We invited Guardian readers to show us how they were celebrating Easter – here's a selection of your stories and photos from around the world.
Lilia Kurushyna explained that, "for us, Easter – not Christmas – is the biggest religious holiday. And here in Ukraine it's all pervaded by Slavic heathen rituals. That's my favourite part about it.
"Everything that goes together with Easter is basically transformed and transferred onto heathen beliefs in nature and fertility. Eggs we paint or colour, for instance, embody female principle, while the phallic-like bread we bake stands for the male principle. We have no palm trees, so we use pussy-willows instead.
"We beat eggs against each others'. This symbolises impregnation. Shells are never thrown away but buried in the backyard – they're sacred. As everything on this day. Happy Easter!"
londoni told us about a traditional Georgian Orthodox method of dyeing eggs for Easter: "My mother boils eggs in onion skins for half an hour and you get this red colour."
Thousands of penitents take part in processions in Spain during Holy Week. The lucky ones are immortalised in chocolate and get eaten by ID8494564.
Meanwhile, Annstephanides made these traditional Cypriot flaounes.
EleanorYork celebrated her last Easter in the house she has lived in for 47 years – with an Easter egg hunt for her youngest grandchild.
Not all Easter traditions revolve around eggs and baking, as Simon Slater pointed out: "I met some Catholics in the Philippines who don't eat Easter eggs. I saw them whipping themselves and carrying crosses. They invited me into their car and I drove with them for the day. The next day they showed me a live crucifixion."
ID719352 showed us another whipping tradition, this time from the Czech Republic: "A pomlázka is a plaited willow wand used by Czech men and boys on Easter Monday morning. In exchange for a whipping on the backside, women and girls give the men and boys eggs and slivovice, thus ensuring the women's fertility for the rest of the year."
And finally, happy Easter from croquembouche gifmaker, MllePoirot.
