Comments on: Czech/Slovak Easter: run for your life! / Jsou tu zase Velikonoce – schovejte se zensky nez bude pozde!

By: kpainter

kpainter — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:35:24 +0000

I have just come across this blog and I am glad to see that the original text has been corrected by several people, visiting girls happens on Monday, and here in Moravia we don’t drink vodka, but (normally) homemade Slivovice. Most of the things have been covered; the “stick” woven from Willow has many names, but in my village it’s called a žila. Each region has variations of the tradition which is very strong in Moravia. There are many explanations for the custom, and probably all of them have a grain of truth stretching back years. One is simply that the Willow is the first to start growing in the spring so it is strong, the strength of the man coupled with the willow is passed to the woman to make her strong (for having babies), another is „to beat out the winter dust“, as I said the list is almost endless. Girls in Slovakia have a harder time as they may be dragged from their beds and drenched in buckets of water. Whatever the politically correct people in the west think, Isn’t it good to keep an acient tradition alive rather than wasting $$$$$ on chocolate eggs bought on a credit card that have absolutely no symbolic connection with Easter at all, and only contribute to the manufacturers profit?

By: Tanja

Tanja — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:12:00 +0000

To se omlouvam Jardo, ale bohuzel jsou to me zkusenosti
Jsem rada, ze v jinych ceskych domacnostech to bylo uplne jinak!

By: Jaroslav

Jaroslav — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:21:52 +0000

Tanjo, moje druzka si ted mysli ze cesky chlapy jsou nic jinyho nez banda opilcu co mlati zensky na velikonoce.Je mi moc lito ze Tvoje zkusenost s Velikonocemi je tak spatna,doufam ze si uzivas velikonocni pohody v Americe. Cokoladove vajicka a zajicci jeeeej………….
Ja Ti jenom chci rict ze muj syn je 3 roky starej a ja urcite budu plest pomlazku tenhle rok a budu ho ucit nasi krasnou tradici. Upecu mu mazanec Na ktery vyriznu kriz a vysvetlim mu proc tam je,upecu mu velikonocniho beranka, obarvime vajicka ve slupkach od cibule……atd….
Vesele Velikonoce. Jaroslav

P.S. Dekuji Lenko, po precteni Tveho prispevku si moje druzka nemysli!!!! ze Cesi jsou banda opilcu……….

By: MariKa

MariKa — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:22:37 +0000

Pekna story!
Ja vzdy dostala od spoluzaku. Oy! Nemela jsem se kam schovat, prisli dom s pomlaskama, dovolili si rodicum a kdyz nasi rekni mejte se tak shoup! V nasi tride bylo 20 kluku a 20 holek. To byl zadek! Ouch! A jeste my jim dame vajce???? :O!
Ja si pamatuju na velikonoce kdyz jsme jeli na navstevu k tete do Madarska, a rikala jsem si – phew! no konecne me nikdo nezmlati a uziju si velikonoce v klidu. Yeah, right. Madari jsou jeste vice krahly nez Ceshi LOL Tam se leje na hlavu. Slusne se to dela s vonavkou, ale hodni lidi si z legrace i vyleje hrnicek vody. Byly jsme mokry jak hastrmani. Jidlo je bezva v obouch zemi, i kdyz dnes by tam asi nejedla vubec nic

By: Tanja

Tanja — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:09:02 +0000

Hi Sher!

Thank you! You to have a great day…

By: Sher

Sher — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:15:09 +0000

Hi Tanja,
I sure enjoyed your posts about Easter!! In fact, I put a blurb on my blog about your blog if readers would like to read more about Czech Easter traditions!

Have a great day!
Sher :0)

By: Tanja

Tanja — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:43:50 +0000

You are lucky that you did not have the whole village chasing after you like in most cases…

By: Jana

Jana — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:59:50 +0000

I agree with Lanka. The girls were whipped to stay young. No Jesus involved! And yes, it was Monday since it was always three day weekend.
I liked the tradition even though only my brother would whip me but only until I gave him some eggs I made the day before.

By: Tanja

Tanja — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:47:55 +0000

There are two parts that play role in this:
1/ We would celebrate Easter at our cottage so most of the Prague people were leaving their “vacation homes” on Sunday – that is why it was celebrated on Sunday
2/ I have a very bad memory so I may have the times confused

By the way, I am amazed what an expert you are on Ester!!!! That’s great!

By: lenka

lenka — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:49:11 +0000

Ok, so I am confused. What part of Czech are you from? We are from Nothern Bohemia and Central Bohemia with my grandparents. We always celebrated Easter on Monday. Sunday we died eggs, cooked, baked. But the boys went around on Monday morning and then Monday afternoon was the girls pay off. With the water and all. If you caught a guy out after 12 noon, he was doomed. Which for most parts you did not because as you said, they were all in the pub or unconscious somewhere after all the shots they have done that morning. My grandfather used to make our pomlazka weeks before Easter. As he said, they had to be cured to whip properly, which I guess would kind of defeat the whole purpose of being whipped. My understanding of this tradition was, that you get hit with the young branches and a youth, health and beauti will be transformed into all the girls and woman. Or was it just a way to make the weired tradition OK? I know my father would not let anybody in who was drunk past their good judgement or anybody who a year before gave us bruises. Which in my case was everybody, since I bruise very, very easilly. When we were kids, it was a fun tradition. Kids running around with pomlazka a their easter egg baskets, singing songs and poems and getting eggs. Oh, how wonderful some of these eggs were. When we got older we learned all different techniques to make the best looking egg – I still like the fresh herbs or grass or any type of weed really and onion peel. I loved the bee wax (since we had bees it was fun knowing where the wax comes from) till I poured the hot wax over my knee and still have the scares. But the eggs are beautiful. I will definatelly teach my children about this tradition. Even with the easter getting out of control as we grew and times changed, looking back into our childhood I still remember the innocent and happy times of Easter in the country.