Czech Easter a letter from our librarian Renata

Hello my dear friend Lena,
Thank you very much for your beautiful present which Nada brought to me. I have to apology that I haven’t written earlier, but I was really very busy. Now I am going to write about Easter in the Czech Republic.



The Holy week
Flower Sunday { 9th April}
the Sunday before Easter which celebrates triumphal coming of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem and several days before his crucifixion. On this day, people clean their homes and they sweep out soot.
Also our family cleans the flat and we get ready for Easter.

Green Thursday { 13th April}

The name comes from the custom that people had to eat only green things at this day. It is also because during the Last supper Jesus Christ was eating green lettuce when the soldiers got him.

Great Friday { 14th April}

It was the day when Jesus Christ suffered a lot, when he died on the cross. It is the time of the meditation, fasting and silence.

White Saturday {15th April}

Everybody is preparing for Easter Sunday. Women bake Easter lamb, hot cross buns, delicious dishes. Men make pomlazka{ pleated willow twigs decorated with ribbons}, women and children decorate Easter eggs

In my family we bake the Easter lamb and I decorate the eggs. My son isn’t very interested in this activity.

Easter Sunday { 16th April}
It is Jesus Christ’s resurrection. All the people celebrate, they visit grandparents, some people go to cemeteries to remember their dear relatives.

Easter Monday { 17th April}
This is the most important day in my country. In the early morning boys and men go carolling. They go from house to house and they say Easter rhymes. They ask for eggs. The girls and women are whipped by the POMLAZKA. They give the boys eggs and the men some alcohol.
One of the customs of this day is that you have to wear something new not to be poo-pooed by the lamb. The other custom says that if the woman is not whipped, she will dry. This is the only day when men can beat women in public.

There are some other customs after Easter such as putting up a MAJKA, which is a trunk from a very tall tree decorated at the top with ribbons. This MAJKA must be watched by the men from the village. When it is stolen by the boys from the next village , it is a very bad reputation.

The last day of April, Czech people burn witches at the stake. It is a very old custom which meaning is to say goodbye to winter, too.

That is all for today. Have a very nice time and I will write soon again.

Love Renata

.