Spring Awakening Trivia Quiz

Answer: Red

The custom of dyeing eggs red to represent the blood of Christ originated with early Christians in Mesopotamia, and spread across eastern Europe through the Orthodox churches. This practice is also carried out in other Orthodox Christian countries such as Armenia and Georgia; soaking hard-boiled eggs in a mixture of water, vinegar and onion skins is one way of dyeing them, and gives them a pretty pattern. According to some traditions, Mary Magdalene brought a basket of cooked eggs to share with other women at Jesus' tomb, and when he rose from the dead, the eggs turned red.

The hard shell of the egg also represents the tomb of Jesus, and in Greece, there is a game called Tsougrisma ('egg cracking') which involves tapping red eggs against each other to crack the shells. The winner is the person whose egg remains intact. Before tapping the eggs, one person says, "Christos anesti" ("Christ has risen") and the other replies with "alithos anesti" ("he truly has").

Answer: Ethiopia

Fasika (Amharic for 'Easter') is the most important festival in the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar, and the Lenten fast equivalent lasts for 55 days, rather than forty. On Easter Saturday, the Paschal Vigil takes place at night, with songs and dancing until the early morning; at midnight, a chicken is ritually slaughtered and at 3 AM, worshippers go home to break the fast.

A sheep (representing the sacrifice Abraham made in place of Isaac) is slaughtered on Easter Sunday to signal the start of the feasting; traditional Ethiopian Easter meals include doro bread, made with milk and honey, and a mead-like drink called tej.

Answer: Swings

Latvia is another country with red hard-boiled eggs, but another aspect of Lieldinas is the wooden swing. Swings are big enough for two people to climb on and swing on while standing up, and everyone is supposed to take a turn on the swing; tradition says that not only does it encourage fertility - men and women are encouraged to swing together - it also keeps mosquitoes at bay! Onlookers sing 'iesūpoja, ielīgoja, kas iekāpa sūpolēs?' ('swing, swing, who climbed onto the swing?') The traditional location for the swing is between two oak trees on a hill, and swinging should take place on Lieldinas morning when the sun rises. After a week, the swings are burned so witches cannot swing on them.

Another Lieldinas tradition involves the first person in a house to wake up on Palm Sunday hitting the other residents with pūpolu, or pussy willows.

Answer: Dove

Why lamb of all meats? It's partly because one of the names for Jesus is the Lamb of G-d (and in the Book of Revelation, Jesus appears in the form of a lamb), and partly because lambs have a history of being sacrificial animals, from Biblical times onwards. A typical Easter dish in Italy is abbacchio (a term for a lamb that is either suckling or has recently been weaned), a lamb stew with many regional variants such as abbacchio alla cacciatore (lamb browned with lard and cooked with onions, tomatoes, herbs and anchovy paste) or abbacchio all'etrusca, with mint and sheep's cheese.

The dove is also an animal that appears in the Bible, such as in the story of Noah, and is a symbol of peace. The Colombia di Pasqua is a dove-shaped fruit cake similar to the Christmas panettone, but with candied peel instead of raisins, and topped with almonds and pearl sugar. Like panettone, it was commercialised by the Milanese baker Angelo Motta.

Answer: Guatemala

Alfombras are created from a mixture of sawdust and wood shavings, pine needles, rice, fruit and vegetables, and even tea bags and bottle caps. The custom originated from the Spanish conquistadores who introduced Catholicism to the region. They're a real work of art, often vividly and richly coloured, and depicting Biblical and Maya art, floral and geometric patterns. The alfombras are assembled by church or community groups, who come up with the designs and then painstakingly create the carpets, using stencils to create the patterns, sieves for sieving paints, brushes and water to keep the sawdust damp and stop it blowing away.

On Good Friday and Easter Sunday, parades take place on the alfombras, with carved wooden floats called 'andas'. After the parades have ended, the remnants of the alfombras are swept away, as they are largely destroyed by the pedestrian traffic.

Answer: Almonds

Almonds, or amêndoas de Páscoa, are exchanged at Easter in Portugal, sometimes for folar (a savoury or sweet Easter bread, sometimes stuffed with ham and sausage, sometimes made with citrus zest and star anise) or for flowers. In the latter case, godchildren give their godparents a floral gift - violets for godmothers and olive branches for godfathers - and the godparents give them almonds. The almonds usually have a colourful sugar coating, like the French dragée, but they can also be coated in chocolate or salted caramel.

Other Portuguese Easter dishes include pão de ló, an eggy cake, and cabrito, roast lamb or goat with chestnuts.

Answer: Throw water over them

Śmigus-Dyngus is celebrated across Central Europe, but is mainly associated with Poland. The origins of the custom are unknown; suggestions include watering a doll of the Corn Mother to celebrate the oncoming harvest, or the water representing the spring rain.

In the olden days, men would stand on roofs and recite verses about which girls would be soaked. Some unfortunate girls would be dragged out of their beds and dunked in a river, or soaked while still in bed! In some parts of Poland, men will wear colourful costumes or dress as bears while looking for a woman to soak. Nowadays, it goes both ways and women are just as likely to throw water over men.

As with Latvia, boys also sometimes whip girls with pussy willows.

Answer: Cheese

The Jamaican Easter bun is more of a cake than a bun, but it evolved from the hot cross buns brought over to Jamaica by English colonisers. Like the hot cross bun, Jamaican bun contains dried fruits, but it is richer and spicier, as Jamaicans use molasses instead of honey, as well as additional spices such as allspice.

It is traditionally eaten with savoury cheese, with the cheese served in slices and eaten between slices of bun as a sandwich, or spread on the bun. Some bun variants contain alcohol such as stout, or guava jam.

Answer: Bilby

Rabbits might be cute and cuddly for some people, but for others, they're pests, and damage crops. Rabbits are not native to Australia and were actually introduced there by English settlers so that they could hunt them. The rabbit population shot up and caused a knock-on effect for native animal populations by competing with them for food, and removing seedlings, which in turn prevents native trees and shrubs from propagating. Nicholas Newland of the Rabbit-Free Australia Campaign came up with the idea of an Easter Bilby in 1991, bilbies being both cute and native to Australia; several stories have also been written featuring the Easter Bilby, such as 'Billy the Aussie Easter Bilby' by Rose-Marie Dusting.

The first chocolate bilbies were sold at the Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary. Various chocolate producers such as Cadbury and Pink Lady have marketed and sold chocolate bilbies, with the proceeds going to fund bilby conservation efforts. However, in recent years, interest in the Easter Bilby has declined.

Answer: Simnel cake

Simnel cake is the Easter equivalent of Christmas cake, in that it is a fruit cake decorated with marzipan or almond paste. It is traditionally topped with eleven balls of marzipan, representing the apostles minus Judas Iscariot, although sometimes a twelfth ball is added to represent Jesus. As with Christmas cake, brandy is sometimes used as a flavouring; other recipes use orange flower water.

Simnel cake is also associated with Mothering Sunday, when domestic servants would take the day off to go to their family's church or 'mother church'. The name 'simnel' is thought to come from the Latin 'simila', for white flour.