Germany

1. The Easter Bunny & the Tale of the Eggs From the name to the bunny, it's all German. The name Easter was first appropriated by the Christian calendar. First it was the pagan festival Ostara, celebrated on the vernal equinox, around March 21 in the Northern hemisphere. Ostara was named for the pagan goddess of spring, Eostre. According to legend, she once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could lay eggs. And so it became the Easter

2. Oktoberfest - the world’s favorite German fest Oktoberfest is unmistakably a German tradition. This 16-day festival in Munich attracts over six million visitors per year who consume about 1,320,860 gallons of beer, 400,000 pork sausages and 480,000 roasted chickens. It started October 12, 1810, at the wedding of Bavaria's Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Against tradition, the couple invited Munich's locals. The events were held over five days on the fields that today are named Theresienwiese after the bride.

3. One of today’s most prominent and vibrant music styles in Germany is hip hop.

4. Germany is a leader in climate and energy policies – it made a decision in 2011 to decommission all nuclear power stations (then producing around 18 percent of electricity consumed) by 2022 and to replace them with renewable energies and new storage for green electricity. At least a third of Germany is now also powered by renewable energy.

5. All Saints Day Halloween does not exist in Germany, but instead they celebrate All Saints Day on November 1. On this day, families visit their relatives’ graves. Afterward godparents come with gifts of braided sweet bread called “Strietzel” to their godchildren's homes. "Strietzel" is a long bread, and it can be more than three feet long. Germans can buy Strietzel from the neighborhood baker, but it is traditionally made at home.

6. Bunny.Karneval: Mardi Gras' German Cousin Many of Germany's visitors remember this event. It happens about six weeks before Easter, or one week to 10 days leading up to the beginning of Lent. It starts with Cologne's two-and-half hour Rose Monday parade and includes huge "Karneval" floats bearing dozens of citizens dressed up in costumes. They toss fistfuls of candies to the noisy crowds on the sidewalks, exactly the way New Orleans's Mardi Gras crews toss plastic-beaded necklaces and coins.

7. And the most common dishes they used to eat are: ,

8. Germany is one of the world's largest car producers – selling 6 million cars in 2015. VW's Golf is one of the best selling cars of all time. In 2016, the top-selling car brands in Germany were Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes and BMW.

9. Over 800 million currywurst are eaten in Germany each year – currywurst is a sausage served with a spicy sauce, and is a street food that has become a cult classic in Germany. About 7 million currywurst are eated in Berlin alone. There's even a museum in Berlin dedicated to the popular snac