Kreuzberg or Cross Mountain has been an important landmark since early Spanish missionaries, among the Indians, had erected a cross upon it. When German missionaries sojourned in the new colony, they perpetuated the cross on the mountain in testimony to the colonists’ faith in the Almighty.

Cross Mountain became associated with the Easter observances as the community grew. Children in Fredericksburg looked forward to Easter and the Oster Feuer, just as their parents had enjoyed the traditional Easter in Germany.

Blended out of the wilds of western Texas and the old festivals of the old world, a delightful festival sprang – The Easter Fires of Fredericksburg. The tradition of the beautifully colored eggs had been transported across the Atlantic to sunny Texas. Here bluebonnets and Osterblumen (Easter flowers) were welcome harbingers of spring, and Indian council fires sent messages of spring and peace.

On Saturday afternoon, little tots, accompanied by an older sister or friend, went forth with baskets to gather wild flowers for their Easter nests to be made in the garden late in the evening. Theirs was wonderful anticipation of the eight brightly colored eggs that the Easter Rabbit Family would leave as the children slept and dreamed of Easter Morning!

That night great bonfires burned on the hills around the town as the Easter Rabbit Family gathered around the boiling cauldron preparing rainbow-hued eggs to delight human children.

Here, as in the old country, the great bonfires on the hills around the town on Easter Eve symbolized the burning of the old life and old sins, to rise with new life on Easter morning. With Easter and the Resurrection came a new life, new hope, new beginnings, and peace for all who had come to make their homes in Texas.

Click here for directions to Cross Mountain.