Where Spring Begins: On Easter Fires and Their Origins

There are moments in the year that don’t arrive with a date on the calendar, but with a feeling. You don’t notice them all at once—they creep in quietly. A certain smell in the air, a shift in the light, a sound you haven’t heard in months. And suddenly, without quite knowing when it happened, something has changed.

For me, that moment comes not with the first warm day, not with the first blossoms, and not even with the official start of spring. It comes later—more subtly, but also more unmistakably. It arrives in the evening, in the distance, carried on the wind: the scent of smoke, the flicker of firelight, and the low hum of voices gathering somewhere out there in the dark. That is when you know: something new has begun.

This blog post is a little different from the ones I’ve written recently. Because today is my very own beginning of spring!

A friend of mine told me some time ago that for him, spring begins when the clocks change. Since that friend is Canadian, that was already three weeks ago—and here in Germany, and as I know also in Canada, spring still felt miles away. Snow, cold, dark clouds—that’s what the past three weeks looked like.

For me, however, spring begins right now. Today.

On Karsamstag, the Saturday before Easter. As always, with a bit of sunshine and far too much wind in northern Germany. With the long, bright day that comes thanks to the clock change that also took place here last week. But above all, with the smell of fire. Because where I live, it is customary to light large fires on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. And that smell, the drifting plumes of smoke across the land, the faint music you can hear from afar, the murmur of voices of people standing together and gazing into the fire as we have done for centuries—that is the beginning of spring.

Why do we do this? Where does this custom come from? Well, the Easter bonfire has both religious and secular meanings. Its origins are not clearly established; rather, it is probably the result of a development in which different traditions have overlapped.

From a Christian perspective, the Easter fire can be traced back to the early Middle Ages, although the exact form of the rituals developed gradually. The first indications of a blessing of fire in connection with the Easter Vigil can already be found in the 8th and 9th centuries, particularly in the Frankish-Gallic region. However, the Easter fire only became an established part of the liturgy in the High Middle Ages, around the 10th to 12th centuries. During this time, fixed rites were also established, as documented in liturgical books.

Especially during the Easter Vigil, the most important celebration of the church year, the Easter fire plays a central role. The celebration traditionally begins outside the church or in front of its entrance in the darkness. There, a new fire is lit and solemnly blessed. From this fire, the Easter candle is lit and then carried in procession into the dark church. With the threefold call “Lumen Christi” (“Christ, the Light”), the light is passed on to the congregation until the entire church is illuminated. From the light of the Easter candle, the eternal lamp is also rekindled each year, which throughout the year points to the real presence of Christ as the light of the world in the form of the Eucharistic bread in the tabernacle: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

This service of light (Latin: “Lucernarium”) symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the victory of life over death and of light over darkness.

Over the course of the Middle Ages, the celebration developed differently from region to region, with many of these customs taking shape especially between the 11th and 15th centuries and being documented in liturgical manuscripts as well as church regulations. Particularly in the High and Late Middle Ages (approx. 11th–15th centuries), detailed descriptions of the Easter liturgy can be found, including references to the production and distribution of the “new fire.”

Easter Fire, the beginning of spring.

In some regions of Central Europe, especially in what is now Germany, France, and the Netherlands, it has been documented since the 12th and 13th centuries that the Easter fire was not simply lit, but deliberately “newly created.” This was often done by striking sparks with flint or by rubbing pieces of wood together. This practice was meant to emphasize the special purity and symbolic new beginning associated with the resurrection.

For the Late Middle Ages (14th and 15th centuries), there are also numerous indications that believers took parts of the blessed fire home with them. Sermons, church ordinances, and later folkloristic records describe how glowing pieces of wood or blessed ashes were used to rekindle the hearth fire at home. This custom is especially well documented in rural areas of the Rhineland, the Eifel, Westphalia, and southern Germany, but can also be found in other parts of Europe.

The practice had both a religious and a practical dimension: on the one hand, the hearth fire lit from the Easter fire was considered particularly blessed and protective; on the other hand, the shared “renewal” of fire also represented a very concrete symbolic new beginning in the cycle of the year.

Such customs persisted for very different lengths of time depending on the region. While in some areas they lost importance or were restricted by church authorities as early as the early modern period (16th–17th centuries), elsewhere they are documented in folkloristic sources well into the 19th and occasionally even into the early 20th century.

To this day, this form of Easter celebration has been preserved in the Roman Catholic Church as well as in parts of the Orthodox and Anglican traditions. Despite modern adaptations, the service of light is still considered one of the most impressive and symbolically rich elements of Christian liturgy.

Alongside this, secular Easter bonfires have also existed since the Late Middle Ages, primarily celebrated as communal bonfires of festivity. Here, the focus was less on religious symbolism and more on social gathering. Such customs developed differently from region to region and were often maintained by local communities.

In many areas, numerous folk beliefs and rituals were also associated with the Easter fire. The ashes or remains of the fire were believed to have protective or blessing powers. Such practices are typical of premodern folk culture and show how closely intertwined religious and everyday beliefs were.

The question of whether the Easter bonfire goes back to pre-Christian, so-called “pagan” customs is disputed. There is no clear historical evidence for a direct continuity. At the same time, it is known that in many cultures, even before the Christianization of Europe, there were spring and fire rituals symbolically associated with purification, renewal, or the end of winter. It therefore seems plausible that such older traditions may have influenced later customs, even if this cannot be proven conclusively.

Overall, there is much to suggest that the Easter bonfire is neither purely of Christian origin nor clearly pagan. Rather, it is a custom that has developed over the course of history and absorbed different meanings. Today, it primarily stands for community and tradition, while its original religious and cultural backgrounds often recede into the background.

In this sense, the Easter bonfire is almost symbolic of Germany today: a close intertwining of Christianity and folk culture, mixed with a good portion of cultural traditions. For me personally, it has always marked the beginning of Easter, with its two (school) holidays, the end of the quiet public holiday and subdued mood of Good Friday (more on this in my post from April 2025), and above all the unmistakable sign that spring can no longer be stopped - and with it a significant improvement in the current political and social situation!