MY ATTEMPTS TO SURVIVE NEW EASTER TRADITIONS

“BUNNY KISSES – EASTER WISHES“

Time for a post about traditional Easter in the Czech Republic. But in order not to be boring and only about the traditions of one country, we will return to the English traditions (where we lived for 10 years) and Polish ones, where I come from.

EASTER IN CZECH REPUBLIC

Easter decorations

In the Czech Republic, we are decorating eggs the whole week before Easter. We have plenty of places where workshops for children on decorating eggs are held. Children decorate eggs in schools, nurseries, at grandparents’, and with their parents at home. And this is one of Czech’s best-known and widely practiced Easter traditions. Decorated eggs can be hung in the window, on the trees in the garden, and on the front door of the house.

It looks beautiful, and children have a great time painting eggs and wrapping eggs with stickers or glitter. On Easter, any artistic techniques for decorating eggs are allowed.

Easter food

Hard-boiled eggs are traditionally served for breakfast. In addition to eggs, we have “Mazanec” – sweet yeast bread with raisins soaked in rum and sprinkled with almonds. Roast lamb for lunch, and sausage rolls for dinner – the best from my mother-in-law.

Easter weird

During the Easter holidays in the Czech Republic, men and boys cut willow branches and braid them into whips. Such a whip is called a “pomlazka” – a whip made of fresh, flexible twigs and decorated with colorful ribbons. It comes from the Czech word “pomladit”, which means “to make you younger”. Tradition says that fresh willow rods are full of spring energy that goes straight into the body. You can really have fun with this beat. But only if you’re a man. On Easter Monday, men can legally beat up all the women in the area. It may sound strange, but it is an old, most common Czech Easter tradition and my son enjoys it very much when he runs after the girls and they run away squealing.

And what’s even weirder is that in return for flogging, we treat everyone with a shot of liqueur (usually “ślivovica” = homemade plum vodka), painted eggs or various sweets.

But tourists don’t have to worry, no one will start whipping you on the street or in the hotel

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EASTER IN POLAND

Easter decorations

In addition to the most important Easter traditions in Poland, i.e. washing windows and cleaning the apartment, Easter is an extremely important holiday in Poland. Let’s start with Palm Sunday.

The Easter “palm” is a symbolic twig prepared before Easter in memory of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The palms are blessed in churches during the celebration of Palm Sunday(Niedziela Palmowa).

Polish Easter palms are made of young pussy willow twigs, herbs, and flowers and decorated with ribbons. Traditionally, they should include willow twigs – a symbol of life and resurrection – the first green signs of spring in Poland. Different regions of Poland have different techniques and patterns for making Easter palms.

At home and at school, children decorate hard-boiled eggs in their shells with paints, markers and crayons. Just like children in the Czech Republic.

Easter food

On Holy Saturday my family in Poland brings a basket with Easter food – “święconka” to the church for the priest to bless it. Such products should be included in the Easter basket:

A small figurine of lamb made of sugar or butter, bread, salt, pepper, eggs, sausage, horseradish, water.

After it is blessed, the Polish Easter basket waits for Easter Sunday to be served during festive breakfast.

My family starts celebrating Easter with the official breakfast. After the morning mass, in my family home, we have soup – sour rye soup, to which I add pieces of “holy food” from the basket. Of course, there must be a vegetable salad and thousands of cake variants, because my mother is a master baker.

No, no, that talent didn’t pass to me.

Easter weird

You can say that in the Czech Republic the tradition of flogging is weird, but on Easter Monday in Poland, we splash water on each other. Cold water, of course, whether it’s freezing outside or not. It doesn’t sound funny either, but again, the whole male generation is having fun, and we dress up 5 times or more. According to beliefs, pouring water symbolized not only purification but was also supposed to promote fertility. I don’t think anyone believes it anymore, but water splashing is still practiced.

EASTER IN GREAT BRITIAN

Easter decoration

Traditional symbols of Easter in Great Britain are eggs and rabbits – signs of fertility and new life. Every Easter we participated with the children in a traditional egg hunt. Easter Egg hunts often take place on Easter morning, if the weather is good. Adults hide small Easter eggs in the garden, park, and village and the children must follow clues in order to find them.

The Easter bunny not only hides the eggs, but he also delivers them to the children if they have been good over the Easter period.

Easter food

For Easter lunch or dinner, which in England traditionally consisted of roast spring lamb with mint sauce, potatoes, and green peas. I kept my traditional polish soup (sour rye soup) for Easter breakfast, and the English also loved my vegetable salad. Of course, it wouldn’t be Easter in the UK without chocolate. Chocolate eggs, bunnies, and chocolate chicks have given my kids a lot of power throughout Easter and beyond.

Aside from eggs, the best-known English Easter food is probably the hot cross buns. The buns were traditionally eaten on Good Friday. Sweet treats, fragrant with fruit and spices, are marked with a cross, either slashed into the dough before baking or drizzled on in icing afterward.

Easter weird

There is nothing strange about the English tradition but, for example, for most of my Polish family, egg hunting was weird and unrelated to Easter.
So many countries, and so many traditions. I always try to adapt to the traditions in a new country, I do not give up the traditions that I have learned, but I also do not forget about my own. Such a mix but me and my family love it.

Happy Easter 🐣