April 2022

Season	Spring
Time	Central European Time (CET), same time as South Africa until the last Sunday of October, when Wintertime starts (30 October 2022).
Weather	The temperatures average between 3 °C and 12 °C. The weather can be very fickle in April. It can change from hot to snowing within days and it is very difficult to make long term forecasts It could be warmer or colder, depending on the location. The average daily sunshine is 5 hours.

April is mostly associated with Easter celebrations and holidays.
Many houses and gardens are decorated with Easter bunnies, eggs, and spring flowers. Another tradition is to decorate dry twigs (Osterstrauch) or trees with colorful eggs. One of the biggest Ostereierbäume can be seen in Saalfeld with almost 600 handpainted eggs.
A great activity for kids (also the grown-up ones) is to paint your own easter eggs. They are hung on trees, used for table decorations, or can be given as gifts.

Many towns have Easter markets and decorate the town fountains with Easter eggs. These decorated fountains are called Osterbrunnen.

It is also pollen season. You can have a look at the Pollenkalender here

Holidays

Holiday	Date	Information	States
Public Holidays
Good Friday / Karfreitag	2022-04-15	Karfreitag	All
Easter Sunday / Ostersonntag	2022-04-17	Ostersonntag
Easter Monday / Ostermontag	2022-04-18	Ostermontag
Observations
Palm Sunday / Palmsonntag	2022-04-10	The Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Maudy Thursday / Gründonnerstag	2022-04-14	Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the Feet and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, as described in the canonical gospels	All
Karsamstag	2022-04-16	Six days before Ash Wednesday More info	All
Walpurgisnacht	2022-04-30		All
School Holidays and Terms
Easter Holidays	Various	School Holidays	All except Hamburg

The Oberammergau Passion play
Ostermärkte / Easter markets
The Frühlingsfest in Stuttgart
The Frühlingsfest in München
Berliner Halbmarathon

Food and drinks to try

There is a South African Easter Recipes on our website.

Gründonnerstag:
Gründonnerstag sounds like green Thursday although it is derived from the old German word greinen, which means crying. Thus many people celebrate by eating green dishes, such as the following:
– Seven herb soup / Sieben Kräutersuppe
– Chervil soup / Kerbelsuppe
– Eggs in green sauce / Eier in grüner Sauce

Karfreitag:
Church bells are silent on Good Friday. Families may go to church and in some towns, such as Bensheim you will see processions.
Dancing is not allowed on Good Friday, neither are weddings. The shops are closed.
It is a tradition to eat fish at dinner with your family.
– Fish cakes with green sauce / Fishfrikadellen mit grüner Sauce

Ostersamstag:
In Northern Germany, people light Easter fires (das Osterfeuer) as a symbol of light in the darkness.
These fires are sometimes lit on Good Friday or Easter Sunday.

Ostersonntag:
Families come together to celebrate. They may go to church together and then have a big brunch or a festive dinner.
The main dish is often lamb.
Children hunt for Easter eggs.

– Colorful boiled eggs / Bunte Frühstückseier – served with Black Forest ham and Emmentaler cheese
– Easter bunny brioches / Osterhasebrioches
– Roast leg of lamb with juniper berry sauce / Lammkeule mit Wacholderbeerensauce
– Biennenstich cake. Click on this link for other Easter cake recipes
– Easter lamb cake
– Hefezopf
– German Sweat Bread nests

Ostermontag:
Easter Monday is a day of remembrance and reflection.

Other Foods:
Before Easter, you will find Easter bread (das Osterbrot) in most bakeries.
Brightly colored boiled eggs and of course beautiful chocolate easter eggs in the bakeries
The asparagus season (die Spargelsaison) starts in middle April.
Traditionally the white variety is eaten with hollandaise sauce, potatoes, and ham.
To find out how to buy and store asparagus, as well as some recipes, read our page about the German white gold.

Fruits and veggies in season

Vocabulary

Happy Easter	ich wünche dir frohe Ostern
Easter bunny	der Osterhase
Easter egg	das Osterei
Easter lamb	das Osterlamm
Chocolate bunny	der Schokohase
Daffodils	die Osterglocke