the years from the Incarnation in them, hence the Christian era.
What are the early Christians called who celebrated Easter on the fourteenth day of the Jewish month of Nisan, whatever the day of the week?
Answer : Quartodecimans
This practice, widespread in Asia Minor in the 2nd century, caused a long disagreement with Rome, where Easter was kept on a Sunday; the question was settled later.
Which process developed by Rodolphe Lindt in 1879 gives chocolate its melting texture?
Answer : Conching
In the conche, prolonged heated kneading refines the particles and reduces bitterness and acidity; the name comes from its shell-like shape.
Which invention by Coenraad van Houten in 1828 made it possible to produce cocoa powder and solid chocolate?
Answer : The cocoa press
The press separates cocoa mass into cocoa butter and a low-fat powder; this powder, easier to mix, paved the way for modern chocolate.
What does Theobroma, the scientific name of the cacao tree given by Linnaeus, mean in Greek?
Answer : Food of the gods
Carl Linnaeus chose this name in 1753 to say that cocoa is fit for the gods; the word comes from the Greek theos (god) and broma (food).
Which US president opened the White House lawn in 1878 to the tradition of rolling Easter eggs?
Answer : Rutherford B. Hayes
Congress had banned children from rolling eggs on the Capitol lawns; President Hayes invited them to his own, and the event traditionally takes place on Easter Monday.