Easter Beauty Contest

Easter bonfire is a local easter tradition. The story goes like this: with Jesus dying on the cross on the Good Friday, the evil forces are temporarily able to roam freely. Trying to scare the witches away, people start huge bonfires. The bigger flames and more sparks out of the fire, the better it works as a witch repellant. If there is no bonfire, the witches might come to your house and sabotage it or make your cows sick or cast evil spells on your fields or something like that.

On Good Friday, the Lions Club built a bonfire in a small island in the river. They collected money for some good cause, by selling sausages, balloons etc. The island is a park, so there was no parking places for cars. People parked somewhere else and walked to the bonfire, or arrived by bicycle.


There were a couple of hundred people there, and a lot of bicycles. There were a lot of kids around, so I saw several cargo bikes, trailers and baby seats on bikes. And why were there so many kids? The Easter Witches' Beauty contest, of course:

There were about 20 kids, with brooms, stuffed cats, coffee pans and other accessories. They did magic tricks or recited a poem, and were interviewed by the host. Once the judges had found the winner, it was time to scare the withces away and start the bonfire:

The Bonfire and the man with matches.