Šťastnú Veľkú noc! Happy Easter!
As a child, I attended Church every Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, I tried to not eat meat on Fridays during Lent, and even gave up certain guilty pleasures like pop or the internet. Though my family raised me in the Presbyterian Church, I no longer subscribe to the beliefs of Christianity or regularly go to church. However, I always enjoy celebrating Easter for its colorful decorations, good food (particularly sweets), and its mark of the beginning of late Spring. This Easter, I have the added bonus of learning about Easter traditions in Slovakia (and they do Easter big). During my lesson today, Adriana spoke briefly about Easter Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday (Veľká noc), and Easter Monday especially the tradition of whipping and splashing women on Easter Monday. It has become very difficult to celebrate Easter in Slovakia due to the pandemic. Typically, there would be many church services, parties, and festivals. This Easter, the Slovak government encourages their citizens to stay home, attend virtual masses, and create Covid-safe traditions.
As previously mentioned in my past cultural blog post, 63% of Slovakia identifies as Roman Catholic and many of their holidays and traditions revolve around observing the Roman Catholic faith. Just as most other branches of Christianity, Slovak Roman Catholics honor Christ’s crucifixion and death on Good Friday and celebrate His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Christians finally get to break their forty-day fast (Lent ends) on Good Friday. Typically, people decorate eggs with several different methods: Batik, Waxing, Scratching, Pasting and Wiring. They also weave baskets and fill them with pastries, butter, cured meat, and horseradish for Easter Sunday. Before eating these baskets, the women take them to the church to be blessed.
Easter Monday may sound like a new addition to the Easter holiday (at least, it was something new for me). Two important traditions take place on Easter Monday: oblievačka and šibačka. Oblievačka is a Slovak tradition in which young men “sprinkle” (dump) water on the heads of their young female relatives, friends, and neighbors. A young man that partakes in this tradition is called “kupač”. The other tradition, šibačka, describes the Slovak tradition in which young men whip girls with willow branches; this type of branch/whip is known to Slovaks as “korbáč”. As the boys whip and/or dump water on the girls, they sing songs and accompanied by accordion players. After they finish with these two traditions, the girls are expected to gift the boys with candy, kraslica (decorated empty eggshells), a shot of vodka, even a full meal. Both of these traditions are meant to bless the girls with good health and beauty. They recognize juvenile tree branches as a symbol of rebirth and youth due to the new growth of trees in the Spring. Despite the good intentions behind the traditions, they seem to be fading from the typical celebrations of Easter Monday. It has always been unpopular among the girls and women getting splashed and whipped, perhaps a reason for its decline in popularity. As ethnographer Zuzana Beňušková explains, “Women hate Easter, men love it. But on the other hand, women brag the following day about the number of visits they had”.
Easter Monday Tradition of Oblievačka
Easter Monday Tradition of šibačka
Wax Decorated Easter Egg
Batik Decorated Easter Egg (Above)
Scratched Easter Egg (Below)
Etched Easter Egg (Above)
Pasted Easter Egg (Below)
Wire Decorated Easter Eggs (Below)
https://www.welcometobratislava.eu/traditional-easter-in-slovakia/
http://www.hereditas.club/2020/01/08/easter-traditions-in-slovakia-traditional-handcrafts/
https://kongres-magazine.eu/2019/04/celebrating-easter-in-slovakia/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/06/easter-monday-tradition-whipping-slovakia-girls-health
http://www.travelpotpourri.net/en/2016/03/24/veselu-velku-noc-tradicne-slovenske-kraslice/ ;
Comments
Emma, the festivals that you describe: oblievačka and šibačka, sound wonderful! I do not think I have ever heard about them before. It is fascinating how such new layers/ parts of Easter exist in cultures around the world! I only knew about the American way of celebrating Easter before this. I found the last sentence of this post really intriguing “Women hate Easter, men love it. But on the other hand, women brag the following day about the number of visits they had". Does participating in the splashing and whipping mean that someone is interested in you romantically? Is that why women brag about it?
Hi Emma, this was really fun to read about! I had no idea that Easter was such an important celebration in Slovakia. I think it would be cool to participate in all of the different traditions, especially decorating eggs (which seems like a complicated but fun process!) and weaving baskets. I’m glad I got to learn about how Easter is celebrated in different ways around the world!
I loved reading about this tradition! I also celebrate Easter, so reading about how Slovakia celebrates it was fascinating. The meaning behind the tradition sounds very meaningful and nice, but I also understand why the girls and women are starting to lose interest in the tradition of getting splashed by water from the men in the family.
The practices of Easter Monday that you describe are incredibly interesting. I wonder what the historical origins of the practices are as well as why they have seemed to continue until today. It seems rather strange that a democratic country that grants women rights would have a practice that would treat women and girls in the way you describe.