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There has been an Easter market for 350 years around the Kalvarienberg Church located in the 17th District (tram 43). Among the many offerings a typical toy found in this market is the tree climber, a carved manikin which can be made to climb up and down a stick. It is supposed to be a replica of the biblical Zacchaeus, who climbed a tree in Jericho, the better to see Jesus. This market runs from Ash Wednesday (March 21) Until Easter Monday (April 9) daily 10:00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m. More Info (German) Traditional Viennese Easter Market along the Feyung. Merchants from Vienna and surrounding areas will offer numerous beautiful and traditional easter decorations - more than 35.000 easter eggs in all variations, easter candles, palm leaves, flowers, stoneware, ceramics, eggs in different sizes, toys and handcraft from all over Austria. There will be also easter-snacks from Austrian provinces. Easter-puppet-performances, workshops and a traditional music-programm on the little stage beside the easter tree. Freyung square in the 1st district - close to Schottenkirche - is one of Vienna's most beautiful squares.
Schönbrunn
Palace Easter decorations - Easter eggs in all variations, palm leaves, Easter candles and flower arrangements - will be on show together with artefacts from all over Austria, including glassware, ceramics, stoneware, tin toys, straw animals and beekeeping products. There will also be freshly prepared snacks from Vienna and the Austrian provinces. For children, there are Easter games and workshops where they can make Easter bunnies and other objects. More Info There are numerous other Easter markets in districts throughout the city offering huge varieties of hand-blown decorated eggs, carved bunnies, assorted other wooden toys, handicrafts, sprays of spring flowers and the lamb and baked goods for your Holiday meals. List
English-speaking Easter worship services are available in Vienna. Read More
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March 23, 2008 is Easter in Vienna and in all of Austria is observed both Sunday and Monday. Many of the smaller stores and most offices close mid-afternoon on Good Friday and do not reopen until the following Tuesday. Austrian students get Tuesday off also. The Easter celebration for some in Vienna may be secular, but the trimmings stemming from those celebrations are steeped in religious custom.
In addition pastries and bread also figure prominently into Vienna's Easter fare, Easter bread with raisins is baked in twisted or braided strands and with the coffee later the traditional Sachertorte might be served.
Easter dinner like other meals in Vienna are a time to slow down and enjoy the time with family and friends, so don't be surprised if a few hours later you are still sitting at the table. If this is your first Easter in Vienna got to a concert in one of Vienna's, churches or a walk through one of the numerous Easter markets, but most all "genießen Sie den Moment"
If you look back through the centuries at some of the symbols and customs associated with Easter, curious origins emerge. In the early days of Christianity, the church incorporated many pagan rites of spring into its Easter celebrations as it struggled to gain acceptance as the primary religion in Europe. Pagan rituals using bells, drums, bonfires, processions, and dancing, all once employed to drive away the bad spirits of winter and celebrate spring, were adapted by early Christians to celebrate Christ's Resurrection instead. Read More
Vienna,
long the capital city of the mostly Catholic Habsburg Empire, is
richly endowed with religious treasures from earlier times,
especially treasures relating to Easter. Before the invention of the
printing press, the church relied heavily on visual aids such as
paintings, sculpture, altars, reliquaries, and even theater to teach
its mostly illiterate parishioners the gospel as well as to spread
the faith to those it wished to convert. What follows is a guide to
some of Vienna's amazing Easter treasures: Read
More
They are sometimes called Judas fires, because effigies of Judas Iscariot are frequently burned in them. The Easter eve bonfires predate Christianity and were originally intended to celebrate the arrival of spring. The burning effigy once symbolized winter.
Before the invention of the printing press, the church relied on visual aids such as paintings, sculpture, and even theater to teach the illiterate the gospel and to spread the faith. Passion plays focused on the events surrounding Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection. These plays were popular in the Middle Ages, but by the second half of the 18th century, largely forbidden. In Austria though, they can still be seen. The oldest from 1613 is performed in Erl in Tyrol every six years, as well as in Thiersee, also in the Tyrol, and for 200 years at the Roman quarry in St. Margarethen in the Burgenland. These plays, however, are performed during Lent or Easter, nor are some perfromed year. Read More: www.passionsspiele.at Three Passion theater sets survive in Vienna from the middle of the 18th century and can be seen during Lent (after mass or by appointment) in a side chapel of Mariabrunn Church located in the outskirts of the 14th District. These remarkable Baroque theater sets illustrate the Last Supper, Jesus sweating blood, and the Judas kiss. Read more in German www.mariabrunn.at
Sound of Easter 2008 music festival with works from the baroque to the contemporary The Sound of Easter festival will take place in the international city of music to celebrate the resurrection and the spring from March 14 to 24. Traditionally the festival is opened by the Vienna Philharmonic in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. In 2008 Nikolaus Harnoncourt will conduct Robert Schumann’s oratorio, Das Paradies und die Peri. Martin Haselböck will be conducting Bach’s St John Passion at the Theater an der Wien on March 18. At the Minoritenkirche on March 21 mezzo-soprano Ann Murray will be performing Boccherini’s hymn, Stabat Mater, while the Moscow Patriarchal Choir will be performing Russian liturgical songs the following day. An operatic gem from the early days of the romantic era is also on the program. Fabio Luisi and Torsten Fischer will be presenting Cherubinis Médée the human tragedy of a female outsider trapped between love and hate (March 15, 17 and 20). Under Fabio Luisi the Vienna Philharmonic will be playing in the spring on Easter Sunday with a program entitled In The Name Of The Rose in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. It will include works by Johann Strauss (son), Richard Strauss, Aram Khachaturian and Carl Michael Ziehrer. On Easter Monday the festival closes on a pastoral note with a Beethoven matinee performed by pianist and Beethoven specialist Melvyn Tan at the Theater an der Wien. More Info |
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Food
plays a prominent role in any holiday, and Easter is no exception.
The pig has always been a symbol of good luck and prosperity among Indo-Europeans
and the age-old custom of eating pig or boar meat is still alive,
also you might find lamb on the menu, or rabbit and not the chocolate
kind. (This was a shock on my first Easter here, and I had to remark
to my partner we usually did not eat the Easter bunny where I came from.) 
At
many Easter dinner tables you will find a basket of dyed eggs and of
course a nice wine and a lovely centerpiece made from pussy willows
mixed with spring flowers like tulips with and beautiful hand painted
Easter eggs hanging from them.
In
the Alpine provinces of Austria, Easter fires burn on mountain peaks
after sunset on Holy Saturday, and bands ofmusicians go through the
towns, playing sacred hymns.©Virtual Vienna Net 1998-2008