Culture Shock! Austria - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

204 CultureShock! Austria

special breads, decorated eggs and ornaments are sold.

Children in Austria love this holiday not only because it

means two weeks off from school, but also because it is a

time to look for coloured eggs, eat a glut of chocolate bunnies

and chocolate eggs, and receive gifts from family members.

Many Austrians attend church on this day to have their Easter

basket lunches blessed.

The first Sunday after Easter, Catholic children in their

second year of primary school receive Holy Communion for

the first time. Girls wear white dresses and floral wreaths on

their heads and boys wear suits. In some areas of Austria,

the costume is a bit different. In Höchst in Vorarlberg, for

example, the boys wear crowns of ivy leaves called the

Chappel, showing that they are children of God or a king,

while the girls wear garlands

and veils.

Pentecost/Whitsun (Pfingsten)

is held 50 days after Easter.

Whitsun, or the festival marking

the descent of the Holy Spirit,

is celebrated in Arbesthal,

near Bruck an der Leitha in

Burgenland. An old custom

there was recently revived: a

young man and a schoolboy

cloaked entirely in a framework

of hazelnut branches and greenery both become the Whitsun

kings. On Whit Monday, the Whitsun kings and the folk

dance group walk through the town, stopping at various

locations where the townsfolk recite a special verse and

sing the Whitsun king song. The procession ends behind

the main church.

The second Thursday after Whitsunday is the feast of

Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ, or Blessed Sacrament).

There are festive processions and magnificent pageantry

throughout the land. In Deutschlandsberg in western Styria,

the processional route and four gospel altars are decorated

with artistic and incredibly detailed carpets of flowers.

The town of Hallstatt in the Salzkammergut in Upper

Every year, the farming
community of Tressdorf in the
Mölltal in Carinthia put on the
Mölltal passion. This wordless
play depicts Christ’s last days
on earth. There are only roles
for men (Mary Magdalene and
Mary do not appear); during
both world wars, the women
carried on with the play in the
absence of their menfolk, as it
was thought to be unlucky if the
play was skipped.