There’s one German tradition that I actually thought was a joke or just done ironically, and that is this:

Hanging eggs on trees, bushes, plants, etc. at Easter time.

It still kinda seems a bit silly to me from an outsider’s perspective, like What, you have to decorate at Easter too? Is this like equal rights for all? Like closure for the Xmas tree? What does it mean/symbolize, anyway? Is the Easter bunny expected to hang eggs in trees, with his small, thumbless paws?

Actually I thought this was a tradition for old ladies, like an old wife’s tale or something. I didn’t know that actual people that I might know do this – until I met my husband. On our first Easter together, he wanted to go get pussy willow branches to hang eggs on – and put on his dining room table! I was kinda like are you serious? he said yes this is our tradition I do this every year … it looks nice! While stifling my surprise, I watched him decorate is pussy willow branches with small, plastic eggs on strings. Like a bare, weird Christmas tree.

But, in fact, it really is a common tradition, supposedly centuries old in German-speaking areas, origin unknown. Just drive around town this time of year and you will see not only little colorful, plastic eggs hanging in trees and bushes, but also on anything with branches:

So as we spent our first Easter together with plastic eggs towering over our dinner plates, I felt amused but also slightly uncomfortable.

This was a tradition that I did not understand or share. Not a part of my cultural heritage, so to say. Holiday traditions are so closely connected to not only your personal family traditions, but also to your region and country (and culture) – they are part of you, your past, your family. Living abroad you learn about other traditions for the holidays, experience them first-hand, and excitedly write back home about this or that. It is interesting to see how different cultures celebrate a holiday that we celebrate too, but in a different way.

This tradition is one that my husband and I don’t have in common. But you do it anyway because it is important to the other person! Of course living in the land where this originates, I can’t and don’t expect differently anyway, but as I have written before, integration is not a one-way street. It is about both sides joined and blending into something new. Just as I would NOT be happy (in the short or long run) if my husband didn’t care about Thanksgiving, I know the Easter eggs in the tree are part of what makes Easter Easter for him. He was also not familiar with our tradition of also having an Easter basket hidden by the Easter bunny – but this is also integrated into our family Easter routine. He gets his eggs in a tree, I get my baskets for the kids.

At any rate, in the end, being open to differences is a survival skill as an expat since nothing is ever exactly as “you remember” or as “it always was”. This is true even if you do live in your home country – your partner probably has different holiday traditions that mean a lot to them too!

At the end of the day, I feel life ends up being richer with blended family traditions – elements of both of our cultures and upbringings are involved even though they were foreign at first.

Plus I doubt our kids have any problem with having more holidays than other kids around them…

So in the spirit of blended cultures, this is our tree with eggs in it this year:

And from our house to yours, Happy Easter everyone!!