Who brings the eggs?  
In Upper Bavaria it is the cockerel who brings the eggs. In Franconia and Thuringia the fox brings them; in Hanover it is the cuckoo; and in Bad Salzungen in Hess, the crane. 

Color of first egg found brings good or bad luck 
If the first egg found is blue, this is unlucky; if it is red, three days of good luck will follow. 
 
Egg presents  
Blown eggs with messages inside promising to do some task such as polishing the father's shoes or doing the dishes, may be given to parents. Small presents may also be given to friends inside manufactured cardboard Easter Eggs that open to reveal the gift. 

Egg decorations  
Blown eggs are decorated and hung on forsythia branches or a small "Easter Tree." They may be stuck on sticks, decorated with ribbons, and arranged in a vase with an Easter bird made of an eggshell and paper as the centerpiece, or they may be strung in chains and hung from branches.  

Well dressing  
 In the Franconian mountains wells are dressed at Easter, decorated with pine and bunting, and cleaned for the occasion. Water taken from the well before dawn on Easter Sunday may sprinkled over the field for a good harvest. 

Source: German Festivals and Customs by Jennifer M. RUSL London: Oswald Wolff, 1982, p.45-55. 

German egg tree customs  

A branch hung with blown egg shells, or tiny wooden eggs is popular in many German homes. At Bastei, children colored shells or roots on a fruit tree in the garden. In Schandan people plant a birch trunk in the ground near the house and decorate it. In Rathmannsdorf, young boys and girls walked round the Easter tree on Easter night. They presented the tree to the Easter Virgin, who gave them cake and coffee. 

Source: An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study by Venetia Newell Bloornington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1971, pp. 309-309.  
 

"Crooked Wednesday"  

Popular custom has found nothing to do on the Monday and Tuesday but on 'crooked Wednesday', knunme Mittwoch (when Judas supposed to have hanged himself), Westphalians 'take fasting-time and (w)ring its neck off, while children in the Herford district used to hang ring-shaped pretzels on willow switches and sing: 

"Geen Thursday"  
 

"Grudonnerstag", 'green Thursday' (the color green was a symbol of being cleansed from sin) was the day for cleaning the brushing one's clothes and taking a bath. And one would eat green things, -chives, herbs and spinach- and honey for breakfast: people in Hamburg and the Harz hills like rolls filled with honey and call them Judasohren, 'Judas' ears'. Try an egg laid Green Thursday-it will do you a world of good, and if its brother egg hatches out the bird will change the color of its feathers every year. 
  
 Good Friday  

Good Friday, Kaifreitag or stille Freitag, has generally been quiet fast-day in Germany, although in the Eifel hills a splendid procession with tableaux vivants of Bible scenes marched for all to -Samson slaying the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass- Jonah in the fish's belly, Jesus with the twelve apostles; but it became 'too worldly' and was banned by 1800. Good Friday is day for sowing flowers; if you cut your hair on Good Friday it will grow strong and thick; if you cool a hot iron in Good Friday water' it will cure warts; and Westphalians say that rain on Good Friday will 'bless the whole year'. 

Easter Saturday  

Easter Saturday Westphalian boys would gather at midnight to 'hunt' the Judas' with much stamping and ear-splitting noise from wooden rattles. In Silesia the bell-ringer came to put out the candles before the morning service and then, wearing a red coat, became Judas and was driven out of the church by the village children. 

Easter Day  

The dramatic change from mourning to triumph is heralded in the Tyrol early on Easter morning, when a fire is lit with flint and steel before the church door. From this new fire the church candles are lighted afresh and the villagers bring lighted faggots back to their homes before returning to witness the events of  Easter Sunday with all its color, candles and flowers, the purple victor's robe and the white Easter flag, the crash of trumpets and organ music and the joyous ringing of bells. 

Easter customs and superstitions 

Easter eggs have been laid for centuries. Generally the Easter Hare claims to have laid them, and Swabians make him a Hasengartle, a 'hare's garden', out of willow twigs and moss, for the purpose, but he has competitors: the cock, in Upper Bavaria and Austria, the stork, in Franconian Thuringia, the fox, near Hanover, the cuckoo, at Bad Salzungen, the crane, and even the capercailzie. 

Eggs had been forbidden during Lent, and were the pagan symbol of fertility, two good reasons for eating plenty at Easter time. One gave eggs as presents, and the number given had a meaning in the Eifel, where one egg given by a girl to her young man meant 'what a pity' and six meant 'time to get married'. In Sweden, courting couples would blow eggs, paint them with flowers and fill them with rolled-up slips of paper inscribed with wishes, verses and terms of endearment before presenting them. 

Games with Easter eggs abound: finding them, rolling them downhill, or playing 'conkers' with them as though they were chestnuts, and one played on into Easter Monday. But Faster food was serious and was taken to church to be blessed: eggs, bread, salt and meat. The most typical thing to eat at Easter is the Easter loaf, a kind of unleavened bread in various shapes-the Alemannic quartered Schild, the East Frisian Plas-kes, the Saxon Quarkkeilchen, the Swabian Ostergeigen, the Upper Bavarian Osierlaibi, the Pomeranian Osterwolf with its four paws and open mouth, and the enormous Viennese Osterkuchen. 

Horses had an Easter airing too. Young men at Hoxter in Westphalia would meet at the church on horseback and ride off in a body, then suddenly break ranks and gallop, each for himself, towards a cross-shaped winning-post. One did not have to bother about damage, since Easter rides are good for the crops, and the prize was a valuable cake, baked in the shape of a horse-a Westphalian horse, naturally. If you lived near Traunstein you would go on the Georgi-Ritt and ride with St. George on his white horse to Ettendorf church on Easter Monday; and this ride is now a pageant with knights, men-at-arms, heralds and fanfares. 

Even running water was infected with magic at Easter time, provided you rose before sunrise and scooped it up in a down-stream direction, and you had to do it silently, if you made a noise it was Plapperwasser, 'babble-water', and would do you no good. And at Hildesheim belief ran strong that running water turned at an unexpected moment on Easter night into wine. There were citizens who were prepared to wait all night on their stomachs with their tongues in a local brook for the magic moment to arrive. 
Source: A Calendar of German Customs by Richard Thonger. London: Oswald Wolff, 1966, pp.35-36. 

Following a custom going back to the tenth century, all the kinds of food that were forbidden during the weeks of Lent are arranged in baskets and the Church has a special blessing to be pronounced on this food on Easter morning by the priest meat and eggs and butter, salt and Easter bread. We remember how in small country churches these baskets would be placed on the Communion rail, and how in larger communities the people would hold them in their arms while the priest, after pronouncing the blessing, would go down the aisle sprinkling holy water over the food.  

This is what singles out the Easter breakfast from all other meals of the year-that we partake of this solemnly blessed food. Ham and Easter bread and colored eggs and  many flowers and pussy willows and silken ribbons give the table a festive look. Artistically painted eggs are usually kept by the owners throughout the year, but the simply colored eggs are now used for "Eierpecken." Around the table everyone  takes an egg in hand, and now, by two's, they try to "peck" the other ones egg first. The one who indents the other's egg, while his own remain un-cracked, harvests the cracked egg. The one who  
finally has the most is hailed as victor.  
 
 Boellershiessen   

In the old country all the big feasts, but especially Easter, are  accompanied by "Boellerschiessen." The young men use old fashioned  heavy rifles, and particularly in mountainous parts of the country where the echo takes up those cannon-like detonations add tremendously to the festive character of the day.  

Easter Bonfires 

And there's still another thing, the Easter fire. On all the heights and summits innumerable bonfires are lit in honor of the Risen lord.  

Visiting the sick on Easter Monday  

For Easter Monday there is an old custom, still very much alive in the old country, which might well be duplicated here, even though Easter Monday is not generally a holiday, as it is in  Europe.  In honor of the Gospel of the day, which tells of the two disciples who went to Emmaus and met Our Lord on the way,  Easter Monday became a visiting day. Wherever there are old or sick people, they are visited by young and old.  

Source: Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp. New York: Pantheon, 1955, pp.141-142. 
 

Palm Sunday switching 

In East Finland, Palm Sunday is known as Virposunnuntai, Willowswitch Sunday, and Palm Saturday is known as Willowswitch Saturday. Children used to go from house to house early on Saturday morning with freshly cut willow switches, decorated with cloth streamers. They would spank the woman of the house lightly and recite, "Virpoi, varpoi, vitsat kayvat. Tulevaks vueks tuoreeks, terveeks" or, "Switching, switching, switches, wishing freshness and health this year." The woman of the house used a switch on her livestock in the same way, and the switches were saved, stuck in the ham ceiling, to be used the first time the cattle were driven to pasture in the new year. On Easter Sunday the children returned to collect a treat for their switching service. Eligible young girls were also switched in some areas to wish them a good marriage. 

Foretelling the spring with budded branches 

Willow or birch branches brought inside on this day were watched. The forest trees would bud in as many weeks as the days it took these branches to open. 

Easter swings and teeter-totters 

In southwest Finland, children constructed teeter-totters on Easter Morning or set up Easter swings. 
Source: Easter the World Over by Priscilla Sawyer Lord and Daniel B. Foley. Philadelphia: Chilton, 1971, pp.86-88. 

Norway

If you are the first, the very first, to see the sunrise on Easter morning, you will see the sun dance. And if you are lucky enough to see the sun dance on Easter morning, then you will have happiness for all the rest of your life.  But it is not easy. To begin with, you can try only once: you must be all alone, and above all, you must have been born on Sunday. 

Source: Sidsel Longskir' and Solve Suntrap: Two Children of Norway by Hans Aanrud. New York: Junior Literary Guild and John C. Winston, 1935, p. 129. (A children's novel.) 
 

Netherlands

In rural areas Easter Eve bonfires may be built. The boys chase the girls around the fires and throw soot at them. This is supposed to bring good luck. Easter Sunday preparations Yards are cut and bushes trimmed in preparation for Easter. Houses are cleaned and vases of flowers arranged. On the dining table sits a basket of colored Easter eggs, including chocolate eggs, and nosegays of spring flowers. Paasbrood, Easter bread,  with raisins and currants, is served to guests. 

Easter lifting 

Easter lifting consists of raising a woman into the air three times.  This is done between nine A.M. and noon on Easter Monday.   The  payment is a kiss for every man in the group that lifted her. On the next day, the women lift a man. The "lifting" seems to refer to Christ's Resurrection. 

Source: Easter the World Over by Priscilla Sawyer Lord and Daniel J. Foley. Philadelphia: Chilton, 1971, p.141. 

Pace egging in the 19th century 

In Belgium, Denmark, and The Netherlands children went from house to house singing for eggs. In Denekemp, a boy, representing Judas, led the group on Palm Sunday. The eggs were sold to buy wood for an Easter fire and raisin bread. In the southern part of The Netherlands boys sang for eggs for several days before Easter, collecting as many as possible from each housewife. If eggs were not given, rude songs were sung and the doors and windows thumped. In the Isle of Sylt in Northern Friesland the children sang; "I have an egg decked on its shell with bunting. I have an egg that says 'Good Morning,' One paste egg is nothing, two are a bit, three are a whole paste egg." 

Source: An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study by Venetia Newell. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971, pp. 37~375. 

Easter witches  

     On Maundy Thursday, Easter hags were thought to fly on their brooms to Blakulla to frolic with the Devil. To protect against this evil abroad, people built bonfires, shot off guns, painted crosses over their doors, and hung crossed scythes in stables. 

       Today on Maundy Thursday or Easter Eve, children dress as witches and make house calls. Some leave a decorated "Easter letter" and hope for a treat in return. Easter letters are a widespread custom in western Sweden. They are slipped under the door or into the mailbox, and the sender's identity is secret. In the western provinces Easter bonfires are also popular with villages competing for the biggest blaze. Fireworks may be shot off. 

Source: Traditional Festivities of Sweden by Ingemar Liman  Stockholm: The Swedish Institute, 1985, p.9. 
 

Dressing up like an Easter witch  

      To an Easter witch, a shining copper kettle is essential. She should have a broomstick and a black cat as well, but the throngs of little witches who suddenly appear about the streets on Saturday before Easter usually content themselves with a copper kettle. And, of course, mother's old cotton summer skirt, reaching right down to the ground, a shawl, kerchief and apron. 

     "Ring!" goes the doorbell-and there are three small witches shaking their kettles at you. A coin, or some sweets? Either will do. The round, rouge-blobbed cheeks of the little girls burn even redder with pleasure. Then, with a Swedish little-girl curtsey, they're off to the next door. 

These Easter witches, both the neighbor's young daughter, and the small hand-made decorations on the dinner-table, are a survival of an old belief. For it was once thought that witches flew off to Blakulla or the Brocken-in Germany in order celebrate Easter there. 

Source: Round the Swedish Year by Lorna Downman Paul Britten Austin, and Anthony Baird. Stockholm: The Swedish Institute/Bokforlaget Fabel, 1967, pp.19-20.