German Easter Bunny gets 70,000 letters from children

The Easter Bunny in Ostereistedt, northern Germany, once again received tens of thousands of requests from children hoping to have their wishes realized.

The meaning of Ostereistedt loosely translates to "Easter egg town" in English, and children have been sending their letters there for the past four decades.

Where did the letters come from?

According to Deutsche Post, some 70,000 letters were received at the post office in the village some 30 kilometers (19 miles) northeast of Bremen.

A person dressed as an Easter Bunny was seen delivering the last of the children's requests.

More than a thousand letters came from abroad, from a total of 40 different countries, including Australia and Brazil. Ukrainian children living in Germany because of the conflict back home also wrote to the Easter Bunny.

The total is actually down 10,000 on last year's figure — and well short of a peak of 100,000 in 2021, when the coronavirus pandemic was at its height.

What did the letters say?

The tradition aims to encourage children to write letters. In response, Deutsche Post's Easter Post Office sends back colorful Easter-themed letters written by a team of volunteers.

Whether it was peace on earth, cinema tickets or more chocolate, the children were keen to let the bunny know what they wanted this year.

Some of the Ukrainian children who wrote said they were grateful to live in Germany and had already made friends. Some also mentioned that they wanted to learn German.

One letter writer, Lola from the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, asked what the Easter Bunny's favorite food was. Another, Fynn from the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, wanted to go to the movies with him.

"With every letter, I see the children's eyes light up when they find the answer in the letterbox," said Doris Kröger, head of the Easter Post Office.

-Deutsche Welle

Make a country Easter basket

To many of us, Easter connotes a country theme involving bunnies, chickens, eggs and blooms bursting with color. You don’t have to dig deep into your pocket to bring the season to your table. Here’s a little creative “push” in the right direction.

What you’ll need:

Any open basket, or bag, preferably with a weave or interesting texture that can stand on its own

A variety of colorful blooms like alstroemerias, carnations and green berries

Colored fruits like lemons

Leaves (optional)

Floral foam

Barbecue sticks




Here’s how:

Fit in your floral foam into your basket/bag. Soak in water well.

Measure the height of your basket/bag. Cut the stems of your flowers to the same length.

Insert the barbecue sticks into the bottom of the lemons. Cut the barbecue sticks the same length of the flowers stems.

Group the flowers together compactly for more visual impact.

Make sure you have enough to fill up your container.

Fill small gaps with leaves.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Sophos: New wave of scareware attacks target Easter-related searches

People searching for Easter-related items such as "eggs," "chocolate" and "bunnies" may have to think twice before clicking on the sites that come out on top of the search results.

Computer security firm Sophos warned Friday (Manila time) a new wave of scareware attacks is targeting computer users searching for the term "Easter."

Sophos said it noted an increase in the volume of search engine optimization (SEO) attacks that put malware-hosting sites on top of the search results.

"(W)ith Easter imminent, it is not surprising that SEO attacks we have seen this week have used topics such as 'eggs,' 'chocolate' and 'bunnies,'" Sophos said in a blog post.

"This is a good time to remind people about the dangers of blindly trusting search engine results," it added.

It noted the first search result may lead to a site with fake anti-virus (scareware), one of which called itself "Windows Care Taker."

Sophos said a variety of rogue info sites are used in the scareware installation, with fresh ones being registered and used all the time.

"The reason why SEO attacks are successful is that all of us tend to trust search engine results. After searching for something we happily click any of the links high up in the first page of results," it noted.

Sophos said its products can identify the components involved in the attack as Mal/SEORed-A, Mal/FakeAvJs-A, Mal/FakeAV-PY.

"Before you click on search engine results, cast a quick glance at the site in question. This may not always help, but if the domain looks completely unrelated to the topic you are interested in, think carefully before clicking," it advised.

As for those using browsers that support plug-ins, it advised them to consider hiding or modifying their referrer.

"(T)he SEO attacks rely on knowing you came via a search engine when you click through to the SEO page," it said. — LBG, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com