Osterfeuer (Easter Fires) are illuminating either the holy saturday or easter sunday night and are shining down from hills all over the country to release it finally from it´s winter rigidity. In this origin pre-christian custom, Germanic tribes honoured their spring goddess "Ostara", whose name means "east" and thus "dawn" or "morning light". The fire symbolizes the warm sun, which is brought back down to earth again by this ritual. And with the sun, also  growth and fertility. The people welcome springtime and celebrate the start of a new life circle. In some regions, they fix a straw doll (Hexe/witch) on top of a wooden stake inmidst the firewood. It symbolizes the winter, which finally get´s burned that night. Winter is gone, springtime shall come. During christianisation of the Germanic tribes, this pagan tradition was temporarily even forbidden. One source mentions the first church congregation at Regensburg in the year 742 A.D. Anyway, the church failed in it´s effort of wiping out this old pagan tradition from people´s mind. So, the church took this custom over in the end. From that on, the Osterfeuer symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In some regions, the easter candle is set alight at that fire and is carried in a procession into the darkened church. It typifies the light, which was brought to the world by Jesus. But still, for most people, it´s more a celebration in it´s origin idea: To expel winter and welcome spring.

There´s another ritual, the Osterräder (Easter Wheels). Also this custom was prevalent all over Germany in it´s ancient and pre-christian days. Now, it´s only still practised in some rare North German regions. People carry big wooden wheels (Räder, plural of Rad) up the hills and wind straw and tar drenched hemp around them. When the dark night came up, they light the straw and let the burning Osterräder roll down the hills. It´s a very spectacular scenery. Most famous place for this ritual is the town Lügde. Why only at a few locations in Northern Germany? Well....once upon a time, there was a Germanic prince called Arminius. He was the ruler´s son of a northern Germanic tribe, the Cherusker (Cheruscan), and was born in the year 16 or 17 B.C. He and his brother were brought as a "dead pledge" to Rome as children. This method was quite common back these days. If the subdued tribe ruler would have started another revolt against Rome, his most beloved things, his own children, got killed. So, also Arminius was brought to Rome. Because of his noble ancestry, they teached and raised him and his brother well - and which was not very common - even got the roman citizenship later as an adult. He joined the roman army and became a high ranked officer in their cavalry, a roman knight and praefect. Such a military career for someone who was born outside the Roman Empire, was outstanding that time. To cut a long story short, when his friend and former proconsul of Africa, Publius Quinctilius Varus, got the order to fight against Germanic insurrectionaries, he "betrayed" the romans and lead them into several ambushes in the Teutoburger Wald (Teutoburger Forest). Till Varus found out of Arminius true intention, it was too late. After 3 days, the XVII (17.), the XVIII (18.) and the XIX (19.) Legion (one legion = approx. 6000 feet soldiers) as well as 6 Cohorts (one cohort = approx. 500 feet soldiers)  plus 3 Alae (one Ala = approx. 1000 horsemen) got killed in this so called "Varusschlacht" (Varus Battle) in the year 9 A.D. Varus committed suicide by throwing himself on his sword. This was one of the worst defeats for the Romans ever in history and happened in the height of their Empire. When Caesar Augustus found out what had happened, he cried: "Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!" After this lost battle the Romans decided, that never again would any other legion named after these 3 lost ones. Since that, the Romans switched their conquering ambitions for that area into securing their current northern borders along the Rhine.  A wall was built, the Limes. Any further attempt to conquer areas northern that border, failed. That´s why the German tribes northern of the Rhine weren´t christianized that early as other Germanic regions and the pagan tradition of the Osterräder survived and are still practised. In the  year 21 A.D, Arminius got killed by his father-in-law at the age of 37. Arminius abducted his daughter earlier, which wasn´t really a good start for a loving family bond he might have thought. As a precaution, I apologise to my history teacher, if I something mixed up.