Canada

Easter in Canada

The Province of Quebec  - Celebrating Easter in Quebec is very similar to how it is celebrated in other parts of Canada and in the United States. This year Easter is on April 4. Apart from the religious observations popular traditions in Quebec (and Canada) include Easter egg decorating, organizing Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets filled with candy and feasting with family and friends. My husband and I go to Mass on Easter morning and then we go to an Easter brunch at a hotel restaurant in downtown Montreal with his mother. When I was a little girl it was popular to wear new Easter dresses and the girls would all have a new Easter hat. Easter symbols include "pussy willows", "Easter lilies" and "bunnies".

Easter baskets are often filled with a chocolate bunny (or other character) jelly beans and other Easter type candy. In some households these baskets are hidden. Egg decorating us usually done with children at home or at school.

In Quebec Easter usually coincides with Sugar maple time. The sap of the sugar maple tree starts to run. The days are warmer and the nights cold. Families visit Sugar Shacks where a meal of eggs, ham, crepes, baked beans and maple syrup are served. Maple taffy is poured outside in the snow.