Beautifully Festive Easter Traditions Around The World - Part 6. Belgium

Belgium

Belgium - Known for its old towns with a medieval flavor to them and their architecture with the look of the Renaissance era. The European Union and NATO are headquartered there. To the north of the country is where you will find most speaking Dutch and the southern part of the country is more known to speak French. Brussels is it's capital.

Chocolate Fabergé Easter Egg

Not only known for their chocolate, chocolatiers of Belgium are also famous for their designs. So should come as no surprise that one such manufacturer 'Boon' created this beautiful chocolate Fabergé Easter Egg for London store, Harrods for their Easter collection. Boon calls this the Lilies of the Valley Egg, Each piece of the hand made chocolate was put together with tweezers. Chocolatiers love to challenge themselves with new designs.

St. Mary’s Church

As with many other countries, Easter holiday begins on Ash Wednesday the first day of Lent. On this day they go to confession and prayer and the priest blesses them with an ash cross across their forehead. This day is also the day they begin their carnival. Many give up eating meat at this time and as with most Catholics they also give up something they love for 40 days as well. Usually it would be something that you might consider hard to live with out, like for instance, I remember a friend in grade school loved Tootsie Rolls on Ash Wednesday her mother gave her a corsage made of the sweets and she wore it every day until the end of Lent. I love them too, I don't know if I could have done it!

Easter Bells

The bells stop ringing from Good Friday until Easter Sunday.

Legend says the Passklokken (Easter bells) fly to Rome and drop eggs on their way back for the children to find.

Yes they even make chocolate bells of course!

An attempt at a Guinness World Record

Easter Sunday usually starts with children going to their garden in the morning and hunting for the eggs the Easter Bells dropped for them. Then most will then head to church for Easter Mass. After mass many families gather at the grandparent's house for yet another egg hunt in their yard. Ending the day with a nice traditional Easter meal.

Monday, the day after Easter, known as Easter Monday, people like to use this day as a day of rest after all the festivities. Many people also get this day off work in Belgium.

Pictured here is an attempt at a Guinness World Record for having the largest Easter Egg Hunt in a park in Brussels on April 8, 2012

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate everywhere!

Look at these Easter chocolates! They make my mouth water! Everything in the basket is edible including the grass! In the lower right is a chocolate egg made by chocolate maker Dominique Persoone. These master pieces are too beautiful to eat!

Can you believe?

On a side note, can you believe they even have a chocolate stamp! Yes a REAL stamp! For a short time the Belgium post office released these chocolate infused stamps which were scented and made with cocoa oil in the glue to make them taste like chocolate when licked. Unbelievable!