Easter or Pasqua is a religious holiday, but some of its customs, such as Easter eggs, are likely linked to pagan traditions. The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring, the yearly time of renewal, when the earth renews itself after a long, cold winter. From a Christian perspective, Christians consider eggs to be “the seed of life” and so they are symbolic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb and resurrection. Also, Christians abstained from eating meat and eggs during the Lenten season prior to Easter, so Easter was the first chance to enjoy eggs and meat after the long abstinence.

A typical Easter cake made in most of the southern Italian regions is this cake made with flour, sugar, butter,eggs, lemon zest, baking powder, milk, icing sugar, egg whites.

This cake is called: pani ccu l’ova or cuddura ccu  l’ova in Sicily, Cudduraci in Calabria, Scariella in Puglia and in many other ways 😉

but also the Pastiera Napoletana

and Cassata Siciliana