Happy Easter

I was talking to a friend yesterday that lives in sweden he has a 5 yr old little girl and I said she must be really excited coloring eggs and all. He told me ..."well we celebrate Easter a little different here." He went on to tell me that it's more like our Halloween. Now I have friends that are always trying to pull one over on me so at first I couldn't believe it. I asked if they dress up like bunnies and go door to door...he told me no they dress like witches and went on to tell me this story ....
On the Easter morning people usually was a bit hesitant when starting of a fire in the fireplace. This as the one who first got smoke up the chimney was believed to be one of the Easter Hags. This at it was common that the Easter Hags got caught in the chimneys on their way home from Blåkulla. To be really sure that the chimney was free from magical beings you had to burn 9 different types of deciduous trees.

Before the Easter Hags could fly of from their brooms they had to smear the broom or the object with which they intended to fly with a special mixture of secret origin. On their way to BlåKula they often gathered in some nearby church tower to get company for the long voyage. At the same time they could an opportunity to scrape off some metal from the church bells. According to some theories the metal was used as one of the ingredients to the mixture they used, but other theories states that they dropped the filings in lakes on their way. This they did because they wanted to show that they where as far to god as the filings where from their bell.

At Blåkulla a lot of witches had gathered, most of them from the soldiers own county. Satan self was there and played with the witches. After the meal the witches started to fight with knifes, exclaiming 'I dag delt i morgon helt' to protect themselves from injuries. The soldier on his side saw his opportunity, took a knife and started to cut every witch in sight as much as he could shouting 'helt idag, delt i morgon'. At the next day, everyone could se which women was witches.

People did everything they could to protect themselves from the evil powers at play these days. They lit bonfires, shot of firearms into the sky, painted crosses, stars and other holy symbols on their doors, buried psaltars under their threshold and hung scythes and axes criss cross over their live stock. Hysterical fear of the supernatural has triggered off witch trials from time to time over the centuries, sending unknown numbers of women to the gallows or the stake.

I never knew this and thought I would share it with all. It amazes me all the many different ways one holiday could be celebrated.