The girl used to go to the Independent Bonn International School, IBIS for short, on Heiderhof. The school is a good place to learn how Easter is celebrated in other parts of the world. McLean is US-American and reports that the traditions there are not much different from those in Germany - perhaps they are a little more commercial, she says. The central event: "Egg hunt", a big event also in the garden of the White House, McLean experienced it herself as a child.

The eggs are colourfully dyed before Easter, the house or flat is decorated, and at night the Easter Bunny does his work. The Easter custom was brought to the USA by German immigrants and has evolved: When the children have found the eggs, they let them roll down a slope - or push them across the White House lawn with long spoons; the US president acts as referee. Because of the Corona pandemic, this is cancelled this year just as it was in 2020. There are similar events in England, Denmark and even in Germany.

All over the world, the right pastry is a central culinary Easter component, be it Kulitsch, the Russian Easter bread, the Spanish Easter cake Mona de Pascua or the Irish Simnel cake. The latter, reports IBIS deputy headmistress Tara O'Shea, is baked at least a month before Easter, is filled with dried fruit and covered with marzipan. On top of this layer are twelve marzipan balls. "They represent the twelve apostles." Of course, one important ingredient must not be missing: whiskey. For the children too? "We're hardened," says O'Shea with that likeable Irish laugh.

Easter is a very spiritual occasion in Catholic Ireland, she says. Egg hunts and Easter feasts are also part of it, but people often go to church the week before Easter, they take Lent very seriously. In normal times, O'Shea always flies to Ireland over Easter and meets the family.

All over the world it is a celebration of family, which is why Easter is not quite as nice for many this year. In Italy, for example, people usually celebrate very exuberantly, report IBIS student parents Michela and Ulrico Villani Polic. They come from Rome and live with Federico (7) and Ludovico (11) at the Heiderhof.

"Sunday is an opportunity to be with the family," says the father of the family. They meet the relatives, then they have a big breakfast with cakes - the savoury one is called casatiello and is filled with ham and cheese, the sweet one is pastiera, with ricotta and orange blossom flavouring, among other things - and corellina, a kind of salami. Lunch is even more sumptuous, usually lamb.

In the afternoon, it's back to pastries, pandoro and panetone, as well as colomba pasquale, a chocolate-filled cake in the shape of a dove, and sugar lambs. For Ludovico, the meeting with relatives is the main thing, but for Federico something else is important: "I like the chocolate eggs and the presents." The eggs are huge, the presents are inside.

Things get crazy, and on the streets, on Easter Monday, usually. That's the day you meet friends. "Everyone leaves their houses." Restaurants are normally fully booked, people get together for barbecues in parks or open the holiday home season if they have one. Restaurants were closed this year, but traffic was still bad, Michela Villani Polic says. Easter in Italy also means processions with statues of Jesus and the Pope's Urbi-et-orbi blessing in St Peter's Square in Rome.

Easter is a time of new beginnings and is meant to inspire hope, and all respondents find this important, especially in these times. "People also get together to make positive plans for the future," says Ulrico Villani Polic. Sandra McLean conveys hope to her daughter "that the hard times will soon be over". And one should take the opportunity to "think about what you have that others don't", says Tara O'Shea.

(Original text: Stefan Knopp / Translation: Mareike Graepel)