Klagenfurt Easter market daytrip

   School holidays, celebratory preparations, days off of work, Easter week is a busy time here in Austria. We have been so occupied this past week that I haven't been able to post as often as usual. I took down one exhibition, organized another, and hung a third. Our Dining room table has doubled as an easter egg painting workshop, and of course, we put together Easter presents and baskets.

  An integral part of the festivities is the annual Easter market held in most cities as well as several countryside towns. Most of these markets offer similar items, food for the Easter Jause (typically comprised of sausages, ham, bread, hard-boiled eggs, and horseradish), sweets, painted eggs, and other decorations and gifts. Whether they are more practical or artisinal depends a lot on their location. The one here in Graz leans more toward the artisanal. Today we took a day trip to Klagenfurt, a city of 100,000 in the southeast corner of Austria just north of the Italian and Slovenian borders. It is a charming town with a slightly southern flair and a large Easter market. I took the chance to look at, and photograph, a number of the painted eggs that were on display there so as to gather ideas and inspiration for next years batch. Each of these eggs is a small work of art. Some are simple and bright while others are wonderfully intricate.

  I hope that you will join me in enjoying some of the photos I took of this lovely, historic town and it's Easter market.

   Here are a couple more display boxes showing traditional Easter items. You may observe the pussy willow branches (remember Palm Sunday) decorated with eggs. These are a decoration in most homes, including our own. Eggs can be bought at the market or made at home to add to the collection year by year. They function in the same way Christmas ornaments do. The cross-stitch cloths are either table clothes or more commonly basket covers which are used to modestly obscure the portions of the Easter meal brought to the church to be blessed. This meal, traditionally eaten after the midnight mass is now enjoyed in the afternoon, or in more rural regions even earlier on Saturday.

Do you have or contribute to Easter markets in our region? Have you visited one? Let me know in the comments.

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